Boat Stands

[Brian H]

Hello,

The local boatyard hauled my boat [ CD22D] and has it on stands for winter storage, but I noticed that it's not positioned level on the stands and is "heeling" about 3 to 5 degrees [ I'm guessing] to port.

Will this cause the motor mounts to settle or engine parts to become misaligned if the boat is left in this position for 7 months, or is my concern unwarranted.

Thanks,
Brian

[The Patriot]

Hello,

The local boatyard hauled my boat [ CD22D] and ... I noticed that it's not positioned level on the stands and is "heeling" about 3 to 5 degrees [ I'm guessing] to port.

Will this cause the motor mounts to settle or engine parts to become misaligned if the boat is left in this position for 7 months, or is my concern unwarranted.

Thanks,
Brian

You can, in general, fix this problem yourself. The trick is to adjust the stands slowly, tending to one side at a time. E.g., if the boat lists to port (stbd side high), take a full turn off the stbd side jacks, add a full turn to port, and continue until the boat is level athwartships. One thing to avoid is making the jacks too tight. Snug is fine, and overdoing it can damage the hull or dislodge bulkheads.

BTW, there is little chance of damage to the engine system if you do nothing.

[BillNH]

Hi Brian,

If your boat is heeling 3-5 degrees it is definitely cause for concern. Check the boat with a small torpedo level across the bridgedeck in the cockpit to confirm, and if it's far off you should bring it to the attention of your boatyard and ask them to correct it. Your concern is not so much the engine mounts as that your boat is poorly supported in general. The boat should be level side to side with all its weight on the blocking under the keel. The stands are only to keep the boat vertical, not to support its weight (as they would be called on to do if the boat is leaning to the side). With winter winds just around the corner, I would get this squared away asap.

If your boatyard isn't too uptight you can do this yourself as described above, but many boatyards won't allow people to adjust the stands once they're set (liability reasons...) and would prefer to do it for you.

Bill

[mahalocd36]

I agree with Bill - the stands should not be supporting much weight and if it's visibly tilted, they are. Ask the yard to fix it or if you can. It's not hard to fix.

[Tod M]

...read Dave Gibson's story regarding his Hallberg-Rassy Mistral:

http://www.cs-bb.com/forums/csbbarchive ... rance,yard