Getting a mast on a boat WITHOUT a real crane

[Chotu]

I’ll be back at the boat pretty soon and I probably need to change marinas.

This will involve getting the mast on the deck, horizontally, so I have some questions.

There is no crane at the marina. However, I can touch my bows to the shore pretty easily and tie the boat off so one could hop off the bow (plummeting 8ft - ha ha) to the ground. Having a crane come by is ridiculously expensive.

At the same time, I’ve seen pairs of 300lbs guys in bucket trucks and on various extending lifts you can rent.

Does anyone have experience with non-crane booms/lifts and could you suggest the right equipment to hire or rent to place the mast on deck?

It weighs 500lbs with the extension I still need to add. . I see grabbing it at a balance point, Then moving that balance point to the middle of the boat in a fore and aft sense. The reach would be 30ft to do that so I don’t get the lifting equipment stuck in the water.

Alternatively, I could put one hull up against the shore and the reach would be about 5ft in total to put the center of mass of the mast on the same spot on the boat.

Ideas? Experience with equipment capable of a 500lbs lift and extension outward? Bucket truck? Other rentable lift?

[Sand crab]

There's smaller scale lifts called boom lifts and cherry pickers. Utilities use various forms of these all the time.

https://www.mornlift.com/boom-lift/

[Sand crab]

There's also telescoping forklifts.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

There's smaller scale lifts called boom lifts and cherry pickers. Utilities use various forms of these all the time.

https://www.mornlift.com/boom-lift/

These are exactly what I was picturing. I rented a scissor lift like these before to build the building I built the boat in.

Weight ratings/extension limits don’t seem to be listed. That was my major concern.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

There's also telescoping forklifts.

This and appropriate strapping is the favorite tool for moving stuff like masts at the marina I'm at (assuming it's not just on mast carts). If someone can drive one there, doing the side-load with one should be easy enough. Use the forklift to lift the center of the mast, then people on the ends to guide it into place on the supports and keep it from rotating.

[Sand crab]

This tree trimming biz has a boom truck.
https://fortmyers.craigslist.org/lee...396361534.html

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by Chotu

These are exactly what I was picturing. I rented a scissor lift like these before to build the building I built the boat in.

Weight ratings/extension limits don’t seem to be listed. That was my major concern.

If you click on the read more tab it will lists specs. The trailer lifts are 200 KGs the larger self propelled ones are 230 to 320 KGs. The weight lifting specs change the further you extend. That outfit is in China, I just posted it so you could see what is available.

Most areas have an equipment rental yard. Contractors like me use them all the time. They also deliver. I wouldn't tell them your planning on lifting gear if the equipment is a man lift.

[fourlyons]

I hired a tree trimming boom truck to roll my '40 coldmolded hull righr side up. The hull weighed about 2800# and he had to extend the boom since he had to roll while stationed just off the bow. This was in Jacksonville, Fl. It cost less than $300, in 2000.

[Sand crab]

This company rents lifts in Fort Myers.
https://www.allstareq.com/rental-equipment

[wsmurdoch]

Something like....

Option #1 https://towndock.net/news/mast-raisi...he-bridge?pg=1

Option #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lwbHYOFD-4

at 17:50.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by fourlyons

I hired a tree trimming boom truck to roll my '40 coldmolded hull righr side up. The hull weighed about 2800# and he had to extend the boom since he had to roll while stationed just off the bow. This was in Jacksonville, Fl. It cost less than $300, in 2000.

Yes! That’s exactly what prompted the idea.

I saw a tree trimming boom with a couple 300lbs looking guys in it. It wasn’t very hard to move the mast around with a couple people when I bought it, so I figured it would be a good way to go.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by wsmurdoch

Something like....

Option #1 https://towndock.net/news/mast-raisi...he-bridge?pg=1

Option #2

at 17:50.

Ok, so this one is out.
Not what I explained I am trying to do in the first post. Maybe for later when stepping the mast, yes.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

This and appropriate strapping is the favorite tool for moving stuff like masts at the marina I'm at (assuming it's not just on mast carts). If someone can drive one there, doing the side-load with one should be easy enough. Use the forklift to lift the center of the mast, then people on the ends to guide it into place on the supports and keep it from rotating.

This could work but it is grass up to a river bank so it would have to me an outdoor type forklift in this case.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Chotu

This could work but it is grass up to a river bank so it would have to me an outdoor type forklift in this case.

Most of the boom type lifts I've seen could handle grass without issue. The one they use at our marina looks like this (and basically drives around like a car with 4 wheel steering). The boom both lifts and extends.

[GRIT]

If you can't find a telehandler to rent, then maybe the bow to shore, a dolly, and a couple guys.

1. Dolly under the balance point, and walk one end on the boat.
2. Move the dolly further inshore, and one guy lift/pull the mast further on the boat, while the other guy pushes and controls the dolly.
3. Dolly on the very end, and two guys on the boat end, and lift/pull the mast as far as you can get, unless you can put a dolly on the deck, then stick it under the balance point and lift/pull it to wherever you want it.

We moved our hull halves this way, just my dad and I. Get a dolly with large, inflatable tires, for work on grass, or put plywood under it.

If I can help, I'll be in Fl by mid November.

Cheers.
Paul.

PS. I kinda pictured the deck being nearly level with the shore, I have no idea if that's the case.

If not, side of hull to shore, dolly mast parallel to boat, dolly on balance point, pivot mast so one end over deck, then dolly on deck and pivot other end to deck. You'll be lifting half of mast weight, so two or three guys would be needed.