[C320-list] "drying out" - do you/have you done this?

[Graeme Clark]

Here is a link to a wing keeled boat (not Catalina) that dried itself out by accident - I would have been so worried that a gust of wind would tip her!

http://yachtingmonthly.media.ipcdigital.co.uk/9096/0000037b1/c848/DSC00090.JPG

More normal drying out in Britain is like these pics

http://coxengineering.sharepoint.com/siteimages/img_1344.jpg on legs

and 

http://s564.photobucket.com/user/simon14b/media/Photo0029.jpg.html against posts

Graeme













On 22 Apr 2015, at 10:13, Graeme Clark <cg at skyflyer.co.uk> wrote:

> I’m not sure if I have asked this before - if so my apologies
> 
> In Britain it is not uncommon to have a tidal range of 15ft or more and most locations will get at least 6 to 8 ft as a minimum
> 
> It is thus common practice for boat owners to ‘dry-out’ a practice I gather is not that common in the US?
> 
> picture here img_1344.jpg
> 
> For those that dont know what this is, it bascally means tying up along side a harbour wall or what are ofetn called ‘scrubbing posts’ - wooden piles driven into the seabed - and allowing the boat to settle on it’s keel as the tide ebbs, having taken suitable precautions to prevent it toppling over, of course!
> 
> This  saves the cost of a lift and gives  a good few hours to scrub the undersides or make some minor below waterline maintenance task.
> 
> I wrote to Catalina to ask if the boat was designed to do this and the initial repsonse I got was that they didnt know what i was talkinga bout, so is ent them a photo and then they said “oh, we’ve heard of people doing that sort of thing in Alaska, but no, we didnt specifically design the boat for this”
> 
> We dont have many catalina owners in the UK, but I know of at least two who have dried out their boats at least once or twice.
> 
> This year when mine was hauled out for winter, the new yard I am using doent use a cradle but ‘shores up’ the boat with timber shores. As she was being lowered to the ground and the keel started to take her weight I noticed a significant degree of flex in the hull -  basically it starts to squash as the weight - normally supposretd equally along its length by the water - is supporte donly at the hull-keel join.
> 
> Which makes me wonder whether it is a safe practice, or is that flexing likely to crack and/or delaminate the GRP?
> 
> There are other issues, like the fact that the tip of the rudder is about the same depth as the keel (I think?) so if the seabed is uneven, a proportion of the laod will be taken by the rudder.
> 
> I realise the simplest and safest answer, is if in doubt, dont do it -  but if someone somewhere says “I have been drying out every two months for the past ten years” then I know its not an issue.
> 
> msny thanks, as always, for any comments.
> 
> (By the way, not sure what the costings are in the US bit in the UK, to have a 320 craned out and craned back in, will cost in excess  of US$600 - so there is a good reason tio want to do this!
> 
> Graeme
> 
> #366
> Falmouth
> England