Message 6 of 6
Posted by member Peter Cox on Monday 11 August 2025

Some chandleries and boat lifting marinas have a stock of 'LIFT HERE' stickers. If you have trusted and competent lift operatives, next time they lift you out, ask if they are satisfied that the strops are in the optimum positions for your boat. If so, place the stickers on the horizontal part of the gunwale where subsequent lifters can see them and place the strops accordingly.

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Message 4 of 6
Posted by member colin on Monday 4 August 2025

No problem Keith, In my experience, these people are pretty savvy at weighing up the best lifting points on different boats with different power systems and weight distribution, as far as I see it most craft are different or have different characteristics, so 'rule of thumb' probably goes out of the window somewhat.

I would guess that Yachts are a little bit simpler as a lot of the boats weight is in the keel which is the ballast and they are central to the keel as well as being situated at the lowest point so fore and aft of the keel is probably a safe bet.
Our Hardy MS has two wopping cast iron bilge keels, so its a a safe bet, however some have a fitted inboard (usually Diesel) so they will be heavier aft, ours just has a (heavy) Honda 4 stroke mounted on a stern bracket (along with an auxilliary 2 stroke similarly mounted) which juts out a lot, so will influence weight distribution aft.

The guys in the marina have my confidence to place the lifting strops in the right place!

No harm in asking and if anyone knows better, please add to the discussion, we need your experience, thats what the forum is for!

Regards,

Col.

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Message 2 of 6
Posted by member colin on Friday 1 August 2025

Hi Keith, I thought you may get a response from someone with way more experience and knowlege than I in this (wouldn't be difficult!)
Seemingly you haven't so you got me!

With most 'smaller' craft (nice boat by the way) I would have thought the general rule would be 1/3rd and 2/3rds along the hull with wide strap strops/slings to ensure safety in/during liftting! Obviously, some consideration may be necessary depending on if the boat has a large OB fitted and / or a fixed internal engine and therefore how this would influence the boats stability in the lifting.

Internal bulkheads can add strength to the outer hull shell, so these could also be a factor.

From my experience, the best people to make these judgements are marine architects/engineers or the guy at the other end of the lifting crane who has done this day in and day out for many years and probably knows better where to attach the slings to prevent damage or disaster!

Best advice - always consult the experts and not some 'eejut' like me who probably doesn't really know!

Hope that helps!

Col.

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