Advice for drying out aginst pillars

[meathome]

Hi All - Plan to dry out in between tides on concrete slip against 2 pillars. Any advice welcome on potential risks, weight distribution, position of warps, & generally making sure she doesn't slide away & fall over or end up on her arse or nose! Thanks.

 

[Mudplugger]

Not easy to suggest an answer without any details??.. but in a similar position, with keel boat with a flat section keel, Fore & Aft springs, Breast ropes fore & aft, and miships ropes running Fore & aft. possibly coming from mast foot if height of piles allow. By the way welcome to the forum but could u fill out your profile a bit.Please

 

[MedMan]

You better let us know a bit about your boat. Sailing or Motor? Type of Keel? Length and Beam? In addition, a bit more information about your chosen spot would help us give relevant information. Tell us where it is and the chances are someone on this forum used it last week/month/year and may be able to warn you of specific dangers.

 

[chippie]

My advice is to make sure the pillar or post is up to it. A mate had his boat badly damaged when the post broke and the boat fell over. Fortunately he wasnt under it at the time.

 

[JAYEL]

Presuming its a yacht,run the main halyard lenghtened by knotting more on, tie off on something solid on bank or dock, suspend a car tyre from middle, this will dampen any swaying before tide drops and helps settle boat leaning into posts/ dock.

 

[alant]

Check beforehand if you need to book a session.
Visually check whats underneath beforehand, just in case someone hasn't left a load of bricks or shopping trolley.
Make sure that you are well fendered, also using fenderboards if possible.
Make sure you have calculated rise/fall (+ times) & adjust any lines accordingly.
Try to ensure that the weight is onto the posts, rather than leaning out with the lines taking all the strain - line from a high point + movable ballast (SWMBO sitting inboard perhaps).

 

[Guest]

One of the biggest ........... Bilge Keeler. QED !

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[AIDY]

Get the weight out to the side you are going to rest on.. Lots of people swing the boom out and hang a bucket of water on it. Stay on the boat until its settled.

 

[alec]

As a comfort, I was reminded that there is very little sideways weight when drying out on posts. The main fault is getting too much lean.

It's like a motorbike, all the weight is going downwards and you can keep it steady with very little force until you get to vanishing stability. Also, the majority of the weight (ballast) is very low down in a yacht which helps.

When I first dried out using two narrow posts, I failed to realise how much ballast was up forward and the nose went well down. Fortunately, things happen so slowly when the water is going down , unless has been mentioned, horrible things are on the bottom, you can always cope with the situation with extra warps anchors etc.

You will get a lot of satisfaction after you have a go.

Best of Luck

 

[youngwrinkley]

Here at Brightlingsea, where there is a strong cross tide with an eddy, with my long keel sloop, I come on well before high water touching the bottom before I get to the piles, row out lines to the piles, and then gradually warp her in to get alongside. This make the approach very gradual and controllable. I rig breast ropes and springs, then organise weight as she grounds to get her leaning SLIGHTLY towards the posts. A lashing around the mast to a post ensures she will not fall over.

 

[mikejames]

And dont get neaped. It can be embarrasing. Please check that the height of the next HW is going to be higher than the one that you are using to go alongside the piles. One of my friends had an interesting session when the HW he went on with was held up by a strongish SW wind up the Hamble and then the next HW there was high pressure, calm and the tide was forecast about 0.2 metres lower than the preceding tide. Overall it took a motor launch pulling him over and off the hard to avoid lying his Sigma 33 in the mud -once he had been pulled and heeled away from the piles there was no way back ..

And heres another embarrassment :

http://www.hamble.demon.co.uk/offset_keel.jpg