Boarding ladder

Boarding the boat at a marina can be a challenge based on the tides and dock configuration. After some research and effort I customized a standard ladder to fit my GB without drilling holes or other modifications to the boat.

First I purchased an extending boarding ladder from GR8-White (www.gr8-white.com). They have a 3 step ladder that fits well on my GB. 

My approach was to NOT drill holes and permanently install the ladder until I had fully tested and used it for a season or two, so I built an attachment that covers the Grand Banks logo step and uses 4 of those existing wood screws. It is designed with two mounting points for different dock heights:

once attached the ladder as designed did not freely roll with the motion of the boat, so I modified the ladder to add 4 casters below the bottom step:

Now, the ladder rolls as the boat moves:

This design works best on floating docks or fixed docks with a reasonable small tide. Here on the Chesapeake the tides are sufficiently large enough to make using this a bit troublesome at times, so I still have not permanently mounted the ladder.