How to take care of your cradle
We just love our boats. Loves ‘em to bits. What about our boat cradles? Well, not so
much.
NEWS FLASH! Your cradle needs some love too! Otherwise, one day, it’s gonna give it all up and drop your precious boat on its side. A domino effect typically ensues, damaging surrounding boats. Now that’s some serious payback for not paying more attention to a vital piece of kit. I’ll admit, it’s not easy to care for a cradle at Highland. Within minutes of a boat being launched, a crack team of volunteers busily knock-down its cradle. The next day, they heave the cradles on their ends, into the back 40. Here they remain, impossible to work on, for the entire season until a week before haulout. This brief, once annual maintenance window, however, is hardly the best time to shower our cradles with love. Result? Our hapless cradles are sidelined for another year.
Nonetheless, cradles and other boatstanding gear must be maintained and repaired. In fact in discussions among COM we’ve identified dodgy and deteriorating boatstanding gear as one of our most pressing safety concerns. Which brings me to my request to every Senior Member… Please take the time to make a sober appraisal of your boatstanding gear. Not sure exactly where to start or what to look for? Well, here’s a list of typical maintenance items. Many can be accomplished while your cradle is still accessible, so you should add them to your Pre-Launch To Do List. I’ve written them in ascending order. By “ascending” I mean starting at “dead-easy” and finishing up with “projects” that will require some planning to get your boatstanding gear up to snuff.
YOUR Boatstanding Gear Checklist
Who’s yer Fadder? - Are you missing the mandatory HYC FWD/AFT colour bands and/or bold, clearly printed member number, boat name and owner’s name? Poorly marked cradles cause confusion in placement and orientation. This can lead to significant delays when crews are forced to reposition cradles while boats are hanging overhead. Yes, that has happened. It’s costly and can lead to dangerous situations, all because of some missing licks of paint!
We’re aligned! - Is your keel/cradle alignment mark outdated or worn off, or you’ve several alignment marks from different years? Lack of clear keel/cradle alignment marks commonly create delays getting a boat into position at haulout.
Rust Never Sleeps - Is rust beginning to show on your cradle? Grinding down to bare metal and recovering with a good rust inhibiting paint doesn’t require a lot of skill, or work, but is one of the best investments that you could make to boatstanding gear.
Hardware - Are one or more of your cradle’s connecting bolts/nuts heavily corroded, worn away and or wrongly sized? No big deal to properly size some stainless steel or galvanized replacements and change the old ones out after launch. Only one bolt failure is needed to collapse your cradle. This is so easily prevented, for the sake of a few buckaroos.
Blocking - What is the condition of your keel support? Poorly shaped? Rotting out? Made up of a bunch of loose bits and pieces that you scrounge around for at every haulout? This is another significant source of haulout delays. Now’s the time to design and build a permanent, fixed keel-supporting structure.
What a Flop! - Do your pads not hold their position when you let go of them? Floppy pads are very dangerous for sling crews. Crushed fingers have happened! If untended by a sling crew member a floppy pad could also puncture your boat! Adding washers to the gaps between the rotating parts and using nylon lock nuts to maintain the right tension, is an easy way to fix this issue. Sometimes, however, the pad hardware is undersized or gone wonky and should be replaced. Harbourmaster’s Report Spring 2022 ~Robert Hellier 5
We’re Screwed! - How easily do your pads adjust up/down? Can the adjustment nuts spin easily by hand or do they stick? Do you have a handle welded to the nut to allow sling crews to easily spin the nuts without having to use wrenches? Having to use tools on sticky adjusting nuts are a major time waster at haulout.
Fit’n Function - Are you using “cheater blocks” to bridge the gap between your pads and your boat’s hull? Cheater blocks are unsafe and another time waster during haulout. If you’re using cheater blocks you really need to consider modifications to your cradle or at least acquiring longer adjusting rods.
On Tippy Toes? – A fair number of cradles at HYC have extra “stand-offs” under the main framing, which raises the cradle by several inches. In most case these are only there to facilitate a lift when the boat/cradle is being removed by truck. And that’s the point. This is a pretty rare occurrence. It doesn’t make sense for these stand-offs to be permanently attached and used every year. Stand-offs pose problems for the club: Shifting cradles, during haulout set-up and launch knockdown, is much more difficult. They also take up much more room on the yard when in the stacked configuration. A much better solution is to have these sections removable via fasteners and only employed when they are actually needed. There is a discussion within the COM whether to enforce such a rule. If your cradle has these additional sections, consider getting ahead of the game by cutting them away. In most cases it’s pretty easy to do and there are members at the club willing to help if you don’t feel comfortable with a zip cutter or plasma torch. Most likely the sections can be saved and modified for attachment by bolts, for that once in a lifetime move by truck.
All Jacked Up? - Are you using blocks and jack-stands, instead of a cradle? Are they sufficiently robust, stable, designed to not collapse under lateral loading and tailored to your boat, without the need to add shims and wedges? Do you typically position your blocks by eye before haulout, then make “micro adjustments” with the $1800/hr clock ticking away and your boat hanging in slings inches above your head? Not only is that expensive, it’s a fatal accident waiting to happen. Best to have all blocks and jackstands connected by pre-measured chain. That way, positioning will always be right on and nobody else will have to risk body and soul. Also vital to deploy any jackstands with kick-back chains. Without these, jackstands are another accident waiting to happen..
Brace Yerself! - Do you have one or more bent supports or braces? These are at high risk of structural failure. They’re also easily replaced, as they’re typically made from readily available steel profiles. Furthermore, the club has all the equipment needed to cut-to-size and drill the necessary holes for connectors, etc.. Do consider why the member got bent however. Was it undersized in the first place? Is there something about the cradle/boat interface that causes the damage? If you’re not up to the task of fabrication, it will not be expensive to have a shop make a new one for you, prior to launch. You can have it ready to go as soon as your boat’s off the pads..
OMG! - Do you have significant wasting or wear in sections of your cradle or have suffered major damage such as split welds or cracked structural members? In this case, you really need to do something, before something gets done to you. On that note, a Cradle Inspector has been assigned to assess every cradle and set of stands in the club.
These inspections will be performed prior to and at Launch. Based on the Inspector’s findings of deficiencies, there’s a possibility that your gear may be tagged and set-aside, permitting you to effect repairs. If your boatstanding gear is deemed “Unfit for Further Use”, however, deploying it at Haulout 2022 will be permitted only after repairs and re-inspection.
