12 Comments

I've used the beer and buddies method for a 20 and a 23 footer. We walked them out to the lawn and rolled them over there with some padding. It's a quick and easy solution, if your friends are getting old, perhaps ask some big kids at the local high school?

Paul Gartside (gartsideboats.com) under "custom boatbuilding" shows the building of his "Surprise". One of the pictures shows how he turned the hull in place, using hoops fitted to the hull, and rollers.

His website is worth exploring for other tips. He shows a very good method for sewing leathers that I've used on several pairs.

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We like to have pergolas near our boat shop and we beef up a few of the rafters to handle lines to flip boats. For our small fleet we use Sunfish cleats, eyestraps, blocks, snap shackles and halyards. FMI: https://youtu.be/uZ37HyHTLq4

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Wonderful re-use/recycling of that Sunfish gear! Thanks for posting your video.

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I built semi-permanent gantry cranes into my boatshop, a repurposed stick-framed two car garage. I bolted two 2x12's to the rafters 8' apart and high enough that I could get 4x4 support posts under them far enough apart to create a "lifting zone" a touch over 10' wide which matches the width of the doorway into the the shop. Four manual chain hoists (one in each "corner") let me back the boat in on her trailer, run a pair of slings under the hull and lift her enough to pull the trailer out and set the boat down on boat stands. The plan was to pull the legs and store them until needed but they quickly became lumber storage racks and hang shirts, jackets, air hoses and extension cords so they've stayed up.

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Ha! Well done, Stephen! I was thinking, as I clicked on the Comments link, “This is related to my own need to get heavy hulls off and back on their trailers!”

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Got a photo of how the 2x12s are placed? Sounds a lot like what i’m plotting...

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Rent a pair of cherry pickers.

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Or find someone who has a tractor with a front end loader...

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Any advice on gaging the safe weight limit for hanging a boat from the shop rafters? Bottom beam of the trusses in my shop are 2x12s w a 24’ span if my memory serves me right, and im tempted to hand my 800lb boat from them. Your thoughts- easy pease or foolhardy?

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If you can get at the top side of the trusses, you could try spreading the load across more than one truss using a 4x4 or gluelam beam (or even a 2x on edge), set perpendicular to trusses. Hang your come-alongs from the added cross-beams. Nice thing is you could move them around as needed.

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Alex, there are engineering formulas for calculating the load a beam can carry, but your situation is complicated by the load of the roof that the truss is already carrying. I’d think that the safest option is to add columns not much farther apart than the width you need to clear the boat in question.

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I did the boat flip pizza party for my 23 ft sharpie an old barn block and tackle, three mattresses and about 15 people. I'll try to send pics.

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