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Sanding / painting on a cradle

3998 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by jjablonowski, Sep 28, 2009

cghubbell

Discussion Starter · Sep 25, 2009

My new (to me) boat is currently on a cradle and about to begin a fun pox repair session. What is the safe / recommended method for handling the hull area that's currently under the cradles 4 pads?

Do I just find a single boat jack, place it close to the current cradle pad, chain it to the opposite side of the cradle, then back off the cradle pad's threaded rod to get it out of the way? My cradle's "legs" that the boat sits on have the same kind of threaded rods that the top of boat stands use.

Having never worked on a boat in the cradle it's a bit unnerving having all that boat over my head and wondering if my idea is structurally safe

I'm sure it's not as bad as it seems, but I have a pretty vivid imagination that depicts 6800 lbs falling off the cradle being a bad thing!

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jjablonowski

· #5 · Sep 28, 2009

First off, I'm a cruiser---not a racer---so I'm not Fanatical about bottoms.

Four pads at 25 sq. in. apiece ain't gonna make a whole lot of difference to me, compared with the entire bottom.

So I leave a small soda bottle half full of bottom paint, along with a disposable foam brush, hanging in a ziplock bag from one of the jackstands. When they launch in the Spring, the yard crew lifts the boat with their straps, then touches up where the pads were.

Does the fresh paint have time for a proper cure? Probably not. But next season the chances of having the jackstands placed in Exactly the same spot are, well, ....

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