Travel Lift vs Fork Lift

Aug 3, 2011
3
Oday 26 Tuckerton, NJ
My O'Day 26 has always been taken out and moved around on a travel lift. My (new) marina owner just got a big fork lift and wants to use that. It seems to have the capacity for the 4,800 pounds, but I am concerned about the straightness and stiffness of the forks. The straps on the travel lift conform to the hull shape. When set on stands, they conform to the hull shape. The trailers I have seen have 2 x 6 bunks laid flat that bend to conform to the hull shape. What do others think?
 
Feb 8, 2014
1,300
Columbia 36 Muskegon
The Marina Bull (big forklift) was designed for and works well with powerboats and their relatively flat bottoms. Not so much with a round bottomed sailboat. Contact area would be quite small and I would think the hull would rock fore and aft. I wouldn't go for it. I have on the other hand seen the yard use the bull with the slings off the travel lift. Apparently the travel lift was broken or busy elsewhere. That wasn't much different than using the lift and worked fine. If that's what they're planning it would probably be ok. I'd rather use the lift, but if it's not available...
 

JRacer

.
Aug 9, 2011
1,331
Beneteau 310 Cheney KS (Wichita)
Google "forklift sailboats" there are some sites showing sailboats being lifted that way.
 

Kopite

.
Mar 11, 2015
110
Catalina 27 Monroe MI
My marina uses a fork truck across the beam, and a strap on each fork that is placed under the the boat and connected to the fork tip. Net effect on the boat is the same as the traveler. He just has to be careful driving the forks over the boat not to catch any rigging. He picks up 30 footers with no issues, although a large trimaran is a bit of a challenge for his fork length..
 
Sep 24, 2018
2,549
O'Day 25 Chicago
My marina uses forks with most sailboats. My O'Day 25 was teetering a tiny bit when they moved the blocks but it wasn't alarming