Extendo Boom

Does anybody in the IPYOA community have any real-world experience with the Extendo Boom, Island Packet's dinghy retrieval system? I will be single and shorthanded sailing an IP460 (delivery August 2015) and am trying to work through the options available to retrieve and store a tender. Davits are not a possibility because I will have a self steering vane on the transom.
Thanks,
Jeffrey

Jeffery:

I know the 485s that have used this to lift the dinghy up and onto the stern deck. It seems to work well. I have not seen this used on a 460, but with that aft deck it could easily work. The IP 460 I know, CUTTER LOOSE, www.CutterLoose.com Eric and Patricia went with an arch and they lift the dinghy with that keeping the aft deck open for access to the "garage" below. The advantage to an arch besides dinghy storage is also solar and the D400 wind machine plus WiFi antenna and AIS antenna. and Sat Phone and Satelite Radio etc... Have you thought about going with a below deck autopilot and then simply buying a second autopilot ram for easy replacement in case of a failure. Yes, this takes power, but with solar and wind, we find we can produce enough usually to run a lot of this gear. The monitor wind vane is a great tool, but I am just wondering is a modern below decks autopilot may be just as good leaving the stern open for davits or an arch.

PS:
I love your blog, your are an amazign writer. Again, welcome to the IP family, we are so glad you are here.

Hayden.....anchored in Abaco, Bahamas

We have used ours on our 465 to hoist the dinghy onto the rear deck. It works really well.

Hayden and Leonard, Thank you for your responses.
Davits would certainly be the easiest dinghy solution but I feel like I need a windvane on the transom. It is tempting to go with only an electric autopilot but I'm more comfortable having redundancy since most of my sailing will be shorthanded or alone. The Extendo Boom might be the solution to getting the tender on and off the boat with a minimal number of hands.
Hayden, thanks for the kind words on the blog--www.FlyingFishSail.com.
Regards,
Jeffrey