Kemah loves to swim. He LOVES it. He has turned into the “sea pig”.

As soon as I put my suit on, he starts to whine and bark and dance around for the moment he gets* to go in the water.

*This is super important: Kemah has to wait to get in the water. We’ve experienced boaters who have real problems controlling their dog’s interest in the water. More than just being a nuisance, some of these dogs drown in high seas or get injured in anchorages by other boaters or local dogs. In case you needed another reason to control your pet, you might consider heeding this warning.

Riiiiiiiight. So back to swimming (safely).

As we’ve mentioned, one of the things we considered when buying the boat was how Kemah could get on and off, both for our comfort and also for his safety. While Mother Jones does have awesome swim-steps, it requires a ladder to get from the water to the swim-steps, then into the cockpit. And, here comes the issue: Kemah can’t climb a ladder. I know some dogs do have this skill, he just never picked it up.

Luckily, when shopping for Mother Jones, one of the Geminis we looked at had a boxer/pit mix living on board. We asked the owner about his strategy for getting her from the water to the boat and he suggested a we build K his own swim-step. So, we did.

In contrast to the plethora of expensive, cumbersome “solutions” being sold in the interwebs, we followed this fellow boater’s advice and made a basic step out of simple products we found at Home Depot for less than $50.

Kemah was nervous to use it at first:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co15Wyp-MZg]

 

But, soon enough his swim-step became his BFF:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0RG2pyj30]

It’s even been a go-to safety device for the time he fell overboard: we were an anchor and we both fell overboard; it was after a Sunday at Rana Azul (’nuff said).

When we’re at anchor, his swim-step hangs off the port swim-step full time. When we’re underway, it’s stowed on the side of the boat along the lifeline. The mat does accumulate sea growth, like the bottom of the boat, but a few days out of the water in the sunshine and fresh air, all the growth dies off – you can scrub it, too, but ewwwww.

Interested in making a swim-step for your dog? Do it!

Your pup (and your back) will thank you a million times over for it.

Here’s how we made ours:

Supplies:

• PVC cement
• 3 pieces of 3” PVC with elbows and caps
• 1 anti-slip mat with holes (like the kind bartenders use behind the bar, 20′ of line (3/8-1/2”) for the step
• additional line for securing to the boat

Assembly:

1. Glue the PVC at the joints into a ‘U’ shaped-frame
2. Place the U over the mat and cut the mat down to a square (the mat should extend to the outer edge of the PVC)
3. To secure the mat to the PVC frame, thread line through the holes in the mat and over the PVC arms all the way down the frame
4. Secure the swim-step to your boat (we have a three-point tie: two from the back of the frame to the boat, one from the inside U point to the davits above so K can hang out on a suspended swim-step)

Kemah sure does work up an appetite with all the swimming! Click here to jump to the next section: Chow Time: What does Kemah eat?

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