Moving Alberg 30

[David VanDenburgh]

I have an Alberg 30 that's sitting on a steel cradle that is blocked on railroad ties. I need to slide the boat and cradle forward about 6' to get it under my new boat shed. (Yes, I could move the shed, but then I wouldn't be able to get my cars out of the garage very easily). I've tried sliding the whole thing on some railroad ties, but there's just too much friction for my '85 Land Cruiser to do anything but dig holes in the dirt driveway. I also tried using a come-along with the Land Cruiser as an anchor - in its newly dug holes. No luck. My next thought was to try using some 5" round poles under the cradle to roll the thing forward. I might give that a whirl tomorrow, but I thought it might help to get some feedback from this crew before I do any more.

Does anyone have some tried and true methods? The A30 is about 9,000lbs, and I'm going from an asphalt driveway to a gravel section. In the end, half of the cradle will be on the asphalt and the other half on gravel.

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

[bhartley]

Round fence posts... My husband moved a 35' x 24" x 10" steel I Beam by himself without sweating (it was delivered by crane) with four fence posts. The boat may take some sweat (and helper).

[David VanDenburgh]

Thanks for the replies and advice. I should have dug a bit deeper. I knew I'd seen something recently about moving a boat on a cradle, but I was looking in all the wrong places. Well, I just found it: http://www.plasticclassicforum.com/foru ... =10&t=5682. I should have looked harder. I'll try the round fence posts tomorrow. Hopefully, that'll work. I'll let you all know.

Thanks.

[David VanDenburgh]

Went to the local Family Farm and Home and picked up four 5"x8' red pine fence posts to use as rollers for the boat. It worked like a charm. Thanks to you guys and gals for the encouragement. Here are a few pics.


Here's how far it was sticking out of the shed.


Placing the posts with a 4-ton floor jack.


All of the posts placed and the boat resting on them.


My trusty old Land Cruiser acting as the anchor. Using a tow strap and a come-along to move the boat.


Almost there.


Tucked inside.

In all only 5' or so of moving forward. It would have been easy to keep on going, though. The transition from asphalt to gravel drive did require some plywood bases to aid the rolling, but otherwise it was a cinch.

Thanks again. Now to get the cover on.

[Quetzalsailor]

An Alberg today, Stonehenge tomorrow!

Nice work!

For the others: my Army training taught that a 'natural holdfast' was best for anchoring cables for moving Bailey Bridges, etc., but buried deadmen were pretty good, too. A natural holdfast is a large tree; buried deadmen are buried baulks of timber crosswise to the pull. David's truck might well have worked, w/o rollers, with a large block and tackle affixed to something good and the pull applied by the truck. I have a couple(!) huge old wooden-cheeked blocks and tackles with capacity of about 3/4" line which I've used with both hemp rope and with my old anchor rode to move large objects.

Here's a 140lb college kid lowering a several hundred pound hot tub, and not working very hard at that! (It was much harder to roll it around to the front yard!

Anybody want a hot tub?

[David VanDenburgh]

Hey...Way to go David! Give yourself a big pat on the back will ya! It looks like such a daunting task...your great pictures made it look easy!

Now for the real easy part...the refit...;-))

Glenn

Thanks! Yeah, the refit will be a piece of cake!