It’s Haul Out Time…
Monday Sept 22
This morning we’re going to have the boat hauled out for some minor repairs, bottom painting and waxing. There aren’t any places on the Columbia upstream from Portland, OR to haul out a larger boat so I’ve contracted with Lampson Crane to do it for me. I haven’t discussed the number or types of cranes they’re bringing but since they build the world’s largest cranes, I’m sure they have something hanging around their yard that is capable (more on that later!).
Right now it’s 0530 on Monday morning. I’m up, the coffee is made and I’m getting ready to take care of some last minute stuff. The guy from Lampson that I’m coordinating this through said I could raid their yard for lumber to make the piles the boat will actually sit on so I picked up a lot of 4’x4’x8’ boards, rented a chain saw and cut them into about 2’ long pieces. GW and I spread out a layer of heavy visqueen last night so we should be good to go for protecting the environment.
I rented a 6’x12’ trailer from Uhaul and this morning I’m off to pick up some jack stands from the marina where I keep my boat and take them over to the dock where the boat is going to be hauled out. The dock is one that was built for barges and it shows. Instead of a nice railing or any padding along the sides of the dock, it’s raw concrete with lots of pieces of rebar sticking out. Not exactly a friendly surface for a fiberglass boat.
I had made some fender boards to protect the sides of the boat but as it turned out I didn’t need them because Lampson could position the slings several feet out from the dock.
The crew from Lampson did a great job. They got started around 1230 and took their time with positioning the slings. They put three of their guys on Beachcomber to do all the placement of the slings and securing them. We’ve all seen the photos of boats going bow first into the water after the slings slid and I didn’t want that to happen to Beachcomber.
Just before they started the lift I walked over to the crane operator (“Marvin”) and said “Hey Marv, you see that woman over there? That’s my wife and this boat is her baby. She’s armed and doesn’t want anything to happen to her baby. I’m just giving you a heads up before you start to lift it.” He knew I was joking but also knew I was asking him to be careful.
The lift actually took a lot longer than we had planned. When they set the slings in place and started to lift, the bow came up higher than the stern. They didn’t want the boat to slide out the back of the slings so they added some 3’ extension cables to the front slings. When they did that, everything was level and I was a lot happier.
When all was said and done, they took about 3.5 hours to get the boat out, position the wood blocking beneath it and get the jack stands in place.
Here's the crane they used
Bringing Beachcomber into the slings. The seaweed on the anchor was picked up when we had to anchor while they made adjustments to the slings.
The slings are in place and they're doing a test lift. Initially the boat came up bow high so they had to add some 3' extensions on both sides of the front sling to make it level.
Another test lift. They picked it up so it was just clear of the water and waited about a minute or so to make sure none of the slings was going to slide.
Up she comes
This is where it really starts to get scary. In this photo you can see the 3' extensions they put into the slings. Those extensions are 1.5" cable!
Swinging her over the dock toward the area where she's going to spend the next couple of weeks.
Pulling the port side prop. The stbd side came off real easy. Not so much with this one. I have my eyes closed because I could see the prop start to move. When it eventually moves, it does it with a loud bang and the prop puller shoots off.
To be continued.....
Monday Sept 22
This morning we’re going to have the boat hauled out for some minor repairs, bottom painting and waxing. There aren’t any places on the Columbia upstream from Portland, OR to haul out a larger boat so I’ve contracted with Lampson Crane to do it for me. I haven’t discussed the number or types of cranes they’re bringing but since they build the world’s largest cranes, I’m sure they have something hanging around their yard that is capable (more on that later!).
Right now it’s 0530 on Monday morning. I’m up, the coffee is made and I’m getting ready to take care of some last minute stuff. The guy from Lampson that I’m coordinating this through said I could raid their yard for lumber to make the piles the boat will actually sit on so I picked up a lot of 4’x4’x8’ boards, rented a chain saw and cut them into about 2’ long pieces. GW and I spread out a layer of heavy visqueen last night so we should be good to go for protecting the environment.
I rented a 6’x12’ trailer from Uhaul and this morning I’m off to pick up some jack stands from the marina where I keep my boat and take them over to the dock where the boat is going to be hauled out. The dock is one that was built for barges and it shows. Instead of a nice railing or any padding along the sides of the dock, it’s raw concrete with lots of pieces of rebar sticking out. Not exactly a friendly surface for a fiberglass boat.
I had made some fender boards to protect the sides of the boat but as it turned out I didn’t need them because Lampson could position the slings several feet out from the dock.
The crew from Lampson did a great job. They got started around 1230 and took their time with positioning the slings. They put three of their guys on Beachcomber to do all the placement of the slings and securing them. We’ve all seen the photos of boats going bow first into the water after the slings slid and I didn’t want that to happen to Beachcomber.
Just before they started the lift I walked over to the crane operator (“Marvin”) and said “Hey Marv, you see that woman over there? That’s my wife and this boat is her baby. She’s armed and doesn’t want anything to happen to her baby. I’m just giving you a heads up before you start to lift it.” He knew I was joking but also knew I was asking him to be careful.
The lift actually took a lot longer than we had planned. When they set the slings in place and started to lift, the bow came up higher than the stern. They didn’t want the boat to slide out the back of the slings so they added some 3’ extension cables to the front slings. When they did that, everything was level and I was a lot happier.
When all was said and done, they took about 3.5 hours to get the boat out, position the wood blocking beneath it and get the jack stands in place.
Here's the crane they used
Bringing Beachcomber into the slings. The seaweed on the anchor was picked up when we had to anchor while they made adjustments to the slings.
The slings are in place and they're doing a test lift. Initially the boat came up bow high so they had to add some 3' extensions on both sides of the front sling to make it level.
Another test lift. They picked it up so it was just clear of the water and waited about a minute or so to make sure none of the slings was going to slide.
Up she comes
This is where it really starts to get scary. In this photo you can see the 3' extensions they put into the slings. Those extensions are 1.5" cable!
Swinging her over the dock toward the area where she's going to spend the next couple of weeks.
Pulling the port side prop. The stbd side came off real easy. Not so much with this one. I have my eyes closed because I could see the prop start to move. When it eventually moves, it does it with a loud bang and the prop puller shoots off.
To be continued.....
