Pictures Page 5
One thing I learned fast in hunting out of a boat with a dog, is the tremendous amount of water they bring back into the boat with them after a retrieve. Jack is a pretty substantial dog (93 lbs), and it seems like after about three retrieves you're ankle deep in water in the bottom of the boat...if I wanted that I'd wade! So I decided right up front that I wanted to put a ramp on the boat so the dogs could reenter via the front deck and do their shaking outside of the cockpit. I also wanted it to be collapsible and out of the way under power. The following are the results of those desires.
This is the finished ramp (uncamoflaged at present), in it's "underway" position. We have been just throwing an extra life jacket under it to keep it from abrading the deck and grass rails while we're flyin' around, and it stays down just fine.
A close up of how it attaches. We tippled the thickness of the bow (three 3/4' pieces of Okoume) and reinforced the hell out of it (several layers) with biax and regular fiberglass tape. It was probably overkill, but I wanted no worries about strength and pressures on that bow. A good friend who is a master machinist designed the attachment to my requirements and built the whole works. The mounting studs were run (glued and screwed) right through the bow before she was decked over, and backed with several washers on the threaded end.
The ramp is 36" long and 22" wide. Function and beauty....Jack doin' what he loves best!!!
