Trailer Improvement

One of the issues with the boat trailer is the location of the winch. It is much too low, and forces Serenity's bow down when hauling out. When the trailer comes out of the water, the boat is then sitting too far back to be safe. That means rigging up something to pull the boat forward before dropping the mast and driving home.

Last year I used a couple pieces of 2x4 to make an extension. With a block on top, a line could be lead from the bow back to the cockpit. This may have helped the situation, but the truck brakes failed on the ramp, and the situation got a little messy.

So, to helpkeep the bow up where it belongs, I decided to raise an existing roller by a few inches, so that it actually touched the boat. It was just a matter of drilling some holes in some steel, and bolting it all together.

I'll paint is all later, but now I'm one job done closer to being able to launch.

Launch Delayed :-(

I really wanted to have Serenity in the water before the end of May. It would not only extend the sailing season, but get the boat out of the way of the big construction project at home. Things seldom go according to plan.

The PY23's hull has a thick and flaking buildup of antifouling paint. Also, the iron keel has mostly rejected the POR-15 applied in 2007, and has been rusting profusely for the past couple of years. I wanted to just touch up the paint for this season, and strip the hull in the autumn. Unfortunately, the local marine store did not have a matching colour of antifouling paint, so I had to buy something else.

Now the entire bottom needed to be covered, and the project time requirement increased. Rather than just waste the new paint, I decided that the stripping had to be done now, including taking the iron keel down to bare metal.

There is a job to do on the trailer too. Just need time and weather to cooperate.