Storing in boat house, anyone used a cradle?

[ericinmich]

My '09 22Ve will be stored in a boat hose likely for the rest of it's life. It has a track down to the water with electric winch, hit the button and the cradle roles into the water. Since the '70s it has had boats from 17' to 25', all I/Os, all stored on a cradle with about 6" wide bunks made for the V of the boat (front and rear). Currently there is a 17' open bow in the boat house.

I'm debating what to do with the Tige' I got in the fall. The easiest would be to make new bunks to fit the boat. I'd probably start by calling Tige' and get their recommendation. With an inboard, it's much more critical to have the boat not to far forward.

Does anyone store their boat on a cradle? Meaning, 2 lifting points (front and rear)?

The other option is to replicate how the trailer supports the boat. I'd probably end up with just two sets of bunks running the lengthwise, not 3 which I think the trailer has.

Any help/guidance/thoughts would be appreciated!

[bwstx]

I am going through this now with a new RZ2. We are trying to ensure the rear lifting point is far enough back to adequately support the engine to avoid too much unsupported weight in the rear, but provide sufficient safety room so the prop does not hit the cross beam with at least 6 inches to spare. As for the bunks, ours are about 6" wide and we called the dealer who recommended following the trailer placement. Given the shape of the hull this seems to make the most sense as the hull design has several ridges (dealer had a more technical term) and the bunks now sit between them. The last thing we are trying to be careful of is the location of the paddle wheel. In our case, it is not too far off center so placing the bunks like the trailer (I believe it was 36") we have plenty of room. Hope this helps and if anyone has further suggestions I would also like to hear them. Thanks.

[ericinmich]

bw - Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like you will have the bunks running front to back on the boat, just like the trailer. I am interested in having two bunks (cradle) with them running perpendicular to what you are doing. More like what would happen with a boat on slings. It just gets tougher on inboards vs I/O. In the owners manual it says to contact Tige if thinking about using a cradle. From the lack of feedback I don't think anyone is doing what I'm thinking about so a call will be my next step.

To me, having the boat on a cradle could support it as good or better. The bunks are perpendicular to the stringers. On a trailer, the bunks are parallel to the stringers so they could be not directly under one...

[IDBoating]

The big issue I'd worry about is weight transfer. The stringers bear most of the weight and transfer that to the hull, which when in the water (or on my AirDock!) is nicely, evenly supported across its entire surface area. (The air pressure required to raise my ~4500 pound boat completely out of the water is less than 1 PSI. That's a very gentle load on a hull.)

As soon as you put the boat on a trailer, or a traditional lift, or slings, you are concentrating all of that weight to a much smaller surface area. The key then is making certain those load-bearing spots are under the stringers so that the weight is transferred straight down, rather than laterally through hull from the stringers to some other location. I would not want the hull to be under the constant, and significant, stress of laterally supporting the weight of the boat.