A Very Lucky Guess

Making my plans to get the boat in the warehouse for the repairs obviously included a trailer ride to the warehouse and so I called upon my good friend Bill Moyer. He has a very large, heavy duty trailer and diesel truck. I really consider Bill quite accomplished in this area, and being  this is not his first rodeo I value what he says. As the planing begins I naturally figure that its going to take a travel lift to pickup the boat and set it on the trailer. During one of our many conversations leading up to "pull day"  I mentioned to Bill that we could  probably get the boat lifted and set on the trailer at Harbor Point. His response to that was not what I expected. He said no we'll just float it on in Alton , It will be fine. He was actually pretty calm about it. So when pull day came Bill put the trailer in the water , we floated the boat on and out came the "Fuelishness".  I'd love to say effortlessly, but the truck did earn it's keep that day for sure.  
Had someone bet me that my boat would have ever come out of the water on a trailer in the conventional sense I would have lost money. Because  up until today I was convinced that a

travel lift was the only way the "Fuelishness"  could get out of the river.  Thanks Bill. 

During the preparations for the boat to go to it's land home for the winter I became quite concerned about the height of the radar arch in relationship to the height of my warehouse door. I had a good number of sleepless nights wondering what would happen if the boat was too tall for the door. A lot of solutions  swirled around in my head. The worst one being , "pull the arch". I didn't even want to think about it.
I even went as far as calling brokers and individuals who had Excalibur's for sale that were on  trailers and quizzing him about the height. Wow I got some crazy answers, everything from 13'9" to 11'2".  All these folks were guessing and really kind of proud of the way they arrived at the answer. One guy even started telling me about the 34" inseam on his pants and the overall height of tires in relationship to --blah--blah-- blah. I think you get it. 

So after all that, I took a guess of my own and  since everyone had some crazy math formula to use I came up with my own science.  

The picture above is not my boat but one just like it and based on the photo and the fact that the steel wheel on the trailer is a 16" ( Yes I called and Asked) I made a scale that represents 16" increments and I measured the photo.  My measurements showed just a hair under 9 units tall , 9 units being 144 inches, or right at 12 feet.  That's some formula, that's some  science, you know what ?  In the end it's still just a guess. But ultimately I'm happy because a have a 12' door and I'm close.

I never realized just how close until Billy started backing the boat in to the garage. As he eased back and just as the arch was getting close I stopped him and removed the arch light stanchion . It's really going to be close, he comes back a little further and it's a miracle the arch is just under the drip edge moulding of the door opening. As he comes back a little further the snaps for the Bimini top snag the drip moulding and put  scratches on it as they pass under and just like that ,the Fuelishness is in the building.  

Next we lift the boat up off the trailer using hydraulic Yard Arms, man this stuff makes me nervous, We lift the boat and Billy pulls the trailer out from under the boat as we slide large oak cubes under the keel, once the trailer is clear of the boat Billy and I slowly lower the boat down on the oak blocks and set up the jack stands to level and steady the boat in her new resting spot.

    The Fuelishness in her current home


Up next : Making a list , checking it twice   



     



So as Billy slowly eased the boat