Pics stolen from Cruising Sailor BB.
(http://img.photojerk.com/Sherpa/balls.jpg)
(http://img.photojerk.com/Sherpa/hanging.jpg)
LOL...that's one way to get under a bridge...better make sure your rigging in good shape before doing this.
I don't gte the rpoblem...this is astandard way of getting under a bridge. I have used this on my 26footer for getting under a road bridge.
I used a hastily converted plastic 50gallon drum and the topping lift through the end of the boom.
It worked so well the motor yacht club on the far side of the bridge (the place we were going, the people that said we could not get in there) asked if I would donate the device to them for future guests that needed to sail in. I understand it has been used a fair few times since.
Another time to use waterbags off the mast like that is if you need to do a masthead repair in a amrina and do not want to climb the mast in traditional manner (or lack the gorilla to winch you up in a bosuns chair). I know one of our Endeavour owners with a 24 that uses the waterbag to lean his boat over so he can walk/crawl up the mast (this gets easier to do as his weight goes further and further out on the mast.) I have seen him do this to retrieve halyards and change light bulbs.
Sasha
Neat trick ;D however I'd be looking for a permanent slip on the "other side".
I can kind of guess how he filled the bags (hope it wasnt the holding tank) and assume you just hoist them until lean starts then play out ??
Sure hope his water inlet to engine is on the starboard and fully submerged.
Friends of mine, Jay and Diana on Far Niente took those pictures (I think from Vero Beach FL). The guy has an 80' mast and came up with the rig when he thought he would have to run from a nasty storm and get above the bridges. Since then it is reported that he uses the gear to transit the ICW (his draft is over 7') and get under bridges.
He's got almost twice the air draft of my boat and four times the water draft. :)
Quote from: fullkeeldan on December 28, 2007, 08:42:23 AM
Neat trick ;D however I'd be looking for a permanent slip on the "other side".
I can kind of guess how he filled the bags (hope it wasnt the holding tank) and assume you just hoist them until lean starts then play out ??
Sure hope his water inlet to engine is on the starboard and fully submerged.
I was wondering the same about the inlet.
At that size, I owuld be surprised if he ran a raw water cooled engine. Most likely a heat exchanger of some sort. The radiator is likely right around the keel (and doubles as the earth plate for the HF) or the inlet for raw water (whihc can happily go without for twenty minutes at a time) is also very low and only just set off the centre-line.
Alex.
Ive heard of this before but this is the first time Ive seen it done. pretty basic and very doable.
FWIW,
At the BBQ Connie invited Rose and I to, we met the owners of the boat in the picture. There is also video of them heeling to boat on Youtube (I don't have the link as I don't go there). The bridge was on the Okechobee waterway, Rose and I passed under it earlier this week.