swim platform?

Has anyone ever installed a swim platform on there boat and did you have any problems since it wasnt from the manufactuer?

I used to own a 1979 Pro Am tournament boat, which is similar to the Ski Nautiques of that era. The swim platform on the ProAm was a fiberglass over plywood POS and rotted out after a while.

I replaced it with a teak platform from a Nautique. I was able to pick up a slightly used platform from a local shop for not too much money. I had to cut it down a little bit to get it to fit properly but that wasn't too bad.

Mounting it to the boat was a bitch. Had to pull the gas tank to get access to the inside of the hull so that I could put the backing plates on. DO NOT even think of installing a swim platform without large backing plates on the inside!

The hardest part was getting the brackets aligned properly. I am sure that the boat manufacturers have nice jigs to assure that the brackets are put on properl, but since I lack those I had to improvise. I can tell you what doesn't work: leaving the brackets on the swim platform to mark the holes and then bolting them down.

I ended up with an installation where I could remove the swim platform if I was serious about it but getting it back on was a real bitch. Once on it looked nice and worked just fine.