frscott wrote:I am planning on painting the bottom while I have it on the rack, and I must confess i will likely sneak a beer in before I finish!
The photos of the Catalina are amazing! How did you get it upside down???? Also, what did you paint the keel with? I will buy marine paint for the hull, does the same go for the keel??
Thanks for all the replies!!
Scott
Hello again Scott,
Here's some views of my gantry crane and the 22, 26X and 26D. This is what I use to manipulate the boats around. I've stripped all three and re-finished the C-22 completely.
https://app.box.com/s/1570f72f9af4c1a1fbbb
Anyway, the lifting is easy with this gantry. With the 26X and the D boat, I just lifted them off the trailers and set them on the soft ground. The flat bottom on the X boat made it necessary to rig the mast and pull it over from around the spreaders. I did this once by using the mainsheet and the vang in tandem. That was a lot of work. When I laid her over the other side, I just attached the halyard to the trailer hitch on my pickup and pulled her over with the truck.
The round bottom on the D made it easy to roll over. I just tied a rope to the stanchion on the opposite side of the boat.
Caution
.... I've found the round bottom boats to be a little thin along the sides so they must be supported forward and aft of the small area touching the ground when on their side. (that's why you see tire marks on the hull
)
The C-22 was also easy to lift. Doing the suspended roll was a trick. I used three pullers (com-a-longs), one on each side to lift the boat (so I could lift one side very high and leave the other lower). The third one was set up with some pulleys to pull the gantry traveler across. I had a mainsheet set up to control the traveler, so the boat wouldn't just flop over when it went over center. As the boat was rolled over, the gantry crane was rolled also. (on it's four wheels) The gantry moved about ten feet from where it started. The lifting/rolling, cables were all attached to the wooden rack you see the boat sitting on. The rack was, in turn, tightly strapped to the boat (10,000# ratcheting straps)
The boat (C-22) was completely re-finished in
gel coat (the same color coat material that is on a new boat). Finished the keel the same way and highly polished everything. After the bottom was re-finished and polished out. I had to be really careful, when rolling the boat back over (to avoid scratching the new finish up and because the hull was now quite slippery). To help protect the boat, I went to a carpet store and got a bunch of throw-away carpet from their bin (with their permission.... They even let me bring it back, when I was done with it.)
These boats are light for their size and are easier to move around than one might think. Having said that, I must also say that I worked for many years in warehousing and have a lot of first hand experience when it comes to moving very heavy loads and equipment in tight spaces.
Sorry this was a little long. Hope it sparked some ideas
Best Breezes,
Steve K.
Mac 26D "Three Sheets"
) 