Back her in..Sloooooowly!
Yesterdays story of The Blue Arabian inspired this great story from Fellow Woody Boater Ashley Dobronshinsky on tucking in his Woody Boat for the winter. Yikes. Take it away Ashley.
sqeeeeeze
The snow shoes are great
Hello from one of your Canadian Woody Boater Friends…
Read the Blue Arabian Story today and the tight squeeze in the shipping container pictures inspired me to write this note to you.
It reminds me a little of what I do in the spring to get my Little Ship ready for water each year. See attached pictures.
Might not get tighter than this ?
A 20′ Utility in a single car garage, dangling from chains 4 feet off the concrete floor with only two fingers to spare from the door.
Attached shows what I go through getting my Sportsman in the water after Winter. Would love to see some pics and comments from others who have this much fun in the spring too.
Note how the garage door can only fully open once the boat is on blocks with the lift chains removed… The trailer has to be carefully pulled out by hand with only inches to spare under the door because the door can’t be fully opened at this point in the lift. Also see how I can’t paint the transom until it’s back on the trailer and moved ahead a bit. Lot’s and lot’s of fun…
Bronze Selfie
Hello!
Is that photo taken from a Shoe Camera!
We have all been there,
Tape away!
Sanding
A man and his sander. What a glorious thing to see.
Finished.
Yikes
Tight tight tight
Now, this gets interesting. Ashley has a novel idea about pre soaking his bottom.. Boat Bottom that is. I swear you guys just all go to a horrible place. Anyway, here is Ashleys very cool idea.
I lift sand and paint all in one weekend… and this year I laid down a tarp over the trailer as a new experiment. This allowed me to wrap the tarp up around the sided of the hull and fill with water.
Yep I must be nuts…I let it sit like this for a week and then cut the tarp off. It was then ready for water with virtually no leaking at all. I’m still running the original hull so swelling up the bottom is important. This years plan was the best by far so far…
Soakn in the spring
All that moisture just soaking in.
Thanks so much Ashley, keep away from the Labatte’s and Moose burgers, or your not going to be able to fit in that Garage!
Whatever works, but instead of cement blocks, I’d invest in a set of Brownell boat stands. Nice boat and great to know there’s still a few out there with original bottoms.
This is a wonderful example of what people will do for the love of their woody.
I like the tarp swelling idea. That is ingenious. The only thing I could add would be to spray the inside with a hose so the inner planks swell also.
Thanks for sharing!
Well I feel blessed now, I have a lot of more room than Ashley. This fall I stuffed my 23′ Sea Skiff in my 24′ x 14′ garage. Well sort of after taking 2 loads of things (JUNK) that I might use in the future to the dump, removing my garage door and expanding the opening to 11′ from 9′, adding a small addition to this opening and finally removing the windshield of the skiff I was able to get her in. Now the fun work begins of scraping her all down. I like Ashley’s design of his lifting frame, with the chain hoist set in between the joist.
I’m right with you Ashley, I don’t chain hoist the boat but I do jack it up off the trailer and put it on a rolling stand so I can push the boat back and forth so that I can work on each side of the boat.
The other trick I do is when I back the trailer into the garage I back it onto pieces of scrap carpet so I can push the rear end of the trailer left and right to center the trailer perfectly under the boat.
Every garage needs 2 chain falls hanging from the rafters. I’ve loaded and unloaded with the floor jack and jack stands method many times but hate it so I finally rigged some hoists. 15 minutes and she’s on dollies. A fresh coat of bottom paint now is simple and safe.
alan, just for curiosity,what kind of boat is that in the photo? am i looking at yellow paint on the side?the color is gorgeous,love to see more photos if possible. thanx, tom.
Tom, thanks for the compliment, it’s a 1955 Correct Craft Hurricane. Yes part of the deck and topsides are painted. Hemi powered.
One more
alan,boat is beautiful,great power.i have 57 shepherd,354 hemi.the yellow caught my eye.last year i painted the bottom with a yellow enamel,looks just like the same shade as yours.i think its called “sabrosa,”from kirbys vintage paint.really looks differant.thanx for the pics, tom.
Ashley,
3M makes a full face shield/respirator (around $100.) that will make life easer when sanding a bottom. Be sure and keep that respirator on while cleaning up sanding dust (bad stuff). Like your idea for soaking the bottom. Here in Southern California, in our fifth year of a drought we are careful with water usage.
I have become an expert at fitting all the boats in the space that I have. The key is to be able to move boats on trailers sideways.
Ashley, I have a 15 ft Century for sale, you should consider…….
It’s nice to hear from someone without a barn or dedicated building for their boats. In my last house my office was were the garage should have been so it was covered outside storage for me. With the new house I will be in a similar position as Ashley so I love seeing his and others solutions.
Well done pal.
… yep, when buying a boat you need to measure the garage to ensure the boat/trailer fits in easily — OR — enlarge the garage!
All to make life easy on you (because the boat won’t).