I completely understand your point, but I saw them change out an 8ft brass wheel (what, a ton?) on a 200 ft. fishing boat in Alaska while in the water. Heat, hammers and all. Putting it on a railway wasn't an option.

Well, I suppose that you can do just about anything if you're setup for it. With the ferry company, they can haul the boat in 30 minutes. It's more trouble to get the damn cars out of the way than to lift the boat. Their weight is not excessive..........90,000 lb...........so, the travellift can do the job without a railway.

That would have been a sight to see...........the rig to change that 8' wheel underwater and lift it back out...........

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.

I bought a coupla titanium crow bars from Harbor Freight. Gave them to buddies as Christmas presents. IRRC they cost about $25.

probably not really titanium

How the heck did they lift the prop, with a crane?

Largest one I ever did underwater was on a Jefferson 56. PITA, but luckly since the boat was new it came right off. Thankfully it was low tide and a sandy bottom so you could kind of stand to get some leverage. We put a rope around the freaken thing and used the hydraulic dingy crane to lift it.

PITA, next time its going on the lift. Owner didn't want to spend the money.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Hell yes they used a crane. IIRC the prop was about $40K in 1990.


Ya'll don't have warm enough water, but down South you see a lot of people diving on props and shafts, cleaning off critters that throw things out of balance and cause stuffing boxes to get leaky. Not a big deal on a powerboat, but on a sailboat with a 12ft. shaft.....you know what I mean.

A lot of people dive and clean them, the water gets into the 70's in the summer so its plenty warm enough. We just don't get anywhere near the kind of growth you guys do.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

That is mainly what I did, but if something was bent or a blade missing, I would take one off occasionally.

I am going to varnish the feathering 2 blade brass prop on my sailboat this year to see if I can keep it from jarring my teeth out.

Just use antifouling paint. Pettit makes that gray stuff that works pretty good up here.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Bling

Well, my watch cost $30, so like Hattie, I doubt those crow bars were really titanium...

Too thick.

What's as strong as steel and light as aluminum if it ain't titanium? I've used one of the crow bars and it's definitely not aluminum.
Currently available
http://www.materials.com/Titanium_tools.HTML