Getting High and Dry - The Right Way

Everything you ever wanted to know about boat haulout, blocking and storage, and how to work with your boatyard.

Sailboat jackstands raise this powerboat high and dry. Since stands are not designed to support a boat’s weight, they may collapse; that’s if strong winds haven’t already launched the boat. All it takes sometimes is a technical fault, usually combined with a bit of bad attitude from Mother Nature, to tip a boat over the edge.

Essential to the process of handling any belowwaterline maintenance is getting your boat out of the water. Every year, boat owners and insurance companies learn that wind, ice, floods, mud or other natural disasters, have conspired with inadequate boat lifting, handling or blocking practices to take boats from their lofty positions in slings or forks, or from a dryland berth. They end up on the ground, damaging the boat, neighboring boats, and often shattering cruising plans and vacations.

There is little the yard owner or anyone else can say that comforts boat owners involved in this scenario. No matter what the yard did right, or wrong, it will have to defend itself on its boat lifting, handling and blocking practices. Knowing what should be done, and the right way to do it, helps to safeguard your boat from any unforeseen incidents.

There are no laws that govern the haulout of a boat by a marina or boatyard. With the exceptions of OSHA safety requirements and fire codes, there is little done in a yard that is restricted by mandates of law or regulation.

Boat lifting and storage is rooted in successful and accepted boatyard practices that may vary regionally, and depend on the types of lifting and blocking equipment. “We’ve always done it that way” is the standard in many yards.

That means that you must determine whether the yard you want to use is competent to meet your expectations for a safe haulout and secure blocking of your boat. Can you trust the yard’s experience? Does experience always equal expertise? How do you tell the smart yards from the lesser ones? It’s not a nice, neat black hat, white hat thing. Sometimes it’s a “You get what you pay for,” and when the price is “Too good to be true,” you have to ask why. Being informed will help you rest easy when your boat is out of its element.

One Step Lift, Move, Stack

There are many ways to haul out a boat and move it ashore. Popular equipment in use today includes the straddlelift, forklift truck, hydraulic lift trailers, landbased cranes, and other interesting hybrids including slinged lifts hitched to pickup trucks. (Marine railways, once state-of-theart devices, are rarely used nowadays.) Straddlelifts and forklifts are the most commonly utilized boat lifting equipment in boatyard service today (other than over-theroad trailers used at launching ramps).

Straddlelift is a generic term for equipment commonly called a Travelift, which is a brand name. Some newer models can rotate all wheels 360 degrees and are remote-controlled with a joystick. The larger ones can handle 800 tons, with the smaller ones geared to 15-ton boats. Forklifts (a.k.a Powered Industrial Truck or PIT) have been adapted for lifting powerboats and moving them about. PITs are the stock-intrade for high-rise stack storage operations, some capable of lifting a 35-foot boat.

Concrete blocks are standard blocking procedure in many yards. These are not just “if” but “when” accidents waiting to happen.
The creative blocking shown on these boats is asking for trouble.

Blocking 101

To support the boat upright on land, there are two widely accepted methods. One is in a strong, suitably designed and constructed wood or metal cradle. The other is with boat stands. Commonly known as jackstands, those steel tripod contraptions have height adjustable, wood support pads. However, stands are not just stands. Some are designed to support powerboats, others to support sailboats.

Stuffing a tall sailboat stand under a powerboat will seat the hull high and dry, but it will be unstable, as the stands support the boat’s weight, a job they are not built for. Setting a powerboat stand on top of a drum to raise it to a height needed to brace a sailboat, is just as foolish.

And we’ve all seen yards use steel or plastic drums, foam blocks, various shapes and sizes of lumber in curious placement orientations, concrete (cinder) blocks, and other materials innovatively adapted, sometimes with disastrous results. These are not just “if,” but “when” accidents waiting to happen needlessly.

The biggest misconception among boat owners (and some yards) is that boat stands support the weight of the boat. Not! All weight must be supported on the boat’s keel, using the stands solely to balance the load and keep the boat level. There are some exceptions that involve specially designed stands or chine blocking instead of keel blocking. It’s up to you to know what your boat requires.

Who’s In Charge?

Now you’re out scouting for the right yard to embrace your “baby,” lift and tuck it in for a rest ashore. What can you do to assure yourself that you’re in good hands? Albeit there’s little you can do to ensure the yard’s equipment is up to par, there are some details you can monitor. Download the “Yard Rating Worksheet” at www.Diy- Boat.com/diyweb/edit/yardrating.pdf as a report card to rate the yard and bolster your own judgment. And, be sure to agree on the ground rules before you give the work order.

Anticipating an untimely launch!	Plugging directly into a power circuit without a GFCI may spark a shocking experience.
Sailboat properly tucked away: Boat rests squarely on keel blocks, stands balance the weight. Safety chains couple opposing jackstands to prevent sliding outboard under load.	Without blocking under the keel to support the boat’s weight, this is a shaky foundation destined for a topple.

With all the yard details in order, you’re on your way to the haul-out slip. After securing the boat, confirm the haulout procedures with the equipment operator. Provide the operator with any boat lifting or blocking instructions if documented by the boatbuilder in your owner’s manual.

Be sure to finalize the pickup points before the boat is lifted. An experienced operator will sling or lift the boat just until the gear clears the water, then check the positioning for hull obstructions, balance, level, etc., before clearing the slip.

Be prepared to stand back and watch the pros in action, or get into your car and go away until the job is finished. When you return, you’ll find your boat securely blocked, chocked, and standing proud on its steel mounts, or resting peacefully in its cradle, with a spray washed and clean bottom. Take comfort in the fact that, with all the boats that are handled by yards every season, relatively very few suffer the dreaded drop or fall over.
- By Pat Kearns