[omc-boats] Cleats

I was not going to mention it, but what the heck - you can in fact lift
an OMC by the mooring cleats - I would never recommend it, but in an
emergency it can be done. I know this because I had such an emergency.
I have a 65' houseboat with very large steel davits on the stern from
which I hang a 1970 Johnson Seasport. Luckily I happened to be on the
top deck when I heard a terrible bang - I looked over the stern and saw
the chains holding up the stern of the Seasport had broken and the
entire stern was under water - I am on the Mississippi and the current
was fairly fast at the time and there was no way I would jump in and try
to get the chains - so I grabbed two large mooring lines and jumped into
the water filled boat - hooked one on each stern mooring cleat and then
lowered the davit and attached them - the hydraulic davit stretched the
lines a little, but the boat and water lifted out of the river high
enough to stop water from coming in. then I jumped back in and pulled
the drain plug - then lifted the boat slowly out of the water as the
water in the boat ran out. In the end I had the entire stern out of
water hanging from the mooring cleats! You will note the fiberglass is
very thick on that part of the decks and the cleats are backed by marine
plywood and then aluminum plates - pretty strong actually. So take that
for what it's worth and I hope no one else has to resort to doing such a
thing.. Dave

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Received on Friday, 17 June 2005