Safety on the Hoists
by Gene Porter,
iACBS President

      Most vintage boaters can quickly rattle off a long list of hazards that they try to prevent; fuel leaks, fires underway or at the gas dock, collisions with almost anything, burst cooling water hoses, shedding of planks, hard falls that may injure the mahogany —or the falling person, seasickness, etc, etc. These and many other hazards are the staple fare of safety articles in most boating publications. But our vintage boats also present some unique hazards that are worth a few minutes of contemplation. One of them is the threat of your boat dropping when on a hoist.
       Joe Williams is a very experienced New Hampshire boater who tells the following story. One day when recovering a boat at a marina using the shoreside lift, he followed the common procedure of hooking the hoists into the deck level “lifting rings” that are screwed onto the long brass rods that are threaded into fittings that are in turn fastened to the keel or an adjacent gusset. The boat was then lifted a foot or so clear of the water. Joe, being experienced in these matters, stopped the lift to wait a few minutes to make sure things were OK. After just a few seconds there was a terrific “bang” as one end of the boat dropped from the hoist back into the water, making a proverbial big splash.
      Glad the boat hadn’t been lifted that way on the hard with someone painting the bottom, Joe proceeded to investigate
what happened. His findings should alert all vintage boaters to a real threat to life and limb. What had happened was that, not the main rod, but the 50 year old bronze through bolts that held the keel fitting on this fresh water boat had given way, probably due to corrosion while buried in the oxygen-poor environment of the frequently wet keel. An event like this should serve as a shot across the bow for all of us to be extra careful when contemplating putting a heavy strain on old fittings.
The main lessons seem to be:

1. Don’t lift your old boat with the lifting rings unless you have thoroughly inspected all the essential fittings
       a. Replace the keel bolts with new metal
       b. Make sure there is adequate thread engagement both at the keel and at the (usually) chromed lifting ring

2. Don’t lift your old boat with the lifting rings unless you really have to.
       a. Instead use padded slings with an appropriate deck-level “spreader” to minimize hull compression

3. Don’t get under a lifted boat without jackstands or other supports in place,
even for a minute.

4. Don’t put a heavy forward strain on lifting ring with a trailer winch
      a. Such cyclic use of the lifting ring can lead to fatigue cracking and failure

Thanks Joe, for bringing this very real threat to our attention.

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