BoatU.S. - October/November 2010

All Blocked Up With Nowhere To Go All Blocked Up With Nowhere To Go All Blocked Up With Nowhere To Go

Here are some things to look for when choosing a winter storage site for your boat Here are some things to look for when choosing a winter storage site for your boat

Here are some things to look for when choosing a winter storage site for your boat

here are several reasons you might choose one facility over another when it’s time to store your boat ashore for the off-season: convenience (nearby is best), price (everybody likes to save money), and friends (who also store their boats there). Those are good reasons, to be sure, but they aren’t the only considerations when you choose a boatyard for winter storage.

Consider the 43-foot powerboat that was blocked ashore for the winter in North Carolina. It toppled over one blustery, wet night when one of the jackstands supporting the hull sank into the mud. The jackstand should have been resting on plywood, but the boatyard didn’t bother. Other boats have toppled over because jackstands were badly rusted or because there were too few to provide adequate support. These sorts of accidents aren’t unusual; one expert estimates that almost as many boat hulls are damaged by mishandling ashore as are damaged by accidents in the water. Some of the boats, such as the one in North Carolina, were damaged suddenly because they weren’t blocked correctly or were dropped from a Travelift. Many other boats are damaged slowly because they’re stored, year after year, without sufficient support beneath the hull. When a hull

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becomes even slightly distorted, it causes problems ranging from poor engine alignment to broken stringers, even impaired performance underway. While sudden accidents — dropped boats — are covered by insurance, losses that occur slowly as a result of “wear and tear” are not insured.

The most reliable support is provided by a custom-made cradle, which is designed specifically to support critical areas of a boat Jackstand pads should be

Jackstands don’t last forever, especially around saltwater. This badly rusted one failed at the weld and spilled the boat. Had the boat been supported by three jackstands per side, not two, the accident probably would not have occurred.