Careening your boat

[Lee Peterson]

Careening your Day Sailer is a relatively easy one person operation that allows you to work on the boat's bottom, remove the centerboard, or work inside the centerboard trunk. I have a 1986 Precision made DS I with a deck stepped mast. I have seen no undue stress on the mast, the mast step or any other fittings while careening my boat, and think that it might work for most small boats.

Careening does create a hazardous situation since the boat is up on edge and could come crashing down without warning if something fails. If you choose to use this method, please be careful.

I have done this enough that I'm comfortably cautious when my boat is careened. This is the method that works for me:

First I remove my boat from the trailer by driving a pry bar into the ground about 10' behind the boat in a grassy area of the back yard. I run a rope around the pry bar and fasten it to the stern cleats. Remove all straps, and other ties holding the boat on the trailer. Then drive forward very slowly. The rope holds the stern stationary while the trailer slides out from under the boat. A tilt trailer helps ease the boat onto the ground.

Once the boat is resting on the ground, raise the mast and attach the forestay and the shrouds. You'll use a rope hoisted to the hounds (where the shrouds attach to the mast) to gain leverage from the mast to tip the boat on it's side. My rope is about 50' long. Tie a large loop around the mast above the spreaders using a bowline. The loop will slide up the mast increasing the lever arm length. Attach the main halyard shackle to the loop, hoist the loop up to the hounds , and cleat off the halyard. Be sure the loop is at the hounds since the shrouds support the load on the mast. Pull the pry bar out of the ground and move it perpendicular to the boat about 30' - 40' away. The pry bar will be the place where I tie off the rope when I have the boat careened on it's side. Pound it back into the ground - be sure it is very secure and that the top leans slightly away from the boat. This will help prevent the rope from slipping up the bar. A convenient fence post, tree or other solid object would also work as a ground anchor to tie off the rope. Just be sure that your rope, your knot and your ground anchor are secure - your health and your boat will depend on it.

Pull the rope perpendicular to the boat toward the ground anchor and the boat will start to roll up on it's side. When you get it raised into the position that you want, tie the rope off to the pry bar/ground anchor. Be sure to not pull the boat all the way over. It really doesn't take much strength to tip the boat on it's side due to the large amount of leverage gained by using the mast. The boat may tend to pivot a little as it starts to come up on it's side, and you could tie off the stern to something if it becomes a problem. When I finish working on one side of the hull, I lower the boat, spin it 180 degrees, then tip it up to expose the other side.

It might be prudent to rig a couple safety lines (if possible) to insure that the boat doesn't come crashing down. I always lower mine when I'm done working on it and keep kids, pets and everyone else away when it's careened.

This is an easy way to tip your boat on it's side to work on the hull, remove the centerboard, or clean exotic species out of your centerboard trunk before trailering to the next site. I've even seen a picture of a 17 -20' boat careened at the water's edge for hull work.

Just be careful and stay safe.

Lee

[boone]

I recently had to do this to my DS2 to replace the centerboard. I pretty much followed the method listed above. I thought it might be helpful to include some pictures. Click on any image to see a larger picture.


Note: placing the DS on its side is inherently unstable. Make sure to rig some safety lines and be careful!



Boat on trailer, tied to a metal rod in the ground...just before we pulled the boat off the trailer.



Boat on the ground after we removed it from the trailer. It was easy to turn the boat on the soft surface. We have rigged a line up the mast (at the spreaders) for careening.



The DS2 is now careened. This was done by hand, not with the truck! After we did this, we tied a line from one of the stern cleats to the trailer as a backup.



The dirty underside of my boat and the spiffy new centerboard installed.

Feel free to point out mistakes or ideas for improvement.

[Guest]

Thanks to both of you. I'll give this a try as it seems much easier than hoisting the boat aloft and positioning a cradel under it. That was not fun. I can only add that I discussed this with another friend of mine who has seen this done on large (MORC) class boats at waters edge at low tide. He says they add braces made in sort of a "T" shape then cross brace them. With one end in the sand this seems to be unstable but perhaps better than nothing. Maybe the bottom also has a "T" (inverted) to give a larger footprint.......? Anyway, on solid ground I'm sure we could brace our light-weights. Thanks again! I'll have a clean bottom for 2002!

MAKurtis (Emak41-at-excite.com)

[Guest]

I find that it's safer to get a few buddies and flip the boat over onto its top, with some blocks to keep the mast bracket from digging ito the ground. If your daysailer's mast is keel mounted, so much the better. With the boat completely upside down, you don't have to cover it for winter storage, and access for sanding and repainting the bottom is excellent. You can also service the center board in this position with a patient partner to assist you when it's time to reinstall the pivot bolt.

Frank Skewes (fskewes-at-ebmai.gdeb.com)

[Guest]

You may not need to cover the whole boat for the winter if you roll her completely upside down, but you should fasten some sort of cover over the open centerboard trunk. If you live where the temperture ever gets below freezing....water could collect in the cb trunk and cause cracking when it freezes, also all kinds of dirt, leaves, pine needles, bugs, mice, etc. may collect in there if it is not covered, and that would do a good job at possibly preventing smooth operation of the cb.

Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" (rjohnson24-at-juno.com)