Catamaran hoists options

[ultrarunner]

Hi folks, I'm trying to find a solution that best fits my needs, and since I have a 100 foot long break-wall, with an average height to the water of 3 to 4 feet, a hoist seems the best method for keeping the cat on the water all season.

With that said, I see Midwest Sailing offers a cat hoist. Their setup would suit my setup since their winch wheel will face the break wall. Anyone using a cat hoist that can offer some comments and/or suppliers?

thanks,

Mark

[eye_guy_mi]

I use a midwest sailing Delta TL (this hoist is constructed with parts from great lakes lift in CARO, MI I think) with my NACRA 5.8 with wings because no option would allow for the larger beam of the wings to fit within the vertical members. It has weathered several strong NE storms on Lake Huron (sandbar protected). A short used pontoon cantileaver hoist would also suffice. I am selling the NACRA this fall and I am going to try to fit the hoist for a Supercat 19, problem being that I have a 12' Beam on the SC and wings. At 400 lbs I have a difficult time beaching and launching the cat alone.

[ultrarunner]

Thanks for your comments Eye. I was thinking of the delta V setup, and the more thought I give it, I'm thinking maybe a vertical hoist, such as a Shorestation hoist decked with some marine-grade lumber, thus giving it a flat top. This would work on the SC 17 with the smaller beam, as the hulls would clear the vertical posts on the smaller Shorestation units.

I think for the larger beam, you may have to go with a very large vertical unit and modify it with wider bunks, like I'm thinking, in order to achieve the beam you need, but that's likely cost-prohibitive.

I think it's possible to modify the bunks on your existing unit to achieve the beam you need, but stability could be an issue. The stability issue could be solved by running some horizontal cross members between the two wider decks on top of your bucks.

As you mention, weight is not an issue, but as you start to get into the wider beam cats, the lateral stability becomes an issue, and with the narrower hoists, you run the risk of side tipping the cat on the hoist if not placed perfectly in the hoist. Some vertical "V" guides can take care of that, but putting a 12' beam cat on an 80 inch wide hoist might be asking alot from a lateral stability standpoint.

Mark

[Matt Haberman]

Locally around here everyone puts their boat on a hoist. Some of them are quite simple where you just lift/drag the boat up on it, while others are much nicer and crank up and down into the water.
One thing to remember is that you MUST anchor the lift in the the bottom of the lake, river, etc. along with tyeing the boat to the lift. On several occasions we have seen not only the boat go flying away, but the boat with the lift attached go flying a long way up the shore