Cradle or shoring?

[BAtoo]

All cradles at SYH & mostly by Jacobs - but they are just up the road....

Don't think I'd want my boat on wooden shores.

(Photo from their website)

 

[yoda]

Cradle or shores?

Both Cradles and shores are capable of holding boats very satisfactorily however both can fail if vibration and windage cause the boat to start moving. The effects of sails, covers and rigging can be quite alarming in high winds. The use of lashings on props and cradles to prevent them moving or falling out and simple vortex shredders to prevent foils and masts vibrating make a significant difference.

Yoda

 

[Sneaky Pete]

What Yoda says is correct the picture is of a 50 ton 72 foot challenge yacht it is in a hanger and protected from the elements it would not take much vibration to roll this over, however it does show that you dont need a cradle and shores or props do work in the right conditions. The props are kept together with tensioned ratchet straps.



View attachment 15256

 

[Kwik Decision]

Check your insurance....

I noticed in the small print of our St Margarets policy a few years ago that we had to use a professionaly made cradle when the boat was ashore. I got them to put in writing that they were happy with our bilge keeler sitting on her keels only, but fin keel owners, please check.

 

[Clyde_Wanderer]

I noticed in the small print of our St Margarets policy a few years ago that we had to use a professionaly made cradle when the boat was ashore. I got them to put in writing that they were happy with our bilge keeler sitting on her keels only, but fin keel owners, please check.

What insurance company?
I have the Plain language policy and it does not mention that, besides I would have thought that would only matter if an incident/damage occured due to an inferior cradle.
C_W

 

[ProDave]

A hull is designed to be supported evenly by water most of the time. Subjecting it to just four localised pressure-points for a period ashore must surely put deleterious strains on it and the internal structural parts. A spread of several shore-props down each side, as well as under the bow and under the counter, all properly secured by a lattice of cross-members, must surely be preferred.

Very true.

Although my boat winters on it's trailer, the same principles apply.

When I bought the boat, the trailer was very badly set up putting almost all the weight of the boat on just 3 of the rollers only, and there was noticeable distortion of the hull.

Following work on the trailer over the summer, now the weight is much more evenly distributed between 7 rollers and 4 pads with no noticeable distortion or compression of the hull.

I would have thought the other obvious advantage of a cradle is it is so much quicker to set up than shore props, needing less time hanging from the crane.

At our club all the boats that stay at the harbour are on trailers or cradles, except I think one bilge keeler that just sits on her keels.

 

[Elessar]

After seeing Clyde Wanderer's thread and the way that yachts were shored up with just a few props and no cross bracing its hardly surprising that one blew over, and very bad luck to Clyde Wanderer that his boat was the innocent victim.

I am however a bit puzzled by all the criticism levelled at shoring because where I keep my boat at least half the boats on the hard each winter are shored. I have had mine shored every year that it has been on the hard except the last time, when I rented a cradle so that there were less parts of the hull that could not be scraped or anti-fouled. My experience was that in the cradle the boat vibrated and shook in a strong wind, and the comparatively narrow base of the cradle inspired little confidence. I asked for some shores to to be added to control the vibration.

The yard has no policy of requiring masts to be taken down, and stores about 600 boats on the hard. The only mishap I have heard about was when a large steel framed shed blew down in a storm and damaged about five boats, but no boat on shores or cradles has fallen.

I am not happy about using a cradle that puts a 45 foot boat onto something about 10 feet long, and the yard seem to agree as they always add bow and stern props, and sometimes lateral props as well.

As this picture of my boat shows the yard cross brace the shores, and if you look at the boat on the left you will see that they have added some extra props to a boat that is on a cradle.

been a few threads about this recently. I won't repeat what I said in this one, I'll just copy the thread - I still think the same about it.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296425

As for worrying about pressure points. the props are to hold the boat sideways predominantly not vertically. If you're worried about this keep your boat where it's warmest and the load spread the most evenly - ie in the water where it belongs!