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Boat building cradles


Guest Greg Luckett

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Guest Greg Luckett

I was looking at pictures of the Princess Sharpie 22 being built and noticed a wheeled cradle she was sitting on. I would like to have something like that for building the 26 footer, and for the Spindrift I am currently building. It looks like it would make moving and adjusting the postion of the boat a lot easier. Any plans or ideas would be appreciated.

Thankyou.

luckettg@qtm.net

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Guest Graham Byrnes

A movable cradle is handy if space is tight. We don't usually build one for Spindrifts because they're so light. Just sit the boat on saw horses level, and at the stern end screw some lumber to the horse to support the chine on either side. Be careful not to distort the bottom as it is not very stiff at first and you could build a distortion in. The only other thing to monitor is twist: If you stand 6' behind the stern lining up the centerline of the transom with the cl of the forward bulkhead lowering your eye untill both top outboard edges of the forward bulkhead kiss the top of the transom. If you still have both CL's in line and the forward buklhead hits the top of transom evenly you have no twist. This is important to monitor for any boat and will be twistable untill the deck goes on, after that you are pretty well stuck with what you have.

As for the P 26, a cradle would be handy once the boat is turned over and I will work with you on that.

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Guest Brent Sparks

I used dual sets of 6" lawnmover wheels turning on a 1/2" section of all thread to support my cradle. The cradle consists of 12' parrallel two by fours supporting forward and middle hull shaped cradles. For the CS 20 the cradles are positioned under the forward bulkhead and about 12" aft of the temporary center bulkhead. A set of wheels stradle on either side of each two by four aft of the center bulkhead. Under the forward cradle are two wheels about 18" apart riding on a common all thread axle. This pair of wheels is built to rotate in the vertical axis allowing the cradle mechanism to be steered by pulling on rope. This allows the whole boat and cradle rig to be positioned in a tight space.

I support the forward end of the two by fours on cribbing once the cradle is positioned on the floor. This is more stable than keeping the cradle resting on the wheels.

The cradle worked fine once Ifigured out where to put the cradles to balance the boat for and aft. Dont be shy with the gussets that support the cradles. You dont want the boat to budge once it is in the right place.

bljcatsparks@earthlink.net

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