Keel Blocks

[spike2450]

Hi all
I've always had a trailer but this winter for the first time i will be having a boat lifted out and onto blocks. Is there a set procedure / idiots guide as to the amount of blocks to set her on etc.
On a recent visit to a marina there was a quite a large boat and she was sat on just two blocks, is the average keel strong enough for that ?
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[alan006]

At last a question that I can answer. When you block up a boat on its keel it is important to get a fair amount of the weight at each end. This is the most stable system. Additional keel blocks are often required to stop the keel hogging but should not take too much weight from each end. Typically a boat up to 30ft might have 3 keel blocks for a 40 to 45ft boat I would normally expect 4 keel blocks.
The keel blocks should take somewhere about 75% of the boats weight. The props are there to stabalise and require enough weight to hold them firmly in place but not too much.

 

[William_H]

You might want to think about keel blocks that can be removed by jacking or similar so that when you come to do Anti foul paint you can remove a block put some paint on the keel bottom then refit the block and remove another. Just a thought. olewill