In-Water Boat Stand

Hi-
I am a fresh-water Hobie 16 sailor in Minnesota. I am looking for plans or suggestions for an in-water boat stand that I can pull my cat up onto. I have been beach landing/storing my boat for years but it takes up too much room on Minnesota's narrow beaches. Can anyone help? Thanks - happy sailing
Snag

Hi, that was my birthday present from my parents this year. (I guess dad wanted the boat off of the beach)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to rectify that next weekend (not to mention get the boat in the water now that it's stopped snowing). He just found a welder to make a copy of a guy's up the beach (3 year old Maarstrom Tornado that's never had a cover and sits outside year round: some people shouldn't be allowed to own boats). Anyway, I'll post a picture fyi in a couple of weeks.
Al

I have seen exactly what you are looking for. Many years ago we did a seminar at Mameo Beach (Pigeon Lake) in Alberta, southwest of Edmonton. All the catamaran sailors who had summer cottages at the lake kept their boats on these skeleton contraptions made of pipe that were out in the water. Problem is, I can't remember how they worked. The boat just went into it or onto it somehow and they had some way of raising the boat up so it was suspended above the water. I can't even remember whether the boat was on a platform that raised up and down or whether it was on slings or what. I think maybe there was a big wheel they turned to do the raising and lowering. I know this is not much help, but at least you know there is such a thing. Maybe it was a local invention unique to that lake. Guess you'll have to take a drive over to Mameo to check it out.

I see Al beat me to it. Since he is from Alberta, he is probably talking about the same thing I am.

Exactly. The boat rests on a couple of crossbars with form fit pads much like on a set of beach wheels. The platform is lowered by a cable using a winch.
I guess if they're unique to this part of the world, I'll definitely have to post pictures. The only problem with a hoist in this country is that you have to remove it before the lake ices over or it will be crushed into a pretzell(seen it happen).
By the way, we're on Lake Wabamun, which is North and East of Pigeon Lake. I didn't realize Mary and Rick have been up this way before.
PS. If you've been reading the news and were concerned about SARS, we're several thousand miles from Toronto and haven't seen a single case. As for the mad cow, that's a different story (still had steak for supper last night though)

Al,
That's it! Lake Wabamun. I couldn't remember the name of the other lake, because I thought some of those stands were there, too. We did two seminars on two consecutive weekends, one at Mameo and one at Wabamun.

Nearly every boat in our club sits on some sort of "rack". What you need, 4 dock posts. A good system for hobie 16s would be 2 piece of pipe wider then the beam with 2 1/2" PVC over the outside (used like a roller). For stability use two more lengths of pipe to parallel the boat on the sides. Slihtly longer then the Tramp on your 16. Lay a plank accross the cross middle with a bit of overhang for and aft. When all is said and done you should be able to raise your sails, lift the transom and push the boat off while walking down the plank, and then hope on with out even getting wet. There are maybe 25 Hobies in our club and 25 variation of "racks". Hopefully I will be attaching a photo of my Hobie 18 on something similar to what I just described, that's also my Hobie 20 on the left. I invite you to come race with us check out beyc.org. Our club is on Bald Eagle Lake on the north side of Mpls/St.Paul.

If you have about $3000 you could go with this system...

http://www.jetdock.com/pages/lift.asp?ID=B2M40S001

Oh yeah, we had something like this at our sailing center for a few months. We used it to store our instructor Whalers. It was great! You could just drive right up onto the pads and step off.

If I was storing my boat at a dock, I'd love to have one of these!

Sheldon

These folks in MI have a cat lift that looks great. I am thinking about one but the freight adds about 500-700 bucks to the price.....

http://www.ms-pyc.com/parts_access/boat_hoists_access.htm

I'm in the process of doing a platform out of 4" plastic drain pipe. 10' lengths w/ tee's for risers and street 90's out of the tee to square it off. The risers are 3' in back and 2' up front and can be adjusted for water depth. Will post picture in two weeks and then a more detailed description on beachcats, if it works!!

Thanks Al,
I'll be anxious to see your pictures and hear your impressions. I think I am looking for a simplier solution than a winch-operated lift. The stand or rack I have in mind would utilize four dock posts (pipe) and be adjustable by raising and lowering the pipe brackets. Kind of a pain -but we do it all summer with the dock! My bigger question is probably around whether to use treated lumber or pipe. I'm not a welder so I lean toward wood. I also have intersts around any kind of roller system that might be utilized to help push the boat onto the rack. Thanks for your reply - sail on sailor!
Terry

Thanks Mary -
I appreciate your interest in helping me out!
Terry

Thanks for you reply - I think you're right on to what I'm looking for., I have the dock posts. Setting up the boat and getting on without getting wet! Hmmm - new concept! Thanks again for your help.

Additionally, thanks for the race offer, but I'm old duffer (56 years old) and have turned my sailing pursuits to the more laid-back side. I'm strictly a "receational" sailor (although everyone knows any time there is two or more boats on the same body of water - they will be racing!). I also sail a 25'MacGregor (Venture actually) on Lake Mille Lacs so I don't have enough time to race> Thanks for your offer tho-
Terry

Thanks Joe-
This is probably more elaborate than what I'm looking for -
but it would be nice! I appreciate your help-
Sail on sailor-
Terry

Thanks rotorhead! I think this is a little more elaborate than what I'm looking for, but thanks for taking the time to help. This would really be nice but the lift would probably be worth more than my boat! Sail on sailor-
Snag aka Terry

Thanks Mikemac-
This sounds really interesting - I'd be very interested in your finished project. I was thinking of treated lumber or pipe - I hadn't considered drain pipe or pvc. Good luck with the project and I'll look forward to hearing about it. Thanks again for the reply. Sail on sailor
Snag

You might not really need to lower the whole rack - just pivot one end and let the boat slide on or off the incline. Heck, a couple of spare pulley blocks that can be found on ebay for less than $30 and you could have a manual system for raising and lowering the back end of the rack.

Here's a nice fairly simple designed lift that someone in Texas has for sale.

http://sailingtexas.com/shobielift.html
Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio

that almost looks like a trailer with the tongue removed (hmmmm)!

Thanks Jake -
You may a good point there - although I wasn't intending to raise and lower the rack each time I parked the boat - just keep adjusting it to stay close to the water level, and then push/pull the boat up onton the rack. Your ideas around a droppable rear portion has real merit. Thanks
Snag

Hmmm is right Jake! Thanks Jack - thats a really good idea.
I've got a home-made trailed rusting away in woods!! I've got to re-think that. Isn't the InterNet wonderful - I'd still be figuring out a configuration for 2x10 treated boards.
Snag

Thanks Jack - that's a great design. I wish I lived closer to Texas -
Snag

This may be a dumb question, but is there any danger of bottom deformation where the hull rests on the rollers?

I've always been against a boat on anything but a bunk type trailer. or am i just being obsessive/compulsive?

You are right, there is a danger of the hulls deforming where they rest on rollers. You really need cradles to distribute the weight.

Does this apply to normal trailers as well - is my boat at risk if it spends most of its life sitting on the rollers of a trailer?

Jonathan

Well, you have a Prindle 16; right? It is probably not as much of a problem for your boat and for Hobie 16's and G-Cats, etc., as it is for the boats with more-round hulls. But age of the boat can be a factor, too.

I have seen rollers basically go right up through the hulls of boats that sit on them for a while. Scary.

That is an interesting point- thanks Davey
Snag

Well, here it is. I'll post a front and rear view (I only had two pics left on the roll of film). It's basically a square base with a tall side ( L shape) with a square platform attached. add 3 pulleys, cable and winch and away you go. This works great! On a light wind day, I was able to take my 6 & 9 year old daughters for a ride without having to find someone to help lug the boat back onto the beach. Even with good wheels, this was more than I could handle by myself.
I previously had the boat sitting on form fitted blocks on the beach; I guess I should modify the stand accordingly given what others have posted about hulls deforming.
Hope this helps
Al

Hmm, having technical difficulties.
I'll try again

Here's the rear view

Al,
That doesn't look like the ones I saw at Wabamun and Mameo. They were not next to docks -- just out there offshore all by themselves, and there was enough superstructure so that they were easily visible even when there wasn't a boat on them. Otherwise, I would think they could be a navigational hazard.

Also, does your boat slide on and off the float either foreward or backward, rather than sideways? If so, with it alongside a dock that way, don't you have to keep the area clear for at least a boat length at one end in order to get it on and off?

At Sandusky Sailing Club in Ohio, the Thistle fleet had floating storage platforms attached to a main dock, but they were set up so the boat could be slid off and on perpendicular to the main dock, so a lot more boats could be accommodated.

Hi Mary,
The boat stand as pictured is half-way lowered for rigging. It basically will lay flat on the bottom when lowered all the way and the boat floats off sideways. It's just next to the dock for convenience, but would need a flag for marking if there were nothing else around. It was custom built based on a few other stands on our beach, one Tornado, one Nacra 5.8 and a hobie 18. I'm not sure what they're using at the other end of the lake, but hopefully we'll be able to sail over for a couple of races this year.
Al

This platform was made for a Hobie 21se. 4" pvc. Used full 10' lengths and cut the tee's, and X's in. Used street elbows out of the tee's in the corners. Top section was slanted about 15 degree's to allow the 21 to be pushed up onto the corregated plastic roofing sheets.
Worked well all summer. Glue failed when taking apart for winter. Risers did not need to be glued and were cut to make slant to water. $300 in parts

Slides nice on the plastic. Hard to have damage with all the plastic. later

Time to unload. No beach