A87 is now in the new shed at home and we are planing some serious progress on her in 2014!
After more than five years in a rented shed we were very keen to get A87 home and crack on with her restoration (is there an AOA prize for the longest restoration?). The cost of rebuilding the original trailer was prohibitive so we borrowed a trailer that was built for a 24′ runabout – and with a few added supports it worked perfectly! The photo below shows the boat secured on the trailer and ready to leave the old rented shed. I was a little concerned about the areas of incomplete planking on the port side, however we padded these areas out and they appeared to be OK.
(image missing) No problems towing the short distance home, despite the holiday traffic. We are now slotting A87 into the new shed and jacking her off the trailer. I am giving some thought to how to set up the supports to allow full access to the hull to make it easier to replace the planking. The frame of the original trailer is in the foreground of the photo below.
A steel gantry such as the one from northern tool would be handy no doubt. A bridle for use with the lifting points is probably the best way to go as Murray suggests, you could use the slings and blocking or a cradle as redundancy and safety. The bridle type of balancing lift works great with the crane at the local yacht club. Although the chain falls only cost ~ 100 yankee dollars apiece, I’m using two with the slings and it’s possible to lift one side of the hull higher than the other by installing the hook on the non-chain fall side at different heights (trailer D-rings are through bolted to a barn post).
Murray
What about this:
http://www.northerntooluk.com/winches-and-hoists/manual-hoists/Adjustable-Gantry-Crane-1350Kg_103182E.html?fhsearchterm=gantry&search=SEARCH
The basic shape is what I am interested in – two frames like this with 4 chain hoists would do the job. It does say that they cant be moved when loaded though.
Trevor
With the gantry/travel lift it could also be possible to hang the boat from its designed lifting points.
An idea could be a gantry/travel lift with fore and aft adjustment between the uprights. It would also be useful in the future for getting the boat off and onto the trailer. I have enough scraps of box section steel to whack something together. Hopefully it will do a better job than this one….
Looks great skipper, I’m looking forward to serious progress in 2014 too. You might consider chain falls and slings for more flexible access to the hull. The attached photo shows how I rigged them to a pole barn that I built last summer. It’s a flat roof for another few months so lots of shoveling to do, wish it was summer in NH.
Good to hear about Methusaleh’s continuing journey and all the best for the continuing work.
I have developed a serious case of ‘Shed Envy’…..
Happy New Year
Nick