Chocking up a fin keel yacht

[wotayottie]

I would also like to drop out the rudder, she'll be standing on tarmac for the winter, so I can't dig a hole to drop the rudder into. Is it possible to safely drop the rudder whilst the boat hangs in the slings?

Question is whether its safe to catch it! You would need to rope it up properly.

It's one thing to use wooden props - it's another to do so and not to cross brace them. That's asking for trouble particularly with the mast up.

My insurance (St Margaret) requires a purpose designed / professional designed cradle. And given the low cost of a cradle, that's the way I will go. Once you get rid of the boat, you can sell a proper cradle on Ebay for not a lot less than new from what I have seen. In short, the real cost of a proper cradle is probably not much different to the cost of the wood for the props and its a great deal better.

 

[lw395]

I was up at Queensferry the other day, under the Forth bridges.
Even the bilge keelers were ratchet strapped down to the ground!

 

[hoverjumper]

Crane comes tomorrow, Friday. Wish me luck! Will post photos at the weekend.
Eamon

 

[hoverjumper]

Finally standing on its keel!!

Well after a very stressful couple of hours the boat is standing upright on its keel. All went to plan thanks in no small part to all the advice and suggestions given above so a big thank you to all who contributed. Here are some pics as promised.

Dropped the rudder no problem whilst hanging in the slings.

She is very stern heavy so the biggest challenge was getting her balanced fore and aft.

I knew that the cradle was undersized, but when the boat arrived over the cradle it was clear it was even smaller than I had realised. In fact we had to add a fair bit of timber packing to the front supports as they were too short to reach the hull!

I then added the 6 wooden props and took the strain off the crane.
At this stage it still felt quite unstable but once the cross bracing was installed it settled nicely and is now rock solid.

I used ratchet strops between the cradle supports to counter the outward flexing.
I jammed timber between the keel and the cradle frame to prevent keel slip (see photo).

The whole operation from lift to removing the crane took about an hour and a half, but it was the first time I'd done it, next time it'll be a bit quicker! It would certainly have been easier with yacht legs rather than timber props, but where's the fun in that!

Once again thanks to all especially Rowana Jim, Sanctuary Tony and Gannet Stephen. Cheers fellas!!

 

[hoverjumper]

Another pic

One more pic