Vest lead

Vestdavit has developed a flexible tailor-made HNF-6500 davit for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US.

It can handle multiple boat sizes with hook distances between 4.3m and 7.4m. It will be installed on the NOAA vessel Oscar Dyson.

The HNF-65000 is a two-point, single winch, SOLAS-compliant davit, and is able to handle a 6.5t rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) in sea state 4.

The davit has all the standard safety features that Vestdavit recommends, including shock absorbers, self-tensioning, wire puller and end stop.

Commission of the prototype will be take place in 2015.

Vestdavit technical manager Helge Gravdal said: "Vestdavit’s position as the world leading provider of efficient and innovative boat handling systems requires us to constantly challenge ourselves and to develop new products in line with customer requirements.

"This project has been a positive challenge for our technical team.

"One of the hurdles here was to find an efficient way to adjust hook distance. Our clever and experienced engineers used advanced 3D modelling software to solve the task."