Hey Craig!

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

How did you manage to get the boat off the dollies and onto the trailer without wrecking the paint?

We're getting closer now and I am trying to figure this out. My trailer won't have any rollers, so it'll have to go on the carpeted bunks. I'm not sure if we can slide it on the carpet.... or can we?

Thanks

Florin

[Craig]

Yes you can. First soak the bunk carpets well with the hose. A bit of dish soap here helps as well. I raised the keel with a 4x4 and two small hydraulic floor Jacks. After lifting the keel clear of the keel box you set your winch on low and crank some of the boat onto the trailer. The floor jacks will follow the boat. When the jacks & 4x4 are near the rear trailer cross member, stop and let the jacks down to rest the keel in the box. Reposition the jacks and repeat the process. When the cradle is next to the trailer, move your jacks to the rear of the keel and remove the cradle. You want the boat to rest on the keel in the front and the last 2/3 of the hull to rest on the bunks. This will keep her tilted back a bit for drainage and also keep your tow vehicle out of the water on launch and recovery. Back the trailer in till she floats but is still resting lightly on the forefoot (deepest part) of the keel. (If you are not using the keel box then the front of the bunks will have to rise to meet the hull. That method requires the trailer to be deeper in the water to launch and they are very hard to get off those bunks with full length contact.) Loose the lines and shove her off the trailer. Oh ya, have Barb hold the mooring lines as you shove the boat away

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

That was funny! I'll be sure to tell Barb to hold onto the mooring lines when we do that.

Am I to understand that you have rollers on the bottom of the keelbox?

Thanks Florin

[Craig]

No. I just float her in and winch the last 18" or so after I get the trailer out of the water. After you get her on the trailer it is pretty easy.

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

Did you use the outdoor/patio/porch type of carpet on the bunks, or did you get the marine type?

I was under the impression that with that much area of the boat contacting the bunks/carpet and the weight of the boat pressing down on it, the paint would get damaged or scuffed up which worried me. I am pleasantly surprised to find out it isn't so.

I've started the other day making a taffrail. Started with 1/4" pieces of fir which were previously ran through my planer... I will be laminating these to make 3/4". They are really easy to bend now, so I'll make a jig with the shape of the top of the lazarette and laminate them on top of it. this way I'm sure it'll be a lot easier to install.

Every piece of brightwork is getting the stain and spar varnish now.

I should have gone with sand for non-skid... the wallnut shells are too rough. There was no way I could sand them down a little for they would come dislodged before the paint was on.... Oh well, something to keep in mind for the next time I build one hehehe. We'll have to buy boat shoes.

Thanks

Florin

[Craig]

I got the marine carpet for trailer bunks from West Marine. $20 USa roll as I recall. It doesn't eat the paint ad you are floating the boat on for most of its length. Much more than an 18" of winching and you are not doing it right.

What ever you use to lift the boat should be well padded to protect the paint. A old terrycloth towel worked for me. Are you using a keel box? Rollers? Anything??? ANothe more work way is to use two sets of jacks and lift the boat clear of the trailer and keep moving the front jack under the trailer till you have the baot all the way on. Remember to soak and soap the bunks to make them slick. Send a sketch of your trailer FLorin so I can see what the configuration is and I can better tell you how to do this. Or, for a 12 pack of Blue I'll be up to help. YOu know beer and pizza and you can get enough guys to lift her by the rails and walk it up!

You know why I didn't worry about the paint on mine. That blue has held up very very well. I can't say the same for the white on the top sides. Next repaint I may go hog wild, splurge and buy some deck and proch enamal for the white [/i]

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

I haven't got a sketch of the trailer just yet, but I'll be making one shortly. I am planing to make it just like a regular boat trailer out of 1/8" thick wall HSS square or rectangular tubing. I think we'll go with 2x3. The shape will be similar to yours, but we won't have the crossmembers in a "v" shape 'cause I don't have the equipment to bend it like so without kinking the material. There will be 1 or 2 sets of bunks and a keelbox. I don't think we'll have any rollers at all if we can help it. We may make some higher bannister rails at the rear to help guide the hull in, but we'll see about that.

There will be a winch at the front of course. I guess marine carpet is the way to go then on the bunks. It looks like we'll be buying the steel this week and start building the trailer possibly on the weekend.

I couldn't do it this past weekend for I was gone on a 2 day canoeing and fisning trip down the Bow river... it was great.

Cheers

Florin

[Craig]

With the keel box Florin you get the nose of the forefoot started in the box and move you jacks to the rear to remove the cradel. Then have helpers stabilize the boat and winch he in letteing the jacks and the 4x4 follow along. Go slow and watch everything close. She will want to jerk along as opposed to a smooth pull. the trip sounds nice. I worked all weekend. I am still not caught up with everything I missed while working up in Valdosta.

[Craig]

Florin, here is a link with a couple of photos. Unfortunatly they only show the start of the process. I will look for the rest on the disks at home.

http://members.cox.net/~bb343/baptism.html

[Mike Pennington]

I used Craig's way a few weeks ago, in fact I did the whole process by myself. It actually has gotten easier and I don't think of it as a chore anymore.

I use a couple of old padded kitchen chairs, one to either side to stablelize the boat. Takes the worry out of anything going wrong.

Those chairs, moan'en and worry'en, have been with me since before I started to build the Vacationer. They were just junk I was keeping around, but I know their value now.

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

Craig,

that looks a bit scary looking at the angle of the boat trying to get on the trailer. Was the trailer hooked up to your truck? What I don't get yet is how did the floor jacks roll along with the boat.... and after the boat got partially on the trailer, and the jacks were past the centre of gravity, did you have to slide the boat on the bunks? With the keelbox there you wouldn't think one culd get the jacks under the keel... Just wondering.

Mike,

Is your triler so high that the bottom of the boat can sit on the kitchen chairs?

Thanks

Florin

[Craig]

Florin, with the keel box you must just let her slide on the keel at the front. Remember the soap and water. After the nose is on the trailer you use two jacks at the back with a 4x4 between them and the aft part of the keel on the 4x4. The trailer must be attached to the truck or car and the work surface must be concrete or asphalt for the jacks to roll. Make you keel box to overhang the trailer by 1

[Mike Pennington]

Yep!

I also have an eye bolt at the bottom of the sprit chain. Lifts and pulls at the same time.

Having the trailer hooked up to the truck is a must, though I have done it once without the trailer hooked up. HOOOOBOY!

As discribed with the floor jack works best. I believe Craig loaded his boat from a concrete driveway and the jacks probably weren't the cheep ones with crummy wheels. Must be nice?

In the grass, where it can't roll along, I have used a floor jack just to get the bow up so the keel meets the back roller, I don't have a keel box yet. Then I just start winching her up. The chairs are located aways back, not so much to support the boat, but just to help hold her level untill enough of her is on the bunks.

Carpet on the bunks does save on the hull paint.

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

I think the eyebolt there is a good idea. At first I thought I would tie into the chain anywhere, but I think it would be a lot more secure to use a the eye.

FLorin

[Craig]

I too have an eye on a piece of ready rod going through the keel at the lower bobstay mount. The end of the rod is bent up at about 30 degrees from jacking the boat with it and from the normal pull of the winch when I am not quite in the water far enough. I am thinking about converting this to a U shaped mount that straddles the stem. I will use a SS bolt to mount the bobstay and two bolts through the stem. It has to be changed anyway when re-rig the bobstay for the cutter rig and I get one less hole on the boat. I

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

So, you figure the cutter rig will give waaaay better performance to justify the extra work, or are you a just sucker for punishment :-)?

We'll start with the jib club this year. Chances are we'll convert to jib shrouds by next year, then we'll see.

I think today is the day. I got the welder yesterday, and a cutoff saw. Today we'll try to get the steel for the trailer. Was gonna get it yesterday but much of the businesses were closed for Canada Day.

Off I go!

FLorin

[Craig]

Both I think Florin. The boys, wife, girlfriend and grand dogs, plus the deaf cat where here for the 4th. We took the boat to the fire works last night. Damn near got run down but some rich ass ___e in a big twin-engine sport boat. Couldn't have been 30 yards between us when he saw our cabin and anchor lights. My daughter-in-law's eyes were as big as saucers. Not a damn thing to do but yell. He flung something about anchoring in a channel as he went by and then them made a sharp left to stay off the shallows when he saw the channel marker 200

[Stump]

Cannon, a 3 pounder...on a slide to go under the boom and then swivel in the direction you want...probably have to reinforce part of the cabin roof though... anybody asks, claim it was a cleat... :twisted:

[Mike Pennington]

I think we should at least equip our boats with a paint cannon, call up the Troopies or respective agency and tell them what color marks the perpatrator. (A- hole)

There are the jerks who need a little tune up, and then there are the clueless who just don't know any better. Niether really have an excuse no matter what they yell out, they shouldn't be on the water until they either get the crapolla kicked out of them or a little education. Thats for the little teeny bop on the jet ski yesterday that circled our three gaffs then proceeded to cut between us. If my wife's arm was a little longer she would of had the kid by the throat.

We anchor out a lot, and thought it really doesn't get dark for much of the summer, I still need to install a good anchorage light. A BRIGHT One! The old electric lantern don't quite cut it.

With the forest fires and the morning fog, I got a taste of the old thick as pea soup, I could here them but I couldn't see them until they were close.

Despite anchoring in a shallow lagoon, those dumb drunks on jet skies still managed to buzz the Wolf at three am.