Disassemble and load a Tiki 26 onto a trailer on dry land?

[Randall S Anselmo]

If anyone has advice on conducting this operation without a crane, I would be much obliged to hear it.  The boat is currently resting on four stacks of 6x6" blocks in a boatyard, with the trailer close by.  There is also a set of cradles, presumably left over from the building process.  My best idea so far is to mount wheels on the cradles, place them just aft of the midpoints, lower the hulls down onto them using jacks, then disassemble the crossbeam lashings and separate them.  I then picture rolling each hull individually up to the back of the trailer, pivoting the bows up, then letting them gently down onto the trailer and levering the stern up, then using the winch and rollers on the trailer to move them forward into traveling position.  I welcome critiques!

[Russell and Janet Puryear]

I think you have the right idea. Have you seen the photo series on UNloading an 8M on the Wharram site?
There's more info, starting here: http://www.wharram.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=142&p=637&...

Is this the boat from Staten Island?

[Bob Bois]

Hi Randall,
How far do you have to go? We did something similar to what you describe when we sold my Tiki 30 (We're now building a Tiki 46 - god help us ). BUT - if you have enough manpower, your proposed solution will definitely work. The trick with the cradle with wheels is to find the 'sweet spot', where the hull will balance with a minimum of babysitting. We used my beefy nephews as counterweights fore and aft on the hulls to balance them on dollies. At any rate, one of the fun things about the Wharram spirit and KISS principle, is figuring out novel ways to move stuff around with a minimum of modern technology.
We did this with a 30: remove the cockpit tray, replace the beams (one at a time)and replace with 4X4's (lashed loosely enough to allow lateral movement but tight enough to keep the hulls upright), jack the boat off the 6x6's with 2 floor jacks with wheels, PUSH the two hulls together, lash them together, back the trailer up under the bows, send cargo straps under the hulls around the skegs, winch the two-hull unit forward up onto the trailer.
Hope my prose makes the image clear. Sorry, I don't think we took pics of this process.
Remember: it's always fun to devise a clever way to do this stuff, but with enough muscle, beer, food, and music, it's quite easy til you get to the really big boats....
Good luck!us

[clif high]

You can also make a crane. Using 2 by 12 lumber, that is 12 feet long, available from lumber centers. You buy 4 that size and 2 that are 10 feet long. Then a bunch of big bolts. What you do is to build a giant, 12 foot tall saw horse. This is your crane. You double the 10 footers together with the bolts holding the 12 foot legs on. These form the lintel for the lifting. Sling chain around them, and then block and tackle down to straps. I have a set built thus, and have very successfully lifted 6 and 7 thousand pound hulls. I use stiff rope with old style blocks to modern lifting straps. Then i use the pick up, backing up, as the motive force for the lift. The legs for the saw horse crane are splayed out to give stability,and they have 2x4 side bracing midway up. Plus i used rope to brace the crane to the ground using anchors buried in the dirt a few feet. The advantage is how secure the feeling of lifting up the hull cradled in straps, instead of balanced on jacks. And you can drive the trailer back under the hulls then lower down, assuming you can get enough lift height out of the 12 foot. Plus, you can then use the lifting rope to swing the hulls forward or aft under the crane. Some small distance, mind. The issue is that saw horse is not as stable as tripod. The lifting straps are cheap and will go 20 tons. The other issues such as the strength to length ratio of the lumber in your area can be answered by a pocket reference.

[Randall S Anselmo]

Many thanks Russell. I did look at the unloading sequence, as suggested by Scott Williams, which was helpful for understanding a typical waterborne launch and retrieval, but it left some questions for a land-based operation. Yes, this is the boat from Staten Island. I have only made an offer, so am unsure if all of this thinking will eventuate into action for me, but someone will ultimately be able to make use of it!

Russell Puryear said:

I think you have the right idea. Have you seen the photo series on UNloading an 8M on the Wharram site?
There's more info, starting here: http://www.wharram.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=142&p=637&...

Is this the boat from Staten Island?

[Randall S Anselmo]

Great advice, Bob. I hadn't thought of pulling both hulls together, but makes sense as it more closely mimics the waterborne retrieval sequence. Also seems like it would shorten/simplify the procedure.

Bob Bois said:

Hi Randall,
How far do you have to go? We did something similar to what you describe when we sold my Tiki 30 (We're now building a Tiki 46 - god help us ). BUT - if you have enough manpower, your proposed solution will definitely work. The trick with the cradle with wheels is to find the 'sweet spot', where the hull will balance with a minimum of babysitting. We used my beefy nephews as counterweights fore and aft on the hulls to balance them on dollies. At any rate, one of the fun things about the Wharram spirit and KISS principle, is figuring out novel ways to move stuff around with a minimum of modern technology.
We did this with a 30: remove the cockpit tray, replace the beams (one at a time)and replace with 4X4's (lashed loosely enough to allow lateral movement but tight enough to keep the hulls upright), jack the boat off the 6x6's with 2 floor jacks with wheels, PUSH the two hulls together, lash them together, back the trailer up under the bows, send cargo straps under the hulls around the skegs, winch the two-hull unit forward up onto the trailer.
Hope my prose makes the image clear. Sorry, I don't think we took pics of this process.
Remember: it's always fun to devise a clever way to do this stuff, but with enough muscle, beer, food, and music, it's quite easy til you get to the really big boats....
Good luck!us

[Randall S Anselmo]

That's awesome, Jacques! I was having some trouble picturing Clif's rig, but your photos really helped. Whatever I do, I'll do my best to document, photograph and post.

Jacques said:

The whole thing at http://lieb.fr/

[boatsmith]

I have seen pictures of the trailer and cradles for this boat . In my part of the world a crane to do this work would come in at their minimum, $300. To build a gantry and come up with appropriate rigging and go through the process it would be very easy to approach this price. Sure if you have the lumber and bolts, and some chain falls, and straps you can save a few bucks if you don't value your time and have the required skills. I have cut down trees and built gin poles and used water pipe A frames and once a high wire between two windows and block with the line hooked to my truck for leverage. I several times pulled my boat up alongside a bridge and lifted my 45' mast off with the help of several friends. The crane in those days at the yard would have been $80. It cost me easily 2/3 of that in liquor and herb. But I was younger and dumber and fortunately also lucky. I didn't drop anything, nothing got broken and nobody got hurt. Pulling these hulls up onto Betsy's trailer will be difficult. On the other hand if you have some beer and good reefer and lots of time and no money then it becomes an adventure. Just my thoughts

[Randall S Anselmo]

Thanks David. If I'm reading you correctly, I need the proper mixture of optimism, people power, incentive, ingenuity, practical physics, tight fiscal policy, and the spirit of adventure. I'm liking this Wharram family more all the time! Piecing all the helpful advice I've gotten thus far, my current plan is to emulate, as closely as possible, the procedure for disassembly on the water. I want to put the cradles on top of flat dollies with casters (of the furniture moving variety). I'll place these under the hulls around or just aft of the midpoints, then let each one down individually using two floor jacks (of the automotive variety). Then I'll loosen the lashings on one crossbeam and replace it with a loosely-lashed 2x4 and repeat with the other crossbeams (removing the cockpit when appropriate). My lightly inebriated grunts and I will then push/pull the hulls together, tighten the 2x4 lashings and move the trailer as far back under them as possible, (maybe jacking up the tongue a bit?), then chock the wheels. I'll attach the trailer winch cable to the forestay bridle, then ever so slowly winch the hulls forward until there's a little weight on the tongue. Attach the trailer to the truck, and apply proper strapping. Voila! I'll also keep my $300 rainy day money in my pocket for the crane man...just in case.

If the gods smile, I may see you in FL this winter.

Cheers,
Randy

boatsmith said:

I have seen pictures of the trailer and cradles for this boat . In my part of the world a crane to do this work would come in at their minimum, $300. To build a gantry and come up with appropriate rigging and go through the process it would be very easy to approach this price. Sure if you have the lumber and bolts, and some chain falls, and straps you can save a few bucks if you don't value your time and have the required skills. I have cut down trees and built gin poles and used water pipe A frames and once a high wire between two windows and block with the line hooked to my truck for leverage. I several times pulled my boat up alongside a bridge and lifted my 45' mast off with the help of several friends. The crane in those days at the yard would have been $80. It cost me easily 2/3 of that in liquor and herb. But I was younger and dumber and fortunately also lucky. I didn't drop anything, nothing got broken and nobody got hurt. Pulling these hulls up onto Betsy's trailer will be difficult. On the other hand if you have some beer and good reefer and lots of time and no money then it becomes an adventure. Just my thoughts

[Bob Bois]

Please make sure the dolly/cradle assembly is lashed tightly to the hull - we used regular ratchet-tightened cargo straps with a Tiki 30.
Piece of cake, Randall!
I'll bet you $300 it works...
Good luck

Randall Anselmo said:

Thanks David. If I'm reading you correctly, I need the proper mixture of optimism, people power, incentive, ingenuity, practical physics, tight fiscal policy, and the spirit of adventure. I'm liking this Wharram family more all the time! Piecing all the helpful advice I've gotten thus far, my current plan is to emulate, as closely as possible, the procedure for disassembly on the water. I want to put the cradles on top of flat dollies with casters (of the furniture moving variety). I'll place these under the hulls around or just aft of the midpoints, then let each one down individually using two floor jacks (of the automotive variety). Then I'll loosen the lashings on one crossbeam and replace it with a loosely-lashed 2x4 and repeat with the other crossbeams (removing the cockpit when appropriate). My lightly inebriated grunts and I will then push/pull the hulls together, tighten the 2x4 lashings and move the trailer as far back under them as possible, (maybe jacking up the tongue a bit?), then chock the wheels. I'll attach the trailer winch cable to the forestay bridle, then ever so slowly winch the hulls forward until there's a little weight on the tongue. Attach the trailer to the truck, and apply proper strapping. Voila! I'll also keep my $300 rainy day money in my pocket for the crane man...just in case.

If the gods smile, I may see you in FL this winter.

Cheers,
Randy

boatsmith said:

I have seen pictures of the trailer and cradles for this boat . In my part of the world a crane to do this work would come in at their minimum, $300. To build a gantry and come up with appropriate rigging and go through the process it would be very easy to approach this price. Sure if you have the lumber and bolts, and some chain falls, and straps you can save a few bucks if you don't value your time and have the required skills. I have cut down trees and built gin poles and used water pipe A frames and once a high wire between two windows and block with the line hooked to my truck for leverage. I several times pulled my boat up alongside a bridge and lifted my 45' mast off with the help of several friends. The crane in those days at the yard would have been $80. It cost me easily 2/3 of that in liquor and herb. But I was younger and dumber and fortunately also lucky. I didn't drop anything, nothing got broken and nobody got hurt. Pulling these hulls up onto Betsy's trailer will be difficult. On the other hand if you have some beer and good reefer and lots of time and no money then it becomes an adventure. Just my thoughts

[Randall S Anselmo]

The Espresso has landed! Thanks everyone for your advice on the disassembly and loading operation. We didn't stick strictly to the plan, but the three of us wound up figuring it out as we went. Briefly, we took down the mast and disassembled as much as we could with the crossbeams in place. We then jacked up the starboard hull using a high-lift jack on the aft shroud lashing block. We backed the trailer under it, and let it down. Then we jacked up the port hull and placed a cradle under the aft section to stabilize it laterally. We then removed the crossbeams and cockpit and re-positioned the trailer in front of the free-standing port hull. Our attempt to use the high-lift jack on the port hull in the same way as the starboard caused the hull to want to lean inward, so we did our best to brace it by hand and with a jackstand as we inched the trailer back under the hull in little bits until it was stabilized in the trailer bunk. Once there, we simple lifted and muscled the port hull forward in short bursts. The whole operation took us about five hours with breaks for lunch and chin scratching.

[Bob Bois]

Good for you, Randall.
Personally, I enjoy the chin scratching projects (oh..and lunch too).

[Bob Bois]

Hey David,
On one occasion, with a New England winter fast approaching and finding ourselves bereft of legal tender we dropped the mast on our Tiki 30 by pullling the boat (by hand - we had lots of friends, just no money) on its dollies over to a telephone pole near the public launch, climbing the telephone pole and hanging a pulley off one of the spikes in the pole, attaching a line to the top of the mast and 'gently' lowering it. It worked, it was fun, we had much of the 'material inspiration' you note in your post, but not recommended as a regular practice. One thing this taught us, however, is that we do NOT want to handle wooden masts again. That Tiki 30 mast took 3 big guys to move. For our Tiki 46, the masts will be aluminum and we'll keep 'crane money' in reserve.

boatsmith said:

I have seen pictures of the trailer and cradles for this boat . In my part of the world a crane to do this work would come in at their minimum, $300. To build a gantry and come up with appropriate rigging and go through the process it would be very easy to approach this price. Sure if you have the lumber and bolts, and some chain falls, and straps you can save a few bucks if you don't value your time and have the required skills. I have cut down trees and built gin poles and used water pipe A frames and once a high wire between two windows and block with the line hooked to my truck for leverage. I several times pulled my boat up alongside a bridge and lifted my 45' mast off with the help of several friends. The crane in those days at the yard would have been $80. It cost me easily 2/3 of that in liquor and herb. But I was younger and dumber and fortunately also lucky. I didn't drop anything, nothing got broken and nobody got hurt. Pulling these hulls up onto Betsy's trailer will be difficult. On the other hand if you have some beer and good reefer and lots of time and no money then it becomes an adventure. Just my thoughts