saildrive incident

[likoni]

During a recent lift-out, the travel-lift's aft belt was set incorrectly and for about 2-3 minutes our boat, a Legend 36 was lifted with said belt uder the saildrive. We spotted it before the boat was completely lifted clear of the water and the boat was then returned.

On inspection later, no leak was detected and all things visible seemed ok but we are concerned about the possible longer term implications of this, particularly re. possible
unseen structural damage.

Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks
Julias

 

[DickB]

MY guess is that no damage would be done since the sail drive is supported on a three points. The two engine mounts plus a single mount at the saildrive end. I would imagine that the rubber bush would have been compressed on the upper side and stretched a little on the lower a little but this is tough old stuff. Might warant a thorough check. The diaphram would have moved a little but it is designed for that anyway.

All in all I doubt if there was any permanent damage. (Easy to say when it isn't my boat though

 

[starboard]

Would certainally keep a watchfull eye on the 3 engine mounts. watch them when the engine is running at an uneven rev i.e. when it vibrates the most. Look for delamination of the rubber from the metal housing. If you have got away with out damaging them you are very very lucky. They are tuff but not tuff enough to lift half the weight of your boat. Beware a failure of them at sea could then displace the leg from the seal and.......!!!!!

Paul.

 

[snowleopard]

The damage, if any, will be delamination of the engine mounts, particularly the one at the back of the gearbox. You'll easily find out if it's gone by levering with a bit of 2x4. If the mounting has failed you'll easily be able to lift the back of the gearbox clear of its mounting. Put a bit of upward pressure on it and look carefully to see if there any splits in the rubber.

 

[BlueChip]

Any crane driver worth his salt should have spotted this long before the vessel was out of the water - the stern would have started lifting first and he should have noticed long before the chance of any damage
Apart from the likely things to suffer such as mountings and seals the engine & gearbox probably moved by several inches, so check carefully any fixed and unmoveable items connected to the engine such as fuel lines and exhaust connection to the water trap - this may well have come adrift

 

[davidwf]

Happened to my boat about 5 years ago, didn't seem to cause any problems.

 

[BlueMan]

Briefly happened to me too during a recent lift for saildrive oil change and engine service. Yanmar engineer checked everything out and pronounced that it all still looked OK. He suggested it would have been a rather different story if it had been a conventional shaft and P bracket rather than a saildrive that took the temporary load.

It also occured to me that the lifting strop would still be in contact with much of the hull (with lots of friction), and only deflected close to the saildrive. I reckon that the load on the actual sail drive was rather less than you might at first expect. Well, that's what I told myself anyway after the initial panic! Have done a few engine hours since and all seems well.

 

[likoni]

Thanks Blueman; good point about the strop contact with the hull, and lots of lift friction. Thanks all for the comments and advice.

What we were mostly concerned about was possible structural damage at the rear engine mount foundation where it is glassed into the hull, and also about possible loading on the saildrive leg plate foundations at the eight hull bolt locations. but it seems that neither of these is a matter for real concern. Would you agree.

We are new to saildrives, so all advice is much appreciated.

Cheers
Julias

 

[Evadne]

It makes me realise that there is an upside to a "conventional" long keel format after all. It almost makes up for not being able to go backwards. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Seriously though, I have often seen boats with little "lift here" stickers to guide the positioning of strops. Would this have helped? Obviously, you cannot fit them until after she has been lifted out of the water.

 

[BlueMan]

Strangely enough my boat was adorned with some lift here stickers about 5 mins after being lifted wrongly!!!

 

[adelaidem]

i use to drive a travel lift seen just about everything a boat can throw at it but never lifted ones boat on the sail drive!!