How many jack stands for a 43DC?

[sgharford]

The yard I used for the past two years has used 4 jack stands on my boat during winter haul out storage. The keel is supported along about 60% of bottom surface area by various size blocks of wood. The yard places two jack stands directly under the stern corners and the other two under the forward bulkhead (where the forward ‘sling’ tags are).

Are 4 jack stands enough for a 36,000 lb boat? This yard is pretty wonky and I don’t trust them. I found my boat laying on 1 (yes 1) jack stand last year when they were painting bottom and removed two forward stands. This actually happened twice in 1 week. The stands sit on dirt and one side settled. Leaving my boat tilted about 3 degrees to port supported by 1 stern jack stand. I know I should find another yard after this debacle, but they are 3 minutes from my house, let you do whatever to your boat, and are cheapest storage in 30 mile radius.

[Boatsb]

There is a graving plan for the boats and I saw one Monday when I did a sea trial on a 43DC I sold. I will not be close to it for a week or two but I bet Hatteras can find a copy.

[SeaEric]

Wow! Find another yard.

[sgharford]

I have the Graving Plan, Thanks Scott!. Honestly, never made the connection. Just so I have it right, I should have yard place stands where ever the side supports are shown (A, B, and C in attached), correct?

[SKYCHENEY]

The jacks stands don't support much of anything. The keel takes the load and the stands just keep it from tipping over. I would not be too concerned about how many stands there are except that there needs to be enough to insure that she still sits level even if one or two settle into the ground. Three per side sounds reasonable to me.

The most important thing is to make sure you have even loading on the blocks supporting the keel. I have seen keels that have been damaged by improper blocking. Either they were not making contact or they didn't support it in enough places.

[Boatsb]

Sky is right on the keel. That is 90% of the weight. 6 stands would be good but if the ground is soft 8 may be better.

[yachtsmanbill]

I love our yard... I pay for 6 stands and they supply FIVE per side plus several under the cockpit extension. The keel is wood blocked on hard rubber "PARKO" mats with the stands all on 3/4 plywood 2' X 2's. The yard guys go around and snug them up twice a winter also...
The Roamer has eight stands that I built plus the keel blocking. Its always good to be able to pull several for bottom paint drying. ws

[lumina]

Hi All,

My yard ensures I've got about 80% keel support and they use 6 stands, three on each side, forward, amidships and aft. Seems to do the trick through Massachusetts winters. We have a 48 yachtfish that weighs in at about 44000 lbs. It sits on a hard surface and they do check the stands twice throught the winter.

Gene

[Avenger]

My yard uses four stands on my 36 which seems to work okay. However, it's not there for more than a few weeks. If I was storing for the winter I would insist on six as the graving plan shows.

BTW, the boat actually does change shape when they do this. I had made some fitting adjustments to the rub rail, and the fit changed when the boat went back in the water. But since it's short term I don't worry about it.

[Walter P]

Although Sky is correct that the weight is on the keel, which should have lots of good large blocking. Whenever we haul out for the winter we take our boats to a yard that I believe does it right. My present boat, a 1982 48 MY has about 6 large stacks of blocks sitting under the keel resting on large pieces of 3/4" plywood. After insuring that all have about the same contact pressure, they lower the boat an inch or so to "compress" the load, then they place 6 jackstands on each side of the boat. The forward jackstands are connected with chains to prevent them from sliding out sideways. The yard checks all their winter stored boats routinely throughout the winter and I also check them at least once ea month. I must say that to my knowledge there have been no problems with twisted boats or bent keels or even broken tabbing at that yard ever.

They are probably over cautious, but in terms of peace of mind, I believe it's worth it.

One other thing is that when they lift my boats they always use a third sling.
The blocking on my former 43 DC's was equally well done except that they only used 5 jackstands on each side. Perhaps the fact that they get to charge me $25.00 rental for each jackstand for the season plays a part in their decision to use so many but I think that if I'm being safer with 6 rather than 4 or 5 on each side, the $ value is minimal.

Walt