Lifting engine on main halyard

[jalfrezi]

Crane hire 700 euros in my expensive boatyard. Standing rigging rod, carbon mast,
Engine 150 kg.
surely main halyard, dyneema, 10 mm, big boat harken foot block, will do it and save me some money?
Any disasters out there?
Jalfrezi
.

[model 10]

I did it once with no experience and it worked just fine. It was a good boat for the job though, (Lafitte 44.) We hoisted the engine right onto the dock with the main . I am about to do it again and the project looks pretty much the same with this boat except the boat is on the hard.

[Sailorman Ed]

I slid in an aluminum extension inside my boom, brought the halyard to the end of the extension and then lifted the engine and saildrive as an assembly out of my 7m wide cat. The halyard jumped the sheave (pulley) at the top of the mast and got jammed. This may have been because the PO installed a larger halyard diameter but be aware of this issue.
Ed

[capt jgw]

I lifted an engine twice that heavy a couple of years ago. Did it by myself and had no problems. I hung the engine from the halyard and used a block and tackle (the boom vang) from the halyard to the end of the boom to control the fore and aft position. The boom did not take any weight, only the compression from the vang. That was probably less than 25kg. I lifted the engine out of the boat, swing out to the side and lowered into a truck waiting along side.
One thing to be careful of: The center of gravity of anything hanging on a halyard is at the top of the mast. That's a lot of leverage, so don't swing any further to the side than you absolutely have to. I had my truck backed in under the boats stern, so I only had to barely clear the side of the boat.

[captstu]

I did both engines on my 25' beam cat - no problems. Set it right on the work card both times.

[n8kraft]

My boat's previous owner hired guys to get the engine out. They used a chainfall attached to the main boom to swing the engine out.

http://aboardastraea.com/wp-content/...a-Blogspot.pdf

[peterbeale]

I used both the topping lift and main halyard to support the end of the boom and a chain hoist from the end of the boom to lift the engine, a Volvo MD 17 C

[capt jgw]

I would avoid hanging out from the boom, even worth the halyards supporting it. Boom is not made for sideways loads like that. Connect direct to the halyard and use the boom to position it. The halyard should take all the weight directly.

[w1651]

I pulled my engine last year and used my halyard. I tied it so the boom only acted as a guide and not a support. To move the engine off to the side and down. I just made a loop and held it in place above the caompanionway and put a come along in between the loop at the boom and down to the engine. Just had to make sure what end went where for clearance out the companion way. Took out the engine and transmission together. Check your stays, forestay and your tangs first though.

[fryewe]

Should be safe to lift a 300 or so pound engine with your boom. Been done countless times safely and without damage to the boat.

Key is to support the boom at your lift point...either with a halyard or the boom topping lift, if you have one. Be sure you have enough lift to get the engine all the way up through the hatch. Swing the boom to allow putting the engine on a pallet on the pier, or into the cockpit to lower it onto a couple of thicknesses of plywood to get a new purchase to lift to the pier.

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by jalfrezi

Crane hire 700 euros in my expensive boatyard. Standing rigging rod, carbon mast,
Engine 150 kg.
surely main halyard, dyneema, 10 mm, big boat harken foot block, will do it and save me some money?
Any disasters out there?
Jalfrezi
.

I supported my boom with the main halyard attached to the boom end. Then I used the main sheet and one additional 4 part purchase. I reversed the mainsheet so the clam cleat was at the boom end. I strapped the 4 part purchase around the boom over my 2GM 20 engine through the main hatch. Likewise with the cleat at the boom end. That way you are pulling down from the cleat which is easier than pulling up. Then once the engine was free I easily lifted it towards the main hatch with the 4 part purchase. I attached the reversed mainsheet to the same point on the motor. Then lifting with the purchase and pulling with the main sheet; then loosening the purchase a little and then pulling with the mainsheet it was easy to walk the engine towards the cockpit until it was hanging more or less under the boom end on the mainsheet. So it was now hanging supported by the mainsheet to the boom; the boom end supported by the halyard. Then I removed the 4 part purchase so it wouldn't catch on the cabin when I swung the motor. I had already attached my jib sheets (removed from the jib) to the end of the boom then down to a block on each side deck towards the stern. I used them to control the swing of the boom otherwise there would be 120 kg swinging out of control. Then standing on the marina finger and using the jib sheets I swung the boom and motor over and lowered it down into a marina trolley. I did all that easily by myself.


A few points: I had released the lifelines so as not to catch on the motor. When you swing the motor out the yacht (floating) lists a little so you need to allow a little height for that. It is much easier to have the mainsheet and the purchase cleats up at the boom end as then you pull down with your body weight.


I did it with the boat in its marina berth. If you were on the hard you would need to drop it alternately using both purchases and adding a length of rope to one at a time for the extra height. I think it is easier floating.


I then wheeled the engine in the trolley almost 1 km to the workshop. That was the hardest part. A week later after the motor was reconditioned I reversed the process and reinstalled the motor. A friend came to help then but it was easy by myself and he took photographs. It took almost as long to write this as to do the job.


I believe there is more control doing it this way rather than just on the end of the halyard. I did not need to adjust the halyard / boom height during the operation.

[ausnp84]

As we were hauled out, we used a crane the first time we dropped in our engines then two planks and a chain tackle to do the final positioning - there's a couple of pics here (Engines, painting and a re-launch.... | SV Calypso).

Now we're afloat, I'd have no probs lifting either of our engines on the boom and halyard. A chain block & tackle makes life a lot easier and if you've got a spare halyard, use that as a safety line *just in case*.

n

[jalfrezi]

Thanks everybody. Final solution was engine on pallet lifted to hatch height on forklift. Then very simple lower on main halliard. A strop thru the mast base block for protection. Dead easy.



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[blewett_john]

I supported my boom with the main halyard and then used two come-alongs to remove the engine. Pictures are at

https://buildingmytrimaran.shutterfly.com/pictures

The boatyard lifted the engine out of the cockpit with a crane for $50

[zeehag]

i have block n tackle lifting line i used twice to remove my 108 from its deep home. chocked my wooden boom n lifted it right out. only took two strong men, one talking n resting n me.
yes if needed i would do it again
ps. you do remember i am an old girl, yes??!,!

oh yeah..i was not connected to dock or land when we yanked ka lunk to rebuild.