New at Loading Boat on Trailer

[Berber Boy]

In the Mist Mistral Waiting for the sun to Shine. Yes I am proud to have it but a little overwhelmed at its size after a 5 metre Farr 5000. It will take some adjustments.

I picked it up from Phil King in the heart of Wollongong at 5pm and had to navigate the blue monster through the backstreets at the height of the rush hour in the dark. Anyway made it home without mishap.

Am a bit fearful of the huge gap between the rather light back wobble wheel guides and the small rubber V berthing rubber at the winch. Nothing to hold it between if there is any windage. My Farr was a handful when I had wind coming in from the beam. How do you guys handle that. Is it just a matter of experience? I thought of tying a rope from winch to wobble wheel if I needed to? This is my major concern at this point. How do you handle it?

Cheers

BB

[NiceAft]

Berber Boy said:

Am a bit fearful of the huge gap between the rather light back wobble wheel guides and the small rubber V berthing rubber at the winch

I am not certain of what you are referring to? When the boat is on the trailer, Is it the gap between the bow of the boat and the"V" shaped black rubber block in front of the winch on the trailer?

Ray

[Berber Boy]

Ray, On my trailer there are 2 guides with wobble rollers at the stern end of the trailer and the V rubber block at the bow. When retrieving the boat onto the trailer from the water (which I have not yet attempted) there is very little between the rear rollers and and the V Block to keep the boat aligned when powering it on to the trailer particularly if there is a a cross wind and or current. Perhaps it is dead easy but in the absence of any experience am just wondering whether there are any tips from other people's experience

Thanks

BB

[NiceAft]

Now I understand.

Some people power onto the trailer. Others attach a long bow line, and lead the boat onto the trailer. I power on, and sometimes it gets tricky.

If you decide to power onto the trailer, you will need to be certain that you are dead on center when approaching. Because the Mac has such a high free board, you must make certain that the daggerboard and rudders always down when powering. This creates a large problem, because when putting the Mac onto the trailer, both rudders must be up, the daggerboard must be retracted. With the rudders up, and the daggerboard retracted, the Mac does not handle well at very slow speeds If there is any wind, you will pushed sideways, or whatever direction it is going. If, on your approach, you have not aligned with the center of the trailer, you could possibly have a difficult time adjusting your angle. Once you have properly placed the Mac, you should be able to step off the bow onto the steps at the front of the trailer.

Attaching a line to the bow, and pulling the Mac onto its trailer is a much more controlled means of placing your boat onto the trailer. I don't do this because the ramp at the marina where we slip Nice Aft has a very long dock. Unless I am the boat closest to the ramp, I may have to walk past five, six, or seven boats. If there is a second person involved, you could power up to the trailer, and then you would be able to toss a line to them, and have that person pull the boat on.

Once the boat is one the trailer, and fastened to the bow strap, you can pull her out, and do the Mac Bump.

Ray

[Hamin' X]

Some have added ropes between the rear guide posts and the V by the winch. Others have added a second set of guide posts mid way on the trailer.

!	Moderator Note:
	Topic split from Australia Group to Trailers & Towing, for greater visibility and more responses. ~Rich---Hamin' X~

[Québec 1]

I did this ( inspired by members of this board) and it works 100%. I never have a problem motoring my shiny scratch free blue hull on to my trailer.

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... 11&t=12820
Q1

[Andy26M]

I added a second set of bolt-on guide posts forward of the wheels - did the trick for me, very simple mod.

Andy

[Berber Boy]

Thanks for the input guys. I think that I will get the second set of rollers midway. I have had some bad experiences before and around Sydney where I sail the wind can be quite shifty and send your nice slow straight approach into freefall. If its not the wind it is a PWC (Jet Ski) doing donuts near the ramp!

I'll keep you posted

And thanks Rich for doing that. Im still learning the ropes.

BB

[hart]

Here's my trailer:



Thanks to a previous owner I have a 2nd set of upright guides, all have been extended with PVC pipe. There are 2 eight foot long 2x4's over each wheel as well to help guide on the boat. And there's an additional bunk a couple feet back from the front vee. After redoing my trailer I've discovered that one helps push the bow up to the chock. With all of that I can really screw up an approach and still get the boat on the trailer without incident.

Also, if there's any cross wind at all I usually leave a few inches of my dagger board down to help with steering. I keep the line in my hand so I can pull it up at the last minute.

[miss u]

BB try tying a rope from the v bunk at the winch down to the goal posts on eather side.I constantly have 10-15 kt cross winds at my ramp and this makes the whole prosess easy. Peter.

[puggsy]

Hi Berber...Powering onto the trailer will not win you many friends at the ramp...Because if the solid base does not extend out far, you will be forming a deep drop off hole at the end of the hard bit...and dropping your sunken trailer wheels into that will make for much grief...
Better to back the trailer into deeper water and FLOAT your baby on....
That's why trailers do not have rollers...
And here is a cheap way to prevent side drift and keep her in line. Just run two ropes 8 or 10mm, down each side from the "V" to each of the rear upright guides. As she goes on the sides of the bow will touch the ropes and slide along them, making the ropes just that little bit tighter. By being tighter will more and more prevent sideways movement. By the time the bow gets into the "V", you will have some tension, but the rope can harm nothing. I have threaded my ropes through hollow [ coloured] swimming pool spaghetti...soft as...no scratching at all. This has eliminated the need to weld extra uprights at the bow end of the trailer.
puggsy

[Lease]

I still power on, though am much more aware of avoiding high revs at the base of the ramp. Here's what works for me:

Trailer in the water so that the top of the guards are just under. This leaves the front bunk just out the water (the brakes). Approach with CB half down, and one rudder. I hold the rudder down-rope in hand in order to allow it to pop if an obstruction is hit. Speed around 3 knots, and as the bow goes past the guide posts, the centreboard is pulled all the way up, and let go of the rudder rope. with that much speed it generally bumps gently up to the front bunk and stops. The engine is left in gear at idle all this time. Then just shut down, tilt, pull up the rudder, climb over the front and winch the last couple of feet.

The difference in low speed handling with foils down is huge. Without them, you are completely at the mercy of the wind. There is a difference of course withy the M daggerboard, but experimentation will tell you how much board you have down for a given amount of rope, so you should still be able to get enough down on approach to give steerage (of course the consequences are potentially more serious if you get it wrong).

[MARK PASSMORE]

Berber, If I had it all to do over, my first Mod would be adding guide post to the trailer. I really nicked up my boat because I tried loading in heavy wind. Now I have learned to keep the rudders down until I’m on the trailer. Just remember to pull them up before pulling up the ramp. Also, I drop the center board a few inches until I get lined up to the trailer. I’ll try to post a pic of my guide post


I also like the guide post to be very tall so that I can back the trailer deeper into the water and they are not submerged under water.

[SkiDeep2001]

If you google boat trailer guide rollers you will get a few different types of side guides. I prefer the roller type side guides.