Emmo,

My 19 year old son is a freshman Mech. Eng. student at the Univ of Texas at
Austin. He had his Statics exam on Thursday, and I took him out to dinner
last night, where I presented him with this problem. We discussed it for
the whole meal, drawing with crayons on the back of the kid's menu.

After looking at his results, we agreed that we would redesign. I like
Bruce's I-beam idea, myself, but what we decided was that the post should be
fixed, and the davit pieces should swivel around the post with a collar,
hinge, or other means. We also brought the winch in, right next to the
post, and made it pull up a platform with a wheeled carriage riding on the
post, something like a dumbwaiter. We didn't see the need to hang the winch
so far out from the post.

We also came up with the gate idea so that the platform only would come up
to the level of the deck rather than trying to go over the railing - this
would make it a lot easier to unload as well. Of course, my son immediately
saw the possibilities of making this platform a people lift, which I told
him had already been vetoed by the professionals here...

Anyway, it was interesting to him, as the previously mentioned ME
undergrad...

Great test question for statics - not the deflection part of course,
that's the next course. Your son might enjoy checking out the 4th
edition of Hibbler's Engineering Mechanics: Statics, example 6-15. The
"triangle" is curved, points downward instead of upward, and the
dimensions are different, but it is otherwise the same problem, pinned
of course. It's a one pager, including a lot of explanation.

Good luck to your son!

Bill