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Old 01-05-2011, 03:52 PM
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+1 on what Art said.

Bill, a lot of it depends on how you rig it. There are some people that have no idea about the loads imparted on a sailboat (or any other mechanical device for that matter)..I sometimes wonder how they get thru a normal day without major injury to themselves or others!



It is possible your yard buddy's other experiences have been with folks like that, and have never thought about things like hanging a 310 lbs. engine from the middle of a boom, etc. - that is the first hurdle...if you think it might be OK to hang #300 from the middle of a round tube and expect it not to buckle, you might be one of those people that should pay the crane fee. If you understand that it won't work, you can use your skills and the experience of others to rig something that is safe and strong. (edit - to expound on Laker's comment..he's exactly right..be moving the loads to the correct spots of the rig, it will easily handle them. The boom in compression is extremely strong and handles 1000's of pounds of load from the mainsail..but it may not handle 300 lbs. of unsupported weight hanging from the middle swung out over the boat.) I try to take this approach with lots of boat stuff. There are more than 6000 Catalina 30's like mine...I do not need to re-invent the wheel with most of my projects..someone else has likely already done it. (successfully & unsuccessfully. With such quantity, I get the advantage of learning from both!)

Some people have catastrophic failures go on around them all the time and end up paying someone to fix their problems. Others do a little (or a lot) of research and do something like hauling their engine from their boat successfully while the 'gear buster guy' stands in the boat yard and says, "I had to pay Joe Yardguy $100/hour to run his crane for me after I dropped my engine thru the cockpit" - you are already 1 step ahead by asking the questions before you start!

- Ok, rant over! Let's start engineering an engine hoist!
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Last edited by sastanley; 01-05-2011 at 04:02 PM. Reason: comment on laker's post
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