Cradle upright length for 1982 Hunter 33

[enovillo]

Hi all,

I bought a used 10' x 5' steel cradle to store my boat. This cradle has 6 uprights between 3' and 4' long, which obviously won't work on a 1982 Hunter 33 (fin keel), so I'll make new uprights for the cradle, but I'm not sure how long they should be.

This boat drafts 5'3", so I'm thinking if I go with 6' uprights I'll be safe (the screw rods I currently have are about 18" long). I can always put some wooden blocks under the keel if the boat sits too high.

Does that make sense?

I'd be very grateful if someone were to give me precise upright lengths for a similar cradle supporting a fin keel Cherubini Hunter 33.

Thanks!

 

[Ed Schenck]

Re. Cradle upright length for 1982 Hunter 33

If you study boats around the marina that are on poppits you can get a good idea where the pads make contact. They have to be slightly under the hull, maybe ten to twelve inches below the water line at the mid-point and a little closer near the bow and stern. In the picture if I had pads where the cradles are located you can see they would need to be higher. The weight is on the keel, the pads just keep her upright. But you knew that. Given all that I think your pads need to be adjustable from about four feet to four feet six inches.

 

[Brian M H23]

You need to place the pads on bulkheads within the boat. Otherwise, you will leave indentations if there's any significant weight on them

 

[Tim DAlton]

H33 Cradle

Hi
I was down at my boat last week and took some measurements of my cradle. Unfortuantely I took everything except the upright lengths and then I came home to post and figured out I did not have what you need! I can take those again and let you knwo this weekend.

 

[Tim Dalton]

cradle dimensions

Here are the dimensions of my cradle for an 81 H33 with shoal draft: Aft uprights=51" high and 65" wide, fore 59" high and 67" wide, distance between fore and aft uprights is 140". Note that I have to block my keel about 9 inches to sit properly on the pads.

 

[enovillo]

Tim, thanks so much for those measurements! My cradle is a bit smaller than yours (5' x 10'), but now at least I can extrapolate from your numbers and come up with heights that will be ok for a fin keel H33.