Sling markers for travel lift

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I surely would NOT loosen the head stay - way too much work!!  When you can easily loosen the back stay or do as I do and crank the hull forward when it is in the slings!!

A few thoughts

[ewengstrom]

I'm with Ron on this one. The last time I had to pull my boat (my FORMER boat) the brand spankin new lift operator pulled the boat into the well bow first...when it came up it was obvious that the forestay had to come off or the furler extrusion would be rubbing against the crane's cross bar and I would have NONE of that. In the interest of time and simply because I didn't think of anything else at the time I removed the forestay so we could block the boat.
When it came time to launch in the spring I employed the rope trick that Ron mentioned above and there was no problem whatsoever. The boat would rock some but stopped well short of the cross bar simply because of the lines attached to the crane running back to the sheet winches.
I'm currently trying to get our "new" boat hauled for a short haul and the yard manager told me yesterday "drop it off and we'll pull it when we can".........That's not gonna happen!!!! Nobody takes care of my boat like me and I want to be on hand to tie her off if needed. 

[kable]

Does one have to worry about the location of thru hull instruments, paddle wheel etc?
How exact are these locations?  Should I mark my lift location (my liability) or let the yard start and I am there (knowing the general location) to stop anything that doesn't look right (their liability)?

[Ron Hill]

Kable : The lift recommendation in your owners manual from the factory are at positions where there is a bulkhead.

The yard should also "thump" the hull to find the bulkheads for placement of your jack-stands if you aren't using the shipping cradle.
Also I am there to watch where they place the fwd strap so as to not crush the knotlog wheel. 

Another trick that I do every year is to make sure that I will be the first lift into the water.  I have them make me the last lift of the day before.  Then I can paint the underside of the wing and just hang in the straps overnight so the paint can dry.

Interesting that you pulled into the travel lift-slip bow first.  After all these years I have always pulled in for a lift stern first!!

A few thoughts

[Jim Hardesty]

Guys : I surely would NOT loosen the head stay - way too much work!!  When you can easily loosen the back stay

For me it's easier to remove the head stay.  Less than 10 minutes.  I take a line, a couple of midshipmen hitches on the foil, down through a snach block at the stem head, to the windless (but have run it back to a winch), loosen back stay a few turns, draw the head stay down enough to pull pin, put the end of the head stay in a bucket and slide back to shrouds. 
If I had an adjustable backstay I think it may be easier to loosen or remove backstay.  When I tried removing backstay it was difficult for me to reattach the backstay with the forestay pulling the mast forward.  Every case is a little different.
Jim