A new re-useable shipping cradle for Dorade is being fabricated. Designed by Greg Stewart of Nelson/Marek Yacht Design, Inc., the major components of the cradle are be fabricated using 1/2″ steel stock so as to produce long term durability and a safety factor of 400%. The estimated finished weight of the finished cradle, per Greg will be 3,000+ pounds, to carry Dorade’s 37,000+ pounds. This cradle would according to Joe be a “lifer” for Dorade that will serve well in many situations and trips for Dorade’s next 80 years.
Syd has built numerous cradles for all the top classic and modern boats of Dorade’s size. The amount of experience he has and fabrication details he is putting into the cradle are huge not to mention his work round-the-clock to get it done fro Dorade’s journey across the country to San Francisco..
Joe, Syd and Ben have been flat out getting the steel on-hand, cut and preparing for the test fitting Dorade into the low height, “air-ride” transport trailer from the trucker, trucker, Tim Pyne, on today. Tim Pyne has been very helpful in supplying dimensions of the “air-ride” transport trailer and looking at the Cradle concepts and design over the past several days.
Tim made great time and was able to drop off the trailer sooner than expected and allowed Syd to get an un expected almost entire extra day on the cradle with the benefit of having the transport trailer on-site.
Below are couple of pictures of what has been achieved today by lunch time. Syd has the keel channel tacked together and the team did the initial offering of Dorade into it. It went well, just a few tweaks to make it perfect and weld it properly then the rest will follow. Who knows what we will have done by the end of the day.