Wood floor inflatable on davits

[Banooma]

I bought my boat with a wood floor inflatable, including Kato davits. The PO hung the dinghy from a very robust d ring at the bow just beneath the rub strake and a harness run between two u clamps in the transom. It has always been fine. However, I have two concerns. The first is that this does not center the dink port to starboard. As a result when at dock, the cone ends sometimes hit the pilings of the slip, which is something id prefer not to happen. I'd prefer to center it better, positioning bow and cones as far from pilings as possible. I'd also like to try to hang the dingy from the lowest possible point to permit the least swing/raise it as high as possible underway. I can shorten the harness at the stern without too much trouble. For the bow, I am wondering about installing a padeye in the floorboard by running button head bolts from the underside and installing nuts from the deck. I have seen many examples of glued-on d rings to achieve the same effect, but none like I've described using a stainless steel, 4 hole padeye. Does this idea sound reasonable? If not, why?

 

[capta]

If you had read the owner's manual for your (all) wood floor inflatable, you should have seen the emphatic warning that one must not use the wooden floor to hoist the inflatable on davits.
I used large d-rings on large patches forward, on both tubes where I needed them to have my Zodiac where I needed it. I believe proper reparation for gluing the patches to the tubes was very important. I sanded both the tubes and the patches until I could just see the threads, then cleaned all the sanded areas of any sanding residue. I mean clean, including removing any oils I might have left from my hands! For that, I used acetone and latex gloves. Epoxy 330 Water Clear Adhesive worked extremely well, holding my 12' Zodiac and 15hp Johnson motor, nearly 200#, for 4 to 5 years, give or take. That's daily use cruising, over those 5 years.
I believe the real trick was keeping the tubes full enough to hold their shape as the glue dried. I'd hold the d-ring piece for an hour or two as the epoxy set up. Not really a hardship, sitting on the foredeck at anchor in some lovely bay, watching the Boobies playing chicken as the yachts swinging with the wind.

 

[Banooma]

Thanks, it's good to know. Interestingly enough, the Newport owners manual includes no such warning- emphatic or otherwise, and makes no suggestion to mount glued-on variety D-rings. I do have a customer support query out. I might have to find the time and right location to spend a day holding my D-rings tight and watching boobies. Seriously, thank you for the detailed installation guidance.