Quote:
Originally Posted by John Doe
 they put a ferry in slings??!! That sounds much more interesting than what I saw. There are four car ferries that cross the James River close to my home and I can't imagine then riding in a Travellift (of course the largest one I have ever operated was 35T.
I made pretty good side money my first year out of college diving on props, replacing shaft zincs, ect...b/c if the shop was backed up the yard time would make it less expensive to hire a diver. |
Yep, that's what everybody said when they first did it. Never going to work on boats that large. It was the largest lift they ever built.
In reality, it works perfectly on the steel hull boats. The wooden 65 footers (now extinct) did have issues with the travellift due to stiffness problems. Their leak situation would generally worsen when the lift was used. Two points on the hull is not the best solution for a wood boat. Additionally, it was a PITA to maneuver some slave chine pieces under the boat to prevent the straps from crushing the chines.
You should see the 85' boats in the lift............but their weight is only 37 tons.........aluminum hulls.