Plans For A Caribbean Cruiser

[zoufry]

Hi everybody.

My Boat is now cleaning ;)

 

[zoufry]

There's 2 week, i had by a new one Caribeean Major ;)

 

[zoufry]

[zoufry]

Hi everybody.

My first boat is now out of water ;)

 

[zoufry]

 

 

[zoufry]

For Vaughan: Can you advise me, a French insurer ?

[Vaughan]

Bonjour Zoufry, et mes meilleures voeux pour la nouvelle année!

We used to have our hire boats insured through the broker Claude Bouvier but I see he has now retired.

I suggest (and recommend) that you contact the ANPEI (Association Nationale des Plaisanciers en Eaux Internes), who are a very well known group of inland private boat owners, who also offer insurance.  Their president used to moor with us in St Gilles.

[Vaughan]

Excuse me saying, but I would not be at all happy to see my boat chocked up, outside, entirely on "breeze block" building bricks. They can work loose when there are high winds and also when you are moving about doing work inside the boat. They also have a bad habit of shattering, if there are very cold temperatures.

I would prefer to stick some oil drums under there as well, with good baulks of wood against the hull.

[zoufry]

Hi Vaughan.

As you can see with details picture the boat is not directly on "breeze block" building bricks.

There's wood pieces between....

Is it a problem ?

 

[BrundallNavy]

3 hours ago, zoufry said:

Hi Vaughan.

As you can see with details picture the boat is not directly on "breeze block" building bricks.

There's wood pieces between....

Is it a problem ?

 

I would  rather see wooden blocks and. drums with chocks than breeze blocks. 

[Vaughan]

27 minutes ago, BrundallNavy said:

I would  rather see wooden blocks and. drums with chocks than breeze blocks. 

Thank you Doug . . . 

I am am glad I'm not the only one !

[Smoggy]

They look like the lightweight blocks that crack in half very easily, would definately be worth a good looking at.

I wouldn't want to work under it like that.

[Vaughan]

Unfortunately, the use of hydraulic boat trolleys to move boats around and store them in a yard, means that, in order to get them off the trolley, they are left sticking up almost 3ft off the ground!  This means you need much more substantial supports and it also makes them very much more vulnerable to being blown over in a strong wind.

In the "old days", boats were hauled up a slipway on "greasy ways" and then pulled onto keel blocks, usually made out of sections of old railway sleepers.  Remember that a Broads boat is designed to come up a slipway, and is designed to stand on its keel.  So the keel supports must be substantial, especially in a Fibreglass boat, where the keel is hollow.  In the case of a Caribbean design, the keel is not even a box section : it is rounded and therefore very fragile.

The keel supports should each cover a wide length of the keel, and this is usually done by having two wooden blocks side by side, covered with a piece of 3/4 or 1 inch ply, about 3ft long, to spread the load. Wood blocks must always be placed at 90º to the keel so that the grain of the wood is not in line with it.  Otherwise the weight of the boat can split the blocks in half.

Sorry, but the way that Caribbean is supported looks dodgy.

[floydraser]

As a casual observer with little experience may I point to the state of the ground which the blocks are sitting on? With carved up tyre tracks it looks like it softens up in wet weather. So sitting high on dodgy blocks on soft ground, it looks like a fat bloke leaning on it would push it over. 

[zoufry]

Good morning Floydraser.
No the ground is not soft, it is a mixture of earth and sand which drains rainwater.
The traces visible in the photos are those of the water outlet trailer which weighs several tons, but the ground does not sink any further.....