The Morgan 22
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and E-Mail List
 

The Morgan
Owner's Group
and E-Mail List
 

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   Since my last entry, I've removed the toerails, the hand rails and hatch slides, and the portlites.  The fiberglass/wood sandwich in the starboard cabin side has separated, although I'm not sure if you can actually see it in this picture.

  The process of getting the boat off the trailer was interesting, and it has taken me a week or more just to get the boat jacked up and blocked and the cradle built around it.  I was able to salvage some old 8x8 and 10x10 blocks (up to 4 ft in length) from some construction/deconstruction sites.  The 8x8s had been bolted to the face of a seawall to hold it in place, and the 10x10s were 'caps' sawed off the ends of posts upon which a house was being built.  They were only scraps, but for me they were just what the doctor ordered, and make fine keel blocks.

   I first jacked up and blocked the boat while it was still on the trailer.  I built the cradle out of 4x4 and 2x4 lumber.  I essentially built it around the boat, fitting and leveling as I went.  I had gotten the boat fairly level on the keel blocks beforehand (there were times when the boat was balancing on her keel, a couple of inches above the side supports), so I just had to cut the vertical supports to fit. 

   In this photo, you can see the carpenter's level, and also the small car jack I used to jack up various parts of the boat.  I built the cradle so that the main supports were behind the trailer tires.  I also bolted everything together, so that it was easy to take things apart if necessary.  For instance, as I eased the trailer forward, jacking up the boat and repositioning the blocks as I went, I removed the two bow supports from the cradle.  After that, I only had to mess with the blocks.  Once the trailer was out, I re-bolted the bow supports, then repositioned the jack and adjusted the blocks so that the load was distributed properly.  Seems pretty solid.