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Need help with launch & recovery


JeffM

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I was was so impressed with Ray's account of sailing his cs20 with Graham last year, and the ease with which he got the boat on and off the trailer, that I immediately went out to fiddle with my bunk and roller heights. Well, I evidently goofed it up: launch and recovery have gotten harder instead of easier, to the point where my trailer has to be practically fully submerged to get the boat off, and it is a real chore to get it centered and cranked aboard at the end of the trip. How do you adjust he rollers and bunks for easiest use? I suspect that part of my mistake was in lowering the front ends of the bunks so that, on a shallow ramp, the boat is nearly level and doesn't want to roll. But I know that's not the main part of the story. Also, my rollers don't roll very well and are pretty chewed up. Any advice on adjustment?

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The ideal is to have the weight of the boat *almost* fully supported on plenty of centerline rollers, with the bunk boards just kissing the bottom to keep the boat from rocking. To launch, pour a bucket of water on each bunk. Then put the trailer on the inclined ramp and a shove rolls the boat off and into the water.

Unfortunately, most trailers (including mine) are far short of ideal. There are too few centerline rollers, and they lack strength. This has led to two solutions (?) One is to replace the bunk boards with a series of rollers so they can carry more weight without sticking. The other is the Float-On trailer that is actually designed to be submerged. If you use one of these, be sure to keep the trailer bearings greased and watch the "waterproof: tail lights. Good Luck!

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I hope this question is appropriate to this thread.

Does anybody do anything special about keeping the centerboard up during travel to and from launch? Other than use sailing up haul. It seems that it might be good to drop the board down to rest on something while traveling. It appears that if I bought a wide middle roller the centerboard could be dropped down on it. Of course this complicates launch because I would have to remember to haul it up.

It just seams like a lot of stress on the uphaul equipment when bounding down the road.

I was also thinking about drilling a hole through the centerboard well into the uphauled centerboard about a foot or so back from the uphaul post and near the top and then putting a removable pin in it for travel.

Thanks for your thoughts in advance.

Dale

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Thanks, all. I may need to trade in the rollers for better models. The bunks already have plastic covers. I have the same roller combo you do, Ray. Chip, I'll angle the rollers up some, and make sure they're taking the weight.

Dale, initially I had the same worry, but never got around to doing anything about it. Even so, I've never had any trouble just using the tackle. It doesn't show any sign of strain from what I've seen. My problem is forgetting to cleat it when I beach. For that reason, I bungeed a pool float around the trailer cross-member under the cb so it won't hit the metal when I winch it up.

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I've had many centerboard boats and usually didn't release the lanyard, so it could rest on the rollers, while traveling. One of my current boats has a 600 pound centerboard, hanging on an 1/8" stainless lanyard. I installed a new one 10 years ago and is now showing signs of needing replacement again. I've rarely backed off the winch to relive pressure, unless working on it. The last ten years have been all fresh water, but the previous 7 were 50/50 salt and fresh. The weight is carried by the pivot pin as well as the lanyard, so the strains aren't as big as you'd think, when trailering. I've repaired trailer sailors with original equipment lanyards over 30 years old, that were housed the whole time without slack. A non-heavily weighted board would have even less pressure on the lanyard.

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