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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Cat 25 boat lift revisited, getting closer!

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Luckenbach
1st Mate

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USA
29 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/20/2003 : 20:28:24

As you know, Catalina and our local Catalina Dealer AND all the people here on this forum recommended AGAINST using 4X6 beams for the support bunkers.
Contact with the lift manufacturer, The Boat Lift Company, brought a new recommendation. While they still said 4X6's was the best, they said a 2X6 with a 2 1/2" angle iron under it would be ok.
Today the beams were replaced with that, and the installer, Johnny, put shims in to put a little bend in the boards. Because the bunkers were barely in the water with the lift on the bottom, Johnny also raised the board that holds the keel. We measured the trailer and found we had plenty of room. Johnny has been a joy to work with, extremely co-operative and does nice work.
So, we went to get the boat, from a nearby marina, and sailed it back to the house. Nice day, 60's with 10-15 mph winds, that is a sweet boat! Fun to sail, it's a restored 82, you can see the pics.
Arriving at the house, we find the motor is blowing the breaker. Johnny calls electrician, leaves for another motor, and the owner and I go sailing while her husband stayed to supervise and try to get teh electrician out.
About an hour later we return to find electrician not to be found, and Johnny's back with the other motor. We practice tying the rudder down and steering with the sail, then read the manual to find out how to reset the depth alarm.
Back at the house, "the lift is ready!". We slide into the slip very gracefully, about halfway. We get off the boat and pull it another foot. We lower the lift to the bottom of the lake and pull it in.
Hmmm, the bow pulpit sticks out quite a bit past the bow, have you noticed that? That boathouse door is not gonna open. Oh, and that forestay is pretty close to the roof, but it'll work, let's raise her up!
Well, the new motor isn't as big as the old one. It tries but stalls out with the boat supported but still in the water as shown. We decided to add pulleys to get a 2:1 reduction.

More important, with the boat all the way in the slip, it was not balanced on the lift. It needed to go farther foward, and couldn't.

So, we're moving the lift itself 2 feet back, which hopefully will give us enough more depth to get the boat on without dragging it across the pads, and also get the boat balanced on the lift.

We checked the Catalina 25 manual, which gives the center of gravity several inches behind the first stanchion abaft of the mast, so we are shooting for that to be in the middle of the lift. This also puts the keel in the middle of the support board.

So it's looking pretty good now. I'm taking pictures of this whole thing, and putting it on my website, Sailing Texas. When we actually get the boat on the lift and raised out of the water, I'll add more showing the keel support board and mechanism for adjusting it.

If you want to take a look at this lift, which is actually a very simple and strong design, here is the url,
http://www.sailingtexas.com/cloreelift.html

Because of this community of sailors, I've learned a lot about the Catalina 25, and since I use one for the sailing classes I have really come to appreciate what a good boat it is. My Catalina/Capri for sale section of the website is very popular, in fact the most popular of all the boats!

I'll let you know when I get the "finished boat lift" pictures.
David

David Luckenbach

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.