Careening a Saiboat at the Dock -- Good or Bad Idea?

[rardiH36]

This month's Latitude 38 publication has an article about using brushes attached to both straight and curved poles to clean a sail boat's bottom .... as an alternative to a diver. It's presented in somewhat of a tongue-and-cheek fashion, but I took note because I have been cleaning my boat's hull/keel/rudder in this manner every other week or so for the past 10 months. I am sure that some areas are missed, but overall, I believe that I've been able to keep 98% (say) of the surface area free of growth.

The article describes a couple of workers (with fictional names) who attach a spinnikar halyard to a dock cleat and then winch up some tension to careen the boat over a few degrees. It thus becomes much easier to get at the underneath sections of the hull and also the otherwise vertical side of the keel with the brushes on poles. The author of the article describes that the boat he saw was careened to 30 degree angle. I would think this would be quite extreme and would place quite a bit of strain on the halyard, mast and dock cleat? If the tension ever gave way suddenly, damage/injury could result. But even a more modest (say) 5-10 degrees heel would assist with bottom cleaning by shore pole/brush. And the tension on the halyard probably would be rather minimal.

So what do you think? Is is safe to careen a sailboat at the dock? Any procedural considerations?

Thanks
rardi

 

[RichH]

On a lightweight displacement or planing hull careening at the dock is an easy thing to do; if there are long finger piers you wont even need a dinghy. Just be sure that you know the 'balance point' so that you dont pull the boat over too far .... and then have a very embarasing episode or possible 'sinking'.

On my 'sport-boat', I use the main hallyard attached to to a long 'dock line' thats tied to the opposite dock. Just winch it in until its 'before' the 'balance point'.

 

[Don12364]

One of the leading UK sail-makers of a few years ago regularly careened his 34 footer over much more than this to scrub it. He used the spin halyard with a multi part tackle on the end to a pontoon cleat. He reasoned that if something broke it was not strong enough anyway.
For info I had a half tonner (30') and the stability test under IOR was to haul it down horizontal and see how much load it needed. I was surprised to see the max weight it could support was less than the weight of two persons.

 

[tommays]

A snorkel and brush its good for you to go swiming unless its the east river

 

[Ctskip]

I have been using squeegees

on my boat hook pole. I do like the idea of tilting the boat in her slip. Not much ,but enough to see the keel and get it a bit cleaner. I'll watch this thread and see what others think about the concept of tilting using the halyard. I usually clean the bottom while floating around her. Thanks for the concept. Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts on it.

Keep it up,
Ctskip

 

[Chris Burti]

A word of caution: If you do careen, make sure that you are well clear of the spars and rigging of boats in adjoining slips. They could be entangled by a few careless wakes in a closely packed marina. Also, make sure your shrouds are properly tensioned, otherwise, collapse or damage to the mast can result from those same wakes over loading the rig.

 

[Sailm8]

In Florida

On the lake "O" waterway they careen all the time to get under one of the bridges using a halyard and weighted barrels

 

[Bill Roosa6491]

Balance Point????

Hey RichH
Kinda curious about your balance point statement. I was under the impression that a vessel with a keel had a "balance point" of greater than 90 degrees in most cases. I understand that careening that far would allow water into the boat but I'd not call it a "balance point"

 

[Terry in Naples]

Diving under the boat to clean the bottom

Here in SW Florida diving under with mask and scraper to clean the bottom is a common enough event. However, it is necessary to wear protective gear like gloves and long sleves and not get scraped by the barnacles that you are removing. these buggers can cause serious infections that can take months to get rid of. (personal experience) The second point here is that most of the marinas and city docks now will not let you clean your bottom at the dock.they are turning away divers. The claim is that this puts the toxic bottom paint into the water and on the bottom. The State ownes the bottom and they are not allowing it.
Always something.
Terry

 

[Ray T]

Careening was good for me

I used to careen my Cal 227 before every race 6800#. I would hook a line from the jib halyard to the back of my truck and pull it over until the keel was exposed. I had a rubber raft which I used alongside to scrub from. I did this until sailboats moved in on both sides. When I cleaned the bottom this way I was really confident the bottom was clean and I couldn't use the bottom as an excuse when I lost a race. Ray T

 

[Jenni]

Brush scrub

Quite often before a race at our club you will see some of our members at the wall scrubbing the bottom with a long handle brush. Now if you have extra crew standing around I have seen them leaning out over the side while hanging onto the port or starboard shrouds. Its also a fairly popular option to take the dingy out to the mooring and go around the boat with the brush.

 

[newly anonymous]

if my rig couldn't stand up to a knockdown...

...I'd rather discover that at the dock than during a passage.

A round-up under spinnaker will subject your rig to FAR more stress than careening the boat to 30 degrees.

That said, I'd rather dive the hull than careen it.

 

[RichH]

Re: Balance Point????

Hi Bill Roosa !!!
Good to see you on the forum again. Hope all went well with your 'trip'.

One of my boats is an ILYA Scow (not a keelboat), and will only 'go over' about 60+ deg. and then likes to turtle when the cockpit downfloods through the 'thru-deck' rollers. ...VERY embarrassing when you sink your own boat in a slip. But WTH, such boats are not known as 'submarines' for nuthin'.