sarabande
Well-Known Member
For some years I have been relying on wobbly wooden props, teetering telegraph poles, and ropey ratchet straps to carry out repairs and lifting work on my restoration project 24ftr.
I'd kept a lazy eye open for a cradle, and was successful on a forum bid last year, and in early December came across a decent gantry on ebay, which was located near Yeovil (so in effect a local journey).
Today marked the culmination of some serious levering, heaving and pushing, as I fitted the gantry twixt the hay baler and the sheep pens, around the boat, leving 18 inches clearance on both sides.
So, for the first time, I now have a boat solidly in a cradle, and with a lifting device capable of taking twice my boat's mass. Now to rig some safety netting, some decent lighting, and a bit of heating, and I can sit down inside the boat, occasionally wielding a paint brush or soldering iron, and more probably just lying back with a glass and a book, dreaming and planning, with the sheep carolling contentedly in the neighbouring pens
Isn't wintertime maintenance fun ?
I'd kept a lazy eye open for a cradle, and was successful on a forum bid last year, and in early December came across a decent gantry on ebay, which was located near Yeovil (so in effect a local journey).
Today marked the culmination of some serious levering, heaving and pushing, as I fitted the gantry twixt the hay baler and the sheep pens, around the boat, leving 18 inches clearance on both sides.
So, for the first time, I now have a boat solidly in a cradle, and with a lifting device capable of taking twice my boat's mass. Now to rig some safety netting, some decent lighting, and a bit of heating, and I can sit down inside the boat, occasionally wielding a paint brush or soldering iron, and more probably just lying back with a glass and a book, dreaming and planning, with the sheep carolling contentedly in the neighbouring pens
Isn't wintertime maintenance fun ?
