Lifting Points

[JasonH26]

Hello,
I was wondering if someone may be able to lend me some guidance to lifting my Hunter 26? I need to lift the boat to drop the centerboard, and to paint the bottom... But I am concerned about the ballast tank, and don't want to lift it in the wrong spot creating more problems...
My thought was to raise the boat with 4 boat stands. I can fit the stands both fore and aft of the trailer bunks. I have attached 2 pictures of where I'd like to position them.
Could someone please let me know their thoughts on this matter, and whether I might be compromising the ballast tank or hull?
Thank you,
Jason

 

[Ron20324]

Place the stands under the hull, where an interior athwartships bulkhead is.

 

[JasonH26]

Place the stands under the hull, where an interior athwartships bulkhead is.

Dumb question... I have attached a picture from the manual. Is the 0 through 10 identifying the athwartships bulkheads?

 

[rgranger]

There are no true athwartship bulkheads in an H26. I would be careful.

With the help of @Crazy Dave Condon I did mine two summers ago. Here is a write up about the steps involved. See attached PDF

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

6 inch wide straps minimum. One forward where the sloping part of the cabin roof meets the deck and just aft of the centerboard. Make darn sure you tie the straps together each side and if placing on stands, four each side and connected together. If you are near a 260, go look for the lift marks under the hull to deck joint and follow that as the hulls are practically the same.
If you want more directions, send me your phone number via private message and location. I will call you as there are some tricks to removing the board.

 

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[philiefay]

I read through Rgrangers PDF. Very helpful and thanks for this information, my only question is how high off the ground does the boat need to be in order to get the centerboard out?

 

[jssailem]

centerboard out?

Out or just swung down.
Centerboards have a pivot point. You should be able to identify a bolt or the location of a bolt by examining the trunk inside the boat or the stub keel on the outside. If you want to get it out or need to you will need to release that bolt and the board will need to be dropped beneath the boat. At least the with of the center board plus space to drop the boards pivot point and room to maneuver. It all adds up based on the lengths you measure.

On the other hand you may just be wanting to swing the center board down to clean and paint it not remove it. Then you will need to raise the boat high enough to have the boat extended beneath. How much do you draw in the water. That might be a good starting point. Would give you a little more than needed but easy access to all of the center board beneath the hull.

 

[philiefay]

Thanks John. I had the boat inspected for Tahoe yesterday. 5hrs later they told me they found 3 zebra mussels and fish and game dept is now involved. I got a call this morning from them that the board needs to be removed so they can inspect inside the housing.

So, based on your response, as long as I can create enough space between the hull and the trailer I can remove the board. May as well replace the lifting ropes and maybe paint those areas and under the bunks also.

 

[Mr. Dave]

Or you could maybe just leave her on the hard long enough to guarantee that any hitchhikers are dried and dead? Minnesota says 5 days dry is all you need, though California may beg to differ. Hard to prove but maybe easier than all the trouble you're talking about enduring, though it wouldn't do squat for your ropes or paint...

 

[philiefay]

Mr Dave, Thanks. Yes, I already suggested that, its been out the water 6 weeks and they are having none of it. They want to test the DNA or whatever of the dead mussels so they can advise the prior body of water in OK that they have issues. I was actually considering removing the rear axle of the trailer which seems to be very easy, just 4 U bolts. Then jacking up/ supporting the trailer. this should allow me free access to the centerboard housing area once I remove the center running board which is supporting very little weight. IE the weight would be supported by the trailer bunks entirely.

 

[Mr. Dave]

There's nothing worse than folks who want to do stuff the right way, it's nice they want to tell the OK folks what's going down. Pain in the ass, but commendable.

Trailer lifting seems like a really good plan. Jack stands rule...

 

[philiefay]

Just wanted to give an update on lifting the H260 off the trailer. . Here in Tahoe the marinas don't seem interested in lifting without charging an arm and three legs so I needed a way to do it safely so I could spend some time on the hull.. I lifted this off myself today. After thinking about the best way to do it I used pallet racks spread 9ft apart along with 2 X 6 inch, 14ft long flat lifting slings and 4 X 4000lbs chain blocks. (probably could have gotten away with 1/2 this size chainblock.)

The first step was positioning the 10ft high pallet racks and securing them to the concrete using concrete anchors. After that, setting up the rigging under the two lifting locations (defined with stickers on the hull) which are about 8ft apart. Lifting up the stern with a car jack was necessary in order to get the flat sling between the bunks on the trailer and the hull. I used 12ft steel spreader beams (pallet rack beams) between the two racks so I could get a vertical lift but I am not sure that is necessary provided that the racks are anchored to the concrete and positioned close to the boat. A small 12 inch sling wrapped around the beam then connected to the chain blocks at the top.

The chain blocks very easily lifted the boat nicely. I could tell that the stern is far heavier than the bow as there was slightly more resistance on the stern chain blocks. Once lifted, I could then remove the trailer from under the boat. After doing so, I placed some heavy duty pallets fore and aft of the slings and placed moving blankets on the pallets to lower the hull onto. I then lowered about 40% of the weight onto the pallets leaving the rigging/ pallet racks supporting the remainder. Total expense was about $600 in rigging gear. Took about 2hrs on my own from start to finish. Today I will remove the centerboard and replace the hoisting line. Can now also work on the trailer easily.