Getting Serenity in and out of the water has always been a challenge. The tow vehicle cannot get far enough out into the water to float the boat, so a length of rope has been employed. I was afraid that someone was going
to get hurt, or the boat damaged.
Also, it can take over an hour to complete
with the trailer and boat both floating around over the ramp. We had to
give up on it one time because it got dark before the boat was on the
trailer. It also means that I am tying up the ramp for an excessive period. I needed lots of help too.
It used to look something like this, with the trailer wondering all over
the place and not much control over anything. It was also dangerous
taking the trailer off the ball at the bottom of the ramp.
For this project I have picked up the following parts:
- Receiver: 12" of 2.5" x 2.5" square tube
- Extension: 24' of 2" x 2" square tube (on order)
- Coupler: 2" x 2" for 2" ball
- U-Bolts: 3" x 8" with nuts and lock washers
- Hitch pin
- associated fasteners and drill bits
I'm basing it on the one I found here:
http://sailing.about.com/od/boatmaintenancerepair/ss/Do-It-Yourself-Boat-Trailer-Tongue-Extension.htm
The existing trailer tongue.
The parts.
The jack and tire were shifted back to make room, then I drilled the holes and tried a test fit of the receiver.
I picked up the 24 foot long tube and brought it to my
father-in-law's shed to use his drill press. The hitch ball coupler was attached and a hole drilled for the pin. It has to be painted yet,
but at least I can use it at this point.
The final assembly and test fit of everything. The receiver and tube both have two coats of paint now.
It is a long way to the truck.
The trailer jack will have to be kept down to allow the wheel to take some of the weight.
There is too much flex in the tube at this length without it. The tube
will be at about the same height as the rope used to be, so there should
be no clearance problems as it goes down the ramp.
While I was at the trailer, I thought of a way to put some guides on it to help with positioning the boat.
Parts List:
- 2 x 5' sections of 1 1/2" ABS pipe
- 2 x 10" sections of 2 x 4
- Miscellaneous screws
This
would be easier to do with the boat on the trailer, so I had to
estimate the length of the pipe required. Also the wooden block was
positioned at the outside edge of the fender to help protect it from
being struck. That, along with the 1/2" space to the hole, means that
the pipes are not quite 8' apart at the bottom. I'm assuming that the
boat is exactly 8' wide at the beam, but there should be enough
flexibility at the top of the pipe to allow for that.
A
2" hole was drilled in the 2x4 for the ABS pipe. 2 holes were drilled
through the fender support to allow a couple of screws to go up into the
wood. 1 3" screw goes through the pipe, but that should be replaced
with something a little longer. The pipe hole is over the edge of the
fender support, which will allow any water in the pipe to drain out.
When Serenity was hauled out, the tongue
extension and guides worked great! What didn't work was my truck. We had
the boat almost on the trailer and just needed to back the trailer out
into a little deeper water. That's when a brake line broke, and we
didn't want to risk going backwards down the ramp any further. The boat
could pull the truck under.
The tide was almost up, so we waited
to see if there was enough rise left float the boat, but it was to close to the top
of the cycle, and we only gained a little.
Another guy was waiting in line to get his sailboat out, and volunteered
his truck. This meant tying lines ashore from both the boat and the
trailer, uncoupling the extension, carefully moving my truck out of the
way, and then attaching the borrowed truck.
With a functional tow
vehicle, it only took a couple minutes to properly seat Serenity, and
haul it out. I then hooked my truck back on and very slowly moved my
boat out of the way, so the other guy could get at his boat. There used
to be 2 ramps at the marina, but we lost one with the expansion last
year. There can be long lineups until the new one is built in a
couple years in another marina development phase.
Being
so late in the year, all the water at the marina was off and drained, so there was no
way to pressure wash the hull. That had to wait until I got the
boat home, and getting the boat home required borrowing another truck. My mechanic didn't have an opening for a few days. At least the boat is out of the water.
With
all that was going on with the truck, I didn't notice exactly how much
of the tube was required to float the boat, but it was at least 12 feet. I
may be able to cut a lot off. Perhaps I can
make up a second one from the remainder to sell. People seemed to like what I had
done.
Another modification has to be made to the trailer. There should be a support under the bow. There is a roller there now, but it
does not come close to touching anything. I should also raise the height of the winch. I had a line
lead back to a cockpit winch, but that came close to breaking the 2x4s while trying
to force the boat the last few inches.
It may now be possible to launch and haul out Serenity with just one or two people. The switch over to the extension can be done on flat, level ground rather than the ramp. And the entire process should be faster and safer.
