Has anyone moved a 20'+ boat from a trailer to a cradle?

[Seajet]

Why are you getting so worked up about this? - read what the OP writes. He seems more in tune with reality than you. Of course you have to put a "cold hard £ sign" on it - that was the whole basis of his question.

I thought he was asking about moving his boat onto a cradle; which suggests the boat is worthwhile to him, or by your school of thought he'd put a match to her and go and buy one already on a cradle !

 

[Capt. Clueless]

I took my Leisure 17 off its trailer by tying the boat to a tree and towing the trailer out from under it. I can't recall how we got it back on but I think the tree was used again.
The Leisure 17 weighs about 600kg.

I used to build the leisure 17. Tough old boats.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I used to build the leisure 17. Tough old boats.

My first boat and a brilliant introduction to sailing. I've now got a Leisure 20.

 

[Tammany]

Did it with a fishing boat into our garden. How flat is the bottom of the boat? You mention lifting keel but is their a small keel sticking out of the bottom.

 

[oldbilbo]

I used to build the leisure 17. Tough old boats.

I'd like to know what the Leisure 17 weighs, and rather suspect that 4 fit men, some ropes as slings, and a quartet of scaffold poles held horizontal could lift each end sequentially.

Insert made-up wood trestle support each end ( sequentially ) then insert cradle. Reverse the 'four fit men' exercise to lower down onto the cradle bed, and Bob's Your Uncle. The boat's weight is supported underneath. The cradle structure simply prevents it from rolling sideways, the lateral loads are light, so almost any 2 x 4s will do for that size/weight of boat.

Edit: just re-read, and it's a 23' foot boat. Still do-able, but with heftier props and trestles, and heftier men. There must be a rugby club nearby, or a farmer with a Telehandler....

 

[ghostlymoron]

Leisure 17 600kg, Leisure 20 1200kg. A bit heavy for resting on scaffold poles or DIY structures. I once lifted the back end of our L17 to reposition the chock on the trailer there's no way I could do that on a 20' boat.

 

[DownWest]

Justb about to do this to a Kelt 6.20, so 20ft and 1 ton. Couple of acros supporting a beam across the hull. Shroud plates secured to beam with cables. Each side raised a bit at a time with a third acro on a 20ton jack, as I doubt that one can raise it with the threads on the support acros (I know you can't). Third lifting device lifts the backstay point with a ratchet winch. All supports well braced and will leave enough to run the trailer under the boat. Primary reason is to remove the stub keel (380kg) with the seized plate and give it a good blast and paint with new bolts. Since the trailer will be borrowed, launching needs to be fairly speedy. Cost of all the bits is mainly the cross tube, as I have all the acros, so cheap enough.

 

[Daydream believer]

Lifted a Stella ( 2.5 ton Fin keel like a folk boat)off a 5 tonne road trailer using some scaffold poles set up as 2 sets of triangular pyramids & 1 set had chain blocks & other set had tirfor with 2:1 blocks set up. Raised the boat up 15 inches, dropped the trailer supports & moved it.
Slid the cradle into place on scaffold rollers & lowered down.then using rollers pushed the boat into my factory for re-furbishment & out again for sand blasting once stripped to a bare hull then back in again for drying & sheathing with epoxy, new deck, cabin , cockpit & interior. When finished rolled it out, picked it up with hiab & rolled trailer under. Much easier with the hiab i must say but having done all that work i did not want any damage !!!