Finding Wooden blocks for winter layup

[jontifosi]

I need 4 in number blocks for my Centaur, must acheiv 24" height so thinking for and aft on each keel plus soem round logs for front and back.
Any idea where i can source these near portsmouht and how much i'd be spending?

 

[theoldsalt]

Jontifosi,

Why limit yourself to wooden blocks?

I have used cheap concrete blocks from a local builders merchant topped with plywood offcuts for under keels. To support bow and stern use old fence posts cut to length (available from a local garden centre).

 

[tillergirl]

http://www.uksleepers.co.uk/product-catalogue/Reclaimed_(used)_Railway_Sleepers

Getting 24" is going to require a couple on top of each other (or two halves)

 

[nigelmercier]

Any idea where i can source these near portsmouht and how much i'd be spending?

I've always found that a wander around a boat yard will reveal many such items. Good thing that SWMBO doesn't run a yard, she would chuck all the "rubbish" away

 

[VicS]

Short lengths of of railway sleeper are good. Typically they are 10" wide and 6" thick

24" is quite a height so you will need 4 times 6" fore and aft under each keel.

But a 24" stack of 10" wide blocks will not be very stable.

I'd use then in pairs, two one way then two at right angles etc until you have stacks 4 pairs high, perhaps just 1 piece on the top layer.

So altogether you will need 28 20"to 24 " long lengths. A sleeper is typically just over 8 ft so 7 of them cut into quarters will be just the job.

Have some thin bits of wood handy for packing level and or some wedges.

A Centaur sits quite happily on its keels but a prop under the stern will make it feel a bit steadier if you are working on it.

 

[ripvan1]

phone around local tree surgeons and ask to cut some rings to size and deliver, probably charge you same as half load of logs.

 

[alahol2]

Garden centres frequently stock sleepers, they are used for raised beds etc.
Try Covers timber merchants, Gunners Way, Gosport. That's where I got mine.

 

[SHUG]

phone around local tree surgeons and ask to cut some rings to size and deliver, probably charge you same as half load of logs.

I agree . Four pillars of tree trunks will be far safer than 4 bits of sleeper stacked up eeeeek

 

[VicS]

I agree . Four pillars of tree trunks will be far safer than 4 bits of sleeper stacked up eeeeek

Not if 2 ft lengths of sleepers are arranged as I suggested.

But why is it being raised so high I wonder ?

 

[jontifosi]

hHeight is due to the boat being bought in on a trailer approx 18" high i then need to jack trailer up fit blocks and remove trailer- so stuck with the height

 

[VicS]

hHeight is due to the boat being bought in on a trailer approx 18" high i then need to jack trailer up fit blocks and remove trailer- so stuck with the height

Cannot quite see how you are going to do it but I guess you have through it .
I take it you have suitable jacks to lift it but how are you going to put the blocks, be they lengths of sleeper or tree trunks, under with the trailer still there.

 

[jontifosi]

No the cross members of the trailer which support the boat are removed once jacked up blocked then jacks released - not the ideal method as it always ends up with boats 18" plus high and excessive use of blocks.

 

[theoldsalt]

Jontifosi,

Now I know why the boat needs to be so high and that you are jacking her off a trailer I am even more convinced that the cheapest and most flexible solution is to use domestic concrete blocks.

 

[jontifosi]

Does anyone know some local to portsmouth that can put the boat in the yard for me? I contat Southsea marina they charge £316 for this, i thought it was a bit high

 

[colhel]

The Shaftesbury branch of Travis Perkins had some sleepers in at £18.00 (ish) each.

 

[ostell]

Does anyone know some local to portsmouth that can put the boat in the yard for me? I contat Southsea marina they charge £316 for this, i thought it was a bit high

Is that move the boat from where it is to a boatyard?

 

[ripvan1]

i'm confused, where's the boat, what do you want to do with it and where, why can't it stay on trailer? i assume 316 includes lift and block off which with vat is about right