Swim Platform Brackets

My boat sits on a mooring in a generally rough part of the Lake. The wave action causes constant flat slapping/landing on the water by the swim platform. The play in the brackets gets greater by the day due to the wear in the brackets. I replaced them about two years ago, but it did not stop the problem. Any thoughts about how to prevent the play in the brackets?

The "The Right Stuff" solution is going to wait since the boat won't be dry for 24 hours for at least two months. I replaced the pins with bolts of a bigger diameter to take up the extra space in the holes. I shoved a small nylon washer into the top part just to take up space. This stopped all of the up/down slop. The bracket is now secure at the bottom and hinges there as the top moves slightly fore and aft. I'm good for now.

I'm not familiar with the design of your brackets, but if they're similar to Malibu's could you take some thin rubber and use it like a gasket to take up the slack?

What exactly is your mooring situation like?

Retro-mod it like the 78-90 design. That'll provide some relief.

The size of the waves is not the biggest issue, though they can be big as there is more than a mile of fetch in the direction of the prevailing winds. Even with small waves, the up and down of the stern constantly slaps the platform on the surface of the water, wears on the brackets, loosening them more and more over time.

I have a similar story about losing the platform. I found mine on the rocks about 1/2 mile away after about 1 hour of searching. My guess is that the pins worked themselves out rather than broke.

Even assuming poly strips are trimmed to create a snug fit, they would need to be secured in the gap. I could try gluing them on, but if I need to do that, why not use some type of hard epoxy and trimming it down to size? Also, there is a risk of strips or epoxy that are too much. I have nightmares of using too much on the first fitting and never being able to take off the platform again. And, I need to fill the gaps at both the top and bottom of the connection. When I used nuts and bolts in the pin holes, I was able to secure the bottom of the bracket, but that just created a swivel since it remained lose at the top. Something like nuts and bolts would be easier to use when I take the platform off for cleaning and storage.    

I need to remove the bolts holding the platform bracket to the stern of my 1997 Ski Nautique.  Does anyone know if it is a lag bolt?  I'd rather not have to remove the gas tank.

winniskier wrote: Bump.  I need to remove the bolts holding the platform bracket to the stern of my 1997 Ski Nautique.  Does anyone know if they are lag bolts?  I'd rather not have to remove the gas tank.

I'm pretty sure you'll find that the upper ones are through bolted, and you will need to remove the tank, whereas the bottom one is a lag.

Hopefully, by 1997 they were through bolted.  I replaced the brackets on our Malibu Sportster 2 years ago as they wore out from being on a mooring on a big lake.  I could not get the original brackets.  The company that makes them for Nautique custom made me a pair at no extra charge.   One thing they did that was different than on the Nautiques was to make the pins very tight so that there is no movement at all.  I have to tap the pins in with a hammer and remove them with a punch. So far they have not loosened up.

I wouldn’t.