Hydraulic cratch board, Good idea or wasting our time?

[bizzard]

Fingers!! Hydraulic or gas struts I don't think I be sitting in the well with hands on the sill with the thing open without a simple broomstick propping it up for added security. Gas struts are not terribly reliable especially when its cold, had to renew hundreds of em on cars over the years, customers turning up with huge bumps on their heads and mutilated fingers. A big over centre spring might be better. No I think I'd stick with a broomstick.

[scrumpylurcher]

I assume having fitted the cratch frame you would intend fitting a cratch cover. The tunnel light as fitted would need to be moved and the obvious place to move it to is gone. We have two opening sections hinged from the centre board, they are the simple lift off hinges. That gives access to the bottles but in practice I never bother to open them for that purpose.

[IanM]

I would think the drawbacks would outweigh the benefits. Our has a perspex centre section which just lifts out if we need to get a draft down the boat or to access the gas bottles.

 

[Timleech]

It strikes me that lifting heavy gas bottles through the front is a good way to hurt your back!

 

Tim

[alan_fincher]

To allow access to the gas locker but still have a solid wooden board to give the authentic look.

Sorry should of posted this link also so you can see it in cruising mode.

 

http://www.kinvercanopies.co.uk/Closed_cratch_board.html

 

But your "solid wooden board", and "authentic look" are pictured as a piece of glass or perspex! How "authentic is that?

 

If you are trying to lift a full 13KG cyclinder into the confines of a gas locker, (and the tare weight means they actually way something more like twice that), then you need a straight upward lift. I would have thought trying to do it through that contraption was away of greatly increasing your chances of damaging the boat, this bit of kit, the gas plumbing, or yourself, (or any combination of!)

 

Clearly you have found some willing customers, but I think if they ever get one in practice they will find the idea ill-conceived.

 

Sorry, but you asked!

[Alf27]

Re post 27 "but in practice I never bother to open them for that purpose."

 

Likewise, in fact I have sealed & fixed them, never used them !

[Keeping Up]

Maybe if it could lift the gas bottles as well?

[Mike Tee]

I think its a great idea - I can envisage my wife stepping on the front to tie up the boat and I flick the switch to lift up the cratch .......... bit like the James Bond ejector seat. It might be a bit expensive though, as I'd only get to use it once, and would then have to sell the boat to divvy up the possessions for the divorce.

[Mike Jordan]

I have a photo (not the one attached)of a similar idea which involves a centre post which divides and two lights which are hinged up the sloping sides. The doors open de lorien style on gas struts. With the doors closed it looks just like any other board. So far I havnt made one for a customer, I see costs being higher than the four to six hundred pound cost of a board with opening wings or fixed glazing.

The design involves effectively making two boards set inside one another, not difficult, but time consuming.

Mike.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Mike Jordan

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Hi ya,

Yep,I think Gas struts a better option,like on a hatchback car,I also think that it's all about giving/supplying'options' and as I've said before 'All ideas are good ideas,but some are gooder than others'.

[lewisericeric]

My perspective is "No way not even as a gift" If it came fitted to aboat I bought I would remove it.

Tc

What an absolutely spiteful comment. Why would you remove it?? So you can make your life more DIFFICULT by having a fixed board instead and then tying to balance on the gas locker when getting the bottles out?

[Ssscrudddy]

Lol, I doubt it, it would be so he could pay out money on replacing it with a more traditional 1

[dor]

Trying to remove or add a 13Kg gas bottle through the opening would be nigh on impossible and would very rapidly trash the bottom of the frame. Any sensible semi-trad or cruiser has the gas locker on the stern anyway. Might be useful to grab or return ropes or fenders etc if they were stored in the bow locker, but not a 25Kg steel gas bottle.

Edited February 25, 2014 by dor

[lewisericeric]

I always take the gas bottle out the locker from standing on the deck?? We have 13kg bottles. Empty or full they come out the same way.

[haggis]

While I applaud companies coming up with new ideas (although I think this is not one of the better ones) I personally would be wary of having dealings with this company. Last year, I did them a favour which resulted in a couple of sales (they told me) and they made me a very good offer to make us a cratch cover. I jumped at the chance, supplied measurements etc and then it all went quiet. Phone calls and emails ignored. OK if they had changed their minds, they could have told me but it was just a silence. We were needing a new canopy made and we stopped looking anywhere else when we were made the offer. Had they told us of their change of mind, we could at least have gone elsewhere.

We still need a new cratch cover!

 

haggis

[Machpoint005]

I can't help feeling this is a solution to a made-up problem. The main idea, presumably, is to allow more through ventilation, but if you have a cratch cover (canopy) you can unzip the sides and roll them up out of the way. In warm weather that's the first thing you would do anyway. If you don't have a canopy, there's no ventilation problem anyway.

 

I too saw a conflict with the tunnel light, and in my case, the horn. The latter can easily be relocated but there is nowhere to put the light without it being obscured by the cratch canopy or the lifting A-frame.

 

As far as changing gas bottles is concerned, I lift them straight out of the locker as there is no other way of getting at them. Even if the front A-frame had no glass in it, I'd be kneeling and stretching forwards and down, which is hardly conducive to a safe manual lift.

 

If access to the front is such a problem, that suggests you should probably remove the entire cratch, king plank and all.

 

I'm no traditionalist but some things work (for me) and some don't. This is one that doesn't, I'm afraid.

[Mike Jordan]

I don't think that the original intention was to improve ventilation but to improve access to the front locker. I can't see anyone wishing to cruise with the light open. I can see no reason why the idea shouldn't work, the only drawback is the increased cost.

Those who have made adverse comments may like to consider that they may well have passed by boats with just such an arrangement without being aware of anything different.

[Machpoint005]

Post 3 referred to ventilation -- my mistake.

 

However, as an access arrangement it still fails: the company's web site isn't too specific on the 'whys'.

[magnetman]

If its all about gas bottles I'd make a little crane which lies flat on top of the scratch. Like the dutch barge car cranes but a miniature one. Could be operated by a 12v Linak actuator and used to lift and swing gas bottles from locker to the bank without moving the cratch

And without hurting your back.

 

For an idea of design have a look at mobility scooter hoists

[Hawkmoth]

I don't think that the original intention was to improve ventilation but to improve access to the front locker. I can't see anyone wishing to cruise with the light open. I can see no reason why the idea shouldn't work, the only drawback is the increased cost.

Those who have made adverse comments may like to consider that they may well have passed by boats with just such an arrangement without being aware of anything different.

We have a very similar design to that shown by Kinver. No hydraulics, of course. I hold the window open with a broomstick, as suggested by Bizzard.

It makes access to the gas locker very easy, and is much better IMO than standing on the bow.

I'm not convinced that gas struts would take the weight. Ours is fairly heavy with the laminated glass in it.

Bob