Travel lift versus dry dock for boat

[jsc7]

The most usual method for hauling out boats under 80 feet these days seems to be the travel lift.

A more old fashioned technology is the dry dock. There is also the "ship lift" which is a dry dock with a platform at the bottom that lifts up.

Are there any advantages to using dry docks anymore for mid-sized boats and small yachts (30 to 75 feet)?

One potential advantage I can see is that with a ship lift or dry dock, blocks can placed the whole length of the vessel, making a more even support. With a sling, pressure will be concentrated and more localized, potentially stressing the hull. I have heard that sometimes when boats are lifted out on a sling there are load "popping" noises, which is obviously fiberglass breaking inside the boat. Avoiding this may be easier with a dry dock.

[RaymondR]

Probably cost you more to use a dry dock and there are often access problems. There's a small one in the harbour here and I have never seen a boat on it. The travel lift yard is usually pretty busy though. As you say, better for less robust boats which need a lot of support points to remain undamaged.

[ranger58sb]

Haven't ever seen a dry dock around here...

Although maybe there are some (is one), maybe likely with the Navy yards in places like Norfolk...

Even the few marine railways I've seen don't seem to have much activity.

Mostly common around here is either a travel lift, or a forklift for shorter boats in and out of high/dry storage...

-Chris

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by jsc7

I have heard that sometimes when boats are lifted out on a sling there are load "popping" noises, which is obviously fiberglass breaking inside the boat. Avoiding this may be easier with a dry dock.

The popping noise is the straps taking the load and slipping a bit into position. It’s not fiberglass breaking. If that ever happens it means you bought the wrong boat. Even old wooden boats are fine with slings provided the travelift operator knows how to handle them (usually adding more slings).

Stands keep the boat from falling over, they don’t support much if any of the boats weight. If the keel is blocked properly additional stands serve no purpose.

Dry docking or using a ship lift is not economical compared to a travelift.

[barnakiel]

Dry dock seems to be the preferred method with my friends who own long, wooden, flimsy boats. It is as you said, many supports under the long boat and the load is distributed well.


Mind real big travelifts will have no issues doing the same - a big one will have up to 12 PAIRS of slings. Then they will place supports in between, making up to 13 resting points.


Ultimately, it may be up to 1) whatever is available in your area and 2) the skill of the operators.


You do not want your precious to be handled by people who to not know what they are doing, e.g. placing supports in the soft areas of the hull. This is often the case in new Mediterranean marinas manned by local farmers.


Dry docks seems to be the more expensive alternative where both options are present. Because you occupy the dock for a time, while a travellift lifted boat is moved to the local parking lot and the lift can get used again same day, for another service.


Cheers,
b.

[TrentePieds]

jsc7:

You can be absolutely sure that for the boat you say you have (Boston Whaler, Conquest 315, 31ft), a mere baby in terms of hauling, the TravelLift is by far the best, the quickest, the cheapest and the safest means of doing it.

I think also that it is a fair bet, since you are in the Boston area, that the people in the marinas, who perform this operation many times a day, are so well versed in the procedure and the requisite safety measures, that your own contribution to the job, should you be present, should be one of making no comment on their work, and doing precisely as they ask you to do.

Certainly that works well for my little 30-footer that has to have a displacement about three times that of the Conquest 315.

TP

[bcboomer]

Just be sure they put the slings in the right spot.
We were parked beside a travel lift for a couple of months and I'd estimate that 20% of the time they had a sling on the prop shaft.
The operators would quilckly lower and reposition but I suspect the damage was already done.
For that reason I chose a marina with a "Sea-Lift", 2 long articulating arms with air bag support. No danger of shaft or prop damage.

[nortonscove]

Most boats that are mass produced have markings showing where to place the straps. In my over two decades of lifting boats I have only heard the straps stretching make any noises. Sometimes they will slip on certain boat designs and this can be overcome with extra lines creating a web which helps keep the straps in place.

[TrentePieds]

An easy way to ensure that operators will not put a sling on the shaft(s) is to provide a mark on the rail at the location where the sling is to be placed. In TP, it is vey simple - the location of the main bulkhead is where the after sling goes. The location for the forward sling is marked on the toe rail. To be forehanded and preclude problems through anticipation of other peoples folly is every skipper's responsibility.

TP

[jmschmidt]

A marine railway is the way to go if you can find one. Ours closed about thirty years ago.

With a marine railway where each boat stays on its own car is great since the entire boat (topsides, waterline, keel and bottom) can be reached for refinishing and paint work. The boat can be lashed to the support arms on one side of the car and released on the other side resulting in a clear area from bow to stern right down to the keel. I usually ended up with a six inch unpainted patch on the bottom of the keel and I even had a way to paint that before the boat went back in the water. No dangerous jack- stands to negotiate, no poorly painted jack-stand patches left over.

[Ferrari]

Dry docks aren’t popular because they are too inefficient. One vessel would use the dry dock and stay in it until the work was finished.
A travel lift will lift, park, refloat a dozen vessels a day which allows the entire yard to be used for maintenance, instead of just one vessel.
F

[TrentePieds]

@ #10:

Very true, but as you say: "...closed about thirty years ago." For very good economic reasons both as regards the cost of real estate and the ease of operations. The few that remain will close by and by, and where continued operations is possible, it will be by TravelLift.

In days of yore the tide grid was a jolly fine way of doing your bottom. A combination of the price of waterfront property and the interventions of the EPA and its copycat equivalents around the world has made that practice untenable.

Occasionally one finds a hydraulic trailer, as we did this year, but that is also a makeshift solution used only where use of a TravelLift is not viable either because an accessible launching ramp already exists and the trailer/tractor combo is cheaper than the TravelLift, or because the ramp/trailer/ tractor combo is an economically more efficacious MO than is acquiring a TravelLIft and building its required track installation with all that that means in terms of marine engineering such as pile driving.

A trailer requires even more careful placement of the boat than does a TravelLift, so IMO all of us should simply take the few minutes required to determine where the internal structure of the boat is located, and then mark the exterior with the proper locations for the slings.

TP

[TrentePieds]

@ #11:

Yes, precisely! Dry docks was the best that could be contrived at the dawn of the BIG ships age, and they were often built for a single ship of a particular class of ships. Had anything "better" (cheaper, handier) been available, it would have been used. SMALL ships, let alone boats, were NEVER serviced in dry docks for quite obvious reasons.

TP

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

Just be sure they put the slings in the right spot.

We were parked beside a travel lift for a couple of months and I'd estimate that 20% of the time they had a sling on the prop shaft.

The operators would quilckly lower and reposition but I suspect the damage was already done.

For that reason I chose a marina with a "Sea-Lift", 2 long articulating arms with air bag support. No danger of shaft or prop damage.

Smart operators, if the don’t know where the shaft is, will find the back of the keel by raising the slings a bit then slide them forward. When the aft sling hesitates it’s caught the aft end of the keel. They’ll back it up a foot and lift.

My slings go even with the traveler and the forward dorade. I should but stickers on in case I’m not around when the boat is hauled but keep forgetting :/

[Ferrari]

Originally Posted by Suijin

Smart operators, if the don’t know where the shaft is, will find the back of the keel by raising the slings a bit then slide them forward. When the aft sling hesitates it’s caught the aft end of the keel. They’ll back it up a foot and lift.

My slings go even with the traveler and the forward dorade. I should but stickers on in case I’m not around when the boat is hauled but keep forgetting :/

Some Smart Operators will send a diver down the set the straps correctly and charge a small fee for their trouble. Italy, Turkey.

If you have an exhaust water lift system is esential to know where the water exhausts relative to the lifting strap locations.
If the straps cover the exhaust exit they will prevent the water from draining. This means the water will run back into the engine.
If you’re not sure where the exhaust exits are, make sure the engine is shut off well before the straps are located and all the water drained.