I made it longer

[Bigplumbs]

Being shall we say on the larger side I felt that it needed to be a little bit longer so that it would extend into the water a little more in order for me to get in after a swim.

I am talking about the swim ladder on the back of my fletcher GTS which was very nice but will only dip into the water about 6 inches. This is where ebay is your friend.
I bought 1.2 m of 3/4 (19.05 mm) marine stainless polished tube (cost about £24 delivered) some stainless nuts and bolts (£3.50) a length od 16 mm dia nylon (£5.50) and extended the ladder by 340 mm so I should now have about half a meter below the water which I think will make it far easier to get back in /on after a swim.

Each of the two sections of ladder had to be extended by the same amount to allow it to still fold and I also added a grab handle to the rear of the boat to assist.

All you do is cut the tube into 4 lengths each of 220 mm and drill 1 hole at each end to fit your bolts at say 170 mm centres. Drilling stainless is not easy and you must drill slowly and keep the drill bit and work cool. Drilling fast will heat up the metal and drill bit which will ruin the bit and make the stainless too hard to drill. Also use oil to reduce friction. once all these are drilled and with a little filing (fettling) of the inside of the existing ladder tube they will very snugly fit inside it. Once you have done all 4 you will have extended each of the 2 ladder portions by 170 mm. You will now need to add another step and you should have enough tube left to do this. At the junction of one of your joins (the position will be obvious) you buy about 250 mm of stainless threaded rod of the same dia as you bolts and pass this through both sides of the ladder. You then cut you piece of tube to length so that you can grind concave ends to it with a bench grinder to match the profile of your vertical tube. You then cut 2 short lengths of the 16 mm dia nylon (about 1 inch long) drill a hole in the centre to the same size as you threaded rod, You then hammer the piece of nylon into each end of the tube and slide it over the thread rod. You then fix the rod at each end with a couple of washers and nyloc SS nuts. The nylon supports the tube step on the threaded rod and the concave ends stop it from spinning

You can also buy plastic end caps to fit from ebay (about £1.50 for 10)

All works very well. I will post a couple of pics in the next post

Dennis

[Ianfs]

Genius.

Do you have to connect the extension every time you want to use the ladder?

[Bigplumbs]

Genius.

Do you have to connect the extension every time you want to use the ladder?

No it is permanently connected. It is just the same as the old ladder but each of the 2 sections is 170 mm longer with one extra step

Dennis

[Ianfs]

You must have a smashing wife, almost as good as mine!!

She allows you to pump up your tenders in the lounge and then work on your ladder, she's even holding your extra length....amazing!! My goodness me!

One further question though, if you don't have to disconnect it, does it stick out when folded?

[Bigplumbs]

When folded rather than lay flat on the swim platform it rests at 45 degrees and I will bungee it to the extra handle I also attached to make getting on from the tender easier. See pic below

Dennis

[Ianfs]

Genius.

I see you also have Doel Fins, were they on the boat when you bought her?

[Bigplumbs]

Genius.

I see you also have Doel Fins, were they on the boat when you bought her?

Yes they were on her when I bought it. I have them on both of my other sports boat and I like them on those so am leaving them on the Cure initially

Dennis

[_Ed_]

Interesting, Never liked the way they have worked on any of my engines. Funny how different things for different people Oh and if anyone wants mine.. I have at least two sets sat in the garage.. lol.

Nice work on the ladder though

[argonaut]

I had them once on an outboard .
. Not a huge fan. Smart Tabs were a far better improvement to performance and handling.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[ian h]

Genius.

I see you also have Doel Fins, were they on the boat when you bought her?

Yes they were on her when I bought it. I have them on both of my other sports boat and I like them on those so am leaving them on the Cure initially

Dennis

I had a set on by Fletcher 17GTS totally transformed the boat, Much better ride. Quicker out of the hole and really lifted the stern, and improved topend speed. was told only had about 2 foot of boat length in the water ,