wjejr
Active Member
Hi everyone,
This year my club will be putting in new floating docks for the express purpose of holding small sailboats: Lasers, Sunfish, etc. Boats will be rigged, launched and hauled from the dock directly. On that topic I have a couple of questions:
Question #1 - What is the best way to get the boat out of the water without damage to boat and more importantly people? We will have a dock attendant to help the members, but I don't like the idea of the attendant bending over the dock to grab the bow and then lifting the boat. It would seem to me that you could hurt your back by doing this all day.
My original thought was that it would be better to pass a line through the bow fitting and lift it that way until it was at a comfortable height and then grabbing it under the gunwales. Thinking about it some more, I started worrying about whether lifting the boat from the bow fitting was such a good idea. While I am sure it is strong pulling on it horizontally, I wasn't so sure it would hold up lifting it vertically on a regular or even daily basis. Does anyone have experience with this, lifting the bow out with the bow fitting, REPEATEDLY with Lasers? Is it strong enough? Will it be more of concern in older boats?
Question #2 - What is the best way to slide the boat over the edge corner of the dock without doing damage to the boat? Padding and/or some sort of roller comes to mind. Any thoughts?
Many thanks for your help.
This year my club will be putting in new floating docks for the express purpose of holding small sailboats: Lasers, Sunfish, etc. Boats will be rigged, launched and hauled from the dock directly. On that topic I have a couple of questions:
Question #1 - What is the best way to get the boat out of the water without damage to boat and more importantly people? We will have a dock attendant to help the members, but I don't like the idea of the attendant bending over the dock to grab the bow and then lifting the boat. It would seem to me that you could hurt your back by doing this all day.
My original thought was that it would be better to pass a line through the bow fitting and lift it that way until it was at a comfortable height and then grabbing it under the gunwales. Thinking about it some more, I started worrying about whether lifting the boat from the bow fitting was such a good idea. While I am sure it is strong pulling on it horizontally, I wasn't so sure it would hold up lifting it vertically on a regular or even daily basis. Does anyone have experience with this, lifting the bow out with the bow fitting, REPEATEDLY with Lasers? Is it strong enough? Will it be more of concern in older boats?
Question #2 - What is the best way to slide the boat over the edge corner of the dock without doing damage to the boat? Padding and/or some sort of roller comes to mind. Any thoughts?
Many thanks for your help.