Editor’s Note: Haulout madness – I’m stuck

Haulout Madness


Oct 27, 2022

When the stories rolled in for this issue, it wasn’t really a surprise that two of our columnists, Ask Andrew and Marc Robic, had haulout and winterizing on their mind. Interesting to note that their advice, in both cases, was really good and well organized. But it was also evident that there is more than one way to do this and undoubtedly, your methodology may differ here and there.

Neither of them addressed my problem (no snickering please) – mud. With the help of a towboat and a lot of tugging, the crew at my self-help club got the boat to the barge and signalled the crane to drop the slings. That’s when the serious trouble started.

We had anticipated that the keel would be buried in the mud, but what we had not foreseen was that it was so shallow that our rudder would also drive a foot into the slime. As a result, the team couldn’t get the lifting strap under the rudder.

No problem, we’ll just put some people on the bow and the rudder will come out. Negative. OK, we will tie the bow to the floating dock and put more people there and that should do it. Ummm no. In the end, the boat had to be pulled backward to deeper water, the crane boomed out and we moved the whole works back closer to shore so we didn’t roll the crane. Was I nervous – not a bit.

The boat is safely ashore, yours may well be as well. We will be with you right through the off season with more boating info, columns and whatever else turns up. See you in a couple of weeks.

 

Photo caption – I couldn’t watch, but I managed to grab this shot on my phone.

John Morris
Online Editor
Canadian Yachting Magazine
CYonboard@kerrwil.com

Related Articles

Video Gallery

Bennington 22 MSB

By Andy Adams

If you’ve already had firsthand experience with a pontoon, you will easily understand the appeal of the Bennington 22 MSB. But if you haven’t, let’s start by reviewing a few of the reasons why pontoon boats have become top sellers in markets across North America.

Pontoon boats began in the early 1950s as basically four steel drums lashed to a frame. They were not unlike the log rafts of ancient cultures and not much more sophisticated at first.

Read More

Destinations

The Best of Two Worlds

By Mathew Channer

Interior British Columbia might not be as famous for recreational boating as Canada’s Great Lakes, yet it is no less a world-class boat­ing destination. The mountains offer their own flavour of marine adventure with their series of long, deep ribbon lakes, and there is perhaps no area that embodies this more uniquely than the iconic Okanagan basin in southern B.C. One could be forgiven for assuming this valley was purpose-built for nautical fun, with a few delightful perks thrown in to make the area entirely irresistible (wine-tasting, anyone?).

Read More

Lifestyle