Hobie Cat Forums

Ive been trying to figure a way to keep my cats mast up at my place at the lake. I don't have a beach so it's been difficult, tried to moor it in the water last summer but then read on here and found out first hand that ain't the way to go. I raided the scrap pile at work and welded this contraption together. The t's at the front are cemented into the rock, the saw horses at the back are made with small diameter conduit so as to not provided as much surface area for waves to hit. I put my 14 on it to test and works so far, it's been through a couple thunderstorms. It's still not exactly what I want, too hard to put up there by myself. Anyway, this is the first version of it, thought I'd share!

What about one of those plastic skids you see jet-skis on all the time? Seems you could make something similar to float just a few inches about the water to pull the boat onto and strap it down to that.

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2001 Nacra 20
84 H16 108123

The wave action is as bad or worse on the boat. The constant side to side puts lots of stress on the rigging and the mast rotating back and forth is bad too. I haven to have a way to keep the boat out of the water. Oh and CHEAP too!

A steel ramp off the end or side of your dock, assuming your dock does not float.

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2001 Nacra 20
84 H16 108123

It does haha

A rack like that is perfectly acceptable, although the rear supports are overly complicated - and with 8 legs, kind of defeats the whole "minimal diameter to minimize wave forces" thing.

An "H" made out of 1½" galvanized steel schedule 40 pipe, covered with PVC piping (friction reduction / scratch preventer) on the verticals (guides) and crossbar is simple and relatively cheap.

Of course, it depends on what you're anchoring the legs into. Around here, they have dock augers that screw right into the bottom (mud/sand). For rock, you'd probably want permanent sleeves concreted in.

In any event, you need vertical guides to keep the boat from sliding sideways off the rack.

I use the H-Type setup almost exactly as Matt described. Works well, although I plan to add front bunks or hull cradles to reduce the stress concentration and potential for damage [I like to work on the boat/rig it while its on the perch ]. Here is a not-very-good pic:



The PVC does leave a small amount of residue on the chine of the hull, but it rubs off easily.

Only thing I'd add is to be sure to have some substantial tie-downs. We had a storm over Memorial Day weekend with 70+mph winds. If not for the tie-downs, the boat would have been on our neighbor's seawall - vertical guides or not!

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Jeff R
'88 H18 "Jolly Mon"
Sail Michigan's Great Lakes in 2013
cramsailing.com

I made a 'lift' recently and am happy to share the design. It was relatively cheap (I already had some of the hardware) and best of all I can load it on and off myself. Really helps when the wife and daughter are busy! The pipe is 2" conduit and the rollers I bought at a marine store (19.99 each). I already had the supports (poles that go into water) from an old pier. The poles where are the tie downs go to are augured into the sand - don't want a blow over. Check it out - let me know if you have any questions.

Hmmm - need to figure out how to attach a picture.

Here is a pic of my lift:

The saw horses at the rear of the boat aren't anchored to the bottom, they can be moved around. I don't think the water ever gets that low, maybe in the winter but I doubt it

I like both of those! Might use for version 2. I was in the outer banks a few weeks ago for a race (Duck Cup) and liked the set up he had. I can probably build something similar over the winter when they lower the water a good bit for dock repairs.

Seems you could make something similar to float just a few inches about the water to pull the boat onto and strap it down to that.