# Cradle project for S/Y Solveig

## Tripods

I have six tripods.

One pair is heavy and robust and intended to be used mid-ship

Two pairs are a bit lighter and intended to be used for the rear and bow.

## Tripod joints

The tripods are currently tack-welded.  The two support legs on the lighter tripods are of some thin steel tube, it's very difficult to weld it without damaging and weakening the tube.  The idea is to wrap some steel plates around the tubes before welding.  I currently have some steel plates cut to length, but they are a bit corroded, so I'm considering to buy some new, fresh steel for this purpose.

Not shown on the photos, but lightweight pairs should be welded togheter - from the steel plate on the upper joint, there should be a diagonal tube going down to base of the corresponding support at the other side.  Those tubes will meet each other in the middle under the ship and should be welded together there.  The outer distance on the ground between the parallell legs should be around 3.5 meters.  The distance between the top parts of the inserts should be around 2.5 meters.  One idea is to attach some small steel plate at the upper joint, and fix the cross bars to this steel plate only after the boat is in place, to make sure the distance is perfect (or perhaps make the aft pair connected before lifting the boat up, and make the crossbars for the fore pair later).

## Inserts

The height of each tripod is adjustable, as there is an insert with holes that can be taken up or down, and a nut that can be screwed for fine-adjustment.  The photo shows the extreme, in reality we expect the insert to stick some 10-20 cm above the tube.  Total height of each support is expected to be around 1.50m. Probably the mid-supports should be a bit higher than the bow/aft supports (in the middle the weight of the boat is resting on the keel, but it's very important to prevent the boat from tipping over in a storm.  Fore and aft the supports should support some of the weight of the boat).

The top of the inserts are considered to be weak part, so we intend to reinforce them by dropping a thinner, shortera tube into them.  On the top of the thinner tube there should be welded a flat disk so it won't fall all the way down.

(In addition to the welding, holes should be drilled in those reinforcement tubes.  I'm intending to do that myself)

## Pads

Pads are welded together with two wider steel plates and a narrow in the middle.  A bolt and not should be welded in place.  The nut fits perfectly into the hole of the washer that is welded on the top of the reinforcement tube, as long as it's pushed down or up completely in parallell with the tube.  The angle of the bolt and nut can be adjusted when the boat is chocked, making the pad stay perfectly parallell to the boat hull.  Angled profiles are used around the pad to make a frame, inside this frame some rubber profiles are inserted.

## Base frame

On the ground, there should be a frame connecting the feet of all the supports together.  There should also be some metal under the keel of the boat, which should be connected to the rest of the frame.

## Parts missing

We still need more angled profiles for the wider edges of the pads, some rubber profiles to insert into the pads (if it's hard to find, then wood blocks will probably do), tubes for the crossbars connecting the aft pair of supports together, same for the bow supports, and all tubes for the base frame.