Well, lets just say that sailing the MPONR has got me inspired to get Maggie and my family down to the Gippsland Lakes for a sailing holiday ASAP!!
However, before this can eventuate two things have to happen: Firstly, Emily needs to be able to fit into a life jacket; and secondly, Maggie needs a new trailer.
At present Em weighs in at about 8kg, and our small life jacket is designed to carry from 10kg up. Based on her current weight gain - this could take another year or two!!
Then comes the major dilemma - the trailer, or more accurately the lack of suitable trailer. The trailer on which Maggie currently resides can best be described as a gathering of rust between the boat and the ground, which is held together be some anomaly outside our current understanding of the laws of physics...
I've been having a bit of a look at getting a new trailer made and it appears that we are going to be up for about 7.5 boat bucks!! ($7500 for those non-nautical folk) This has got me thinking maybe I could learn how to weld and build my own trailer...or better still go and spend a few weeks up at Claire's uncle's farm and get the bulk of it done, bring it back and fine tune it to suit...hmmm...stay tuned on this one...
'til next time...here's wishing for 15kts right on the nose...
I too need a road trailer.
ReplyDeleteKeep us updated at to how you go about getting a trailer and how much it cost
If you teach yourself how to weld Tim all your trailer will cost is material plus your time. Just make sure you learn how to weld, I am self tought, but I get away with my own welds as long as the steel I am weldins is thick enough. You can go to TAFE and learn how to weld.
ReplyDeleteBecause your Maggie is twin keeled, I assurme they are fixed, you will need special consideration to suspension and trailer design, unless you are going to float the boat off. This can be difficult at certain ramps.
Take a look at other trailers that carry twin fixed keeled boats.
I used to have a Hartley 14 with twin fixed keels. I made my own trailer in two weekends. Can't remember what it cost, it was only material. But what I do recall is my regret of not plutting independent suspension, like a VW so that the boat sat a little lower.
Wanton C22/110
Hey Ed,
ReplyDeleteI have thought that making the trailer myself may be the way to go and Yep a TAFE course is possibly the answer.
Maggie is a swing twin keel but the hull is still quite a deep V, so we still need a bit of depth at the end of the ramp.
I know that Jeff and Greg are toying with the idea of a universal TS trailer design so I will probably look to that quarter for a bit of design advice. But having said that my current design is not too bad - just need to lower it a bit, which I have seen done on one of the other Jeddas at Yaringa.
Anyway the idea needs to be shelved for a bit - too many other projects...
Anyway thanks for dropping by and for the advice.
Cheers Tim