Looking for a rack to store a Wherry on a dock

Hello Folks,

I built an Annapolis Wherry a year or two ago and am looking now for a nice rack to store it out on my dock, ready to row.  I'd like to store it upright, covered with the fitted CLC wherry cover.  It  might be possible for one person to slide the boat off a well-designed rack into the water and to pull it back onto the rack when finished rowing.

Anyway, before I start in designing something myself, I thought I'd check to see if this particular wheel has already been invented. 

Any suggestions or ideas anyone has on this subject would be appreciated.

AlanS


3 replies:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Looking for a rack to store a Wherry on a dock

I have a somewhat similar issue and, although my solution doesn't work very well, will tell you what I did; maybe you can improve on it. My wherry lives on top of a steep bank, about 4 feet above water level. I build a V-shaped slipway of 2x10s with rollers (from West Marine) at the top and bottom to help center the boat.  The side of the 2x10s have strips of purpose made plastic to reduce friction and damage to the boat.

The contraption works great for launching-remember to tie off a painter or you will be swimming after it!

It's very difficult to recover the boat back up the ramp; it's too steep to easily get the boat up past its balance point and back to horizontal.  Also, the plastic non-marring strips DO wear the paint (Interlux). More  rollers might help but I think it'd still be a tussle.

I'd be interested to know what solution you come up with, good luck!!

RE: Looking for a rack to store a Wherry on a dock

I store a dinghy by slinging it on a small crane bolted to my dock deck.

It is a pickup truck crane from Harbor Freight for around 100 bucks. I have used it two seasons so far and it has worked fine. With the arm out 5 FT it still will lift over 300 lbs easily.

Barkleyboater

RE: Looking for a rack to store a Wherry on a dock

I created a slip chariot for my wherry. It can be separted in parts, and you can even pull it with a bicycle. I leave the boat on the chariot for storage. Very useful thing.

 

Slip Chariot Parts

Slip Chariot ready for use

For bicycle use I can mount a longer towing bar to connect the chariot with the bicycle.

For pushing by hand the shorter towing bar is sufficient.

I do not have proper drawings for this. I've brazed it together in my garape with some scrap tubes :-)).

Enjoy!

Rudi from Switzerland

 

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.