Recovery

[BobT]

Had my maiden voyage in Escape this weekend at Burghfield Sailing Club, Theale. A very good wind so discretion meant only had mizzen and jib up but non the less a very successful outing. A couple of related issue that I hope the forum will be able to assist with are that when I went to recover Escape:
     
   Had to take the trailer into the water up to the hubs to get the bow over the rear cross bar of the trailer.
   
   Had to have a number of goes winching her onto the trailer to get the back end square on the trailer.


I suspect that both are related to the shallow ramp but love to hear of others experience and expertise.

[david]

Hi Bob,
              I had to move the rear rollers closer together to overcome this same issue, of your first question.

[Graham W]

If you look at this video of a BRe recovery on quite a steep ramp, it all seems very easy!  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3kPo32QUzPg

I've had the same problem with the rear bar on the swinging cradle of my CLH trailer for four years now.  As it is winched in, the bow, rather than rising over the bar, tends to jam against it, causing the bar to pivot to the horizontal before the rear rollers can engage with the hull.  The rollers are already quite close together (about 6" apart) and are not otherwise adjustable, so I'm not sure whether moving them further towards each other is an available remedy.

When I get the boat jammed against the bar, I release it by giving the bar a vicious kick downwards.  Not elegant but it works!  I'm very reluctant to go into deeper water because of the bearings.  Next time I'm recovering, I'll check whether moving the rollers even closer together would help.

Does anybody else have similar trouble with their BR trailers?  How far apart are your rear rollers? I wonder whether clamping a strip of slippery PTFE/Teflon along the top of the bar might sort out this particular issue.  This is the same stuff used between the rudder and the stainless rudder assembly to help the rudder pivot up and down smoothly.

[BobT]

David and Graham,

Thanks for the prompt feedback.  I notice the video is recovering onto a Snipe trailer, mine is the CLH, though they look almost identical.  Like the idea of something slippery on the bar.

I still wonder why she will not come up square on the trailer, could the roller geometry being off upset a strait roll onto the trailer? Appreciate other members ideas and solutions.

Regards

[Graham W]

Bob,

If you are having trouble centring your boat because the winch is pulling to one side, you are not alone!  See this thread http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,477.0.html

[Matthew P]

Hi Jonathan, when writing the adjacent post I inadvertently double posted it. How do I delete an unwanted inadvertent posting please?
Thanks
Matthew

[Matthew P]

Max asked a question on the BRe Questions thread but I'm responding here because it is specific to Recovery. 

Max asked: “When you empty the tank by gravity on recovery……….can you winch the boat all the way onto the trailer with the tank almost full then ……..empty the tank?”

Before winching Gladys onto her trailer I remove the main ballast container hatch cover, the small hatch cover in the outboard bulkhead and, most importantly, remove one of the forward small hatch covers over the so-called self-bailers.  Then as I winch Gladys onto the trailer her nose rises over the front rollers and most of the ballast water wooshes dramatically out of the main ballast tank hatch, through the sump, through the outboard bulkhead hole and out of the outboard well.  The residual water soon drains through the normal drain plug, especially since I fitted one with double the cross section area to the original.

If a small hatch cover is not first completely removed from the front of the tank the lack of a sizeable air vent into the tank has a most surprising holding effect, a vacuum develops at the front of the tank and the water drains in gulps and slowly – even if with the normal air vent open.

A couple of cautions - Gladys is a six-year-old BR20 so her water-works may not have the same anatomy as a modern BRe. I am cautious about towing the boat even a short distance on rough ground with the extra 300Kgs supported by the hull, as point loads on the rollers and the rather tightly specified brakeless, 10 inch diameter wheeled trailer.

I seldom have trouble lifting Gladys over the swinging bar onto the first rollers and she usually finds her own way to sitting comfortably in the centre of the Bramber trailer. I wonder if this is because the swinging arm that the rollers mount on has a deeper vee than other trailer makes.

Matthew
BR20 Gladys

[Graham W]

I wonder if this is because the swinging arm that the rollers mount on has a deeper vee than other trailer makes.

Or you are more disciplined about not accumulating sundry gear in the boat, thus weighing it down!  I don't think that having 13" wheels helps much either.

[Graham W]

When I get the boat jammed against the [swinging cradle] bar, I release it by giving the bar a vicious kick downwards.  Not elegant but it works!  I'm very reluctant to go into deeper water because of the bearings.  Next time I'm recovering, I'll check whether moving the rollers even closer together would help.

Does anybody else have similar trouble with their BR trailers?  How far apart are your rear rollers? I wonder whether clamping a strip of slippery PTFE/Teflon along the top of the bar might sort out this particular issue.  This is the same stuff used between the rudder and the stainless rudder assembly to help the rudder pivot up and down smoothly.

I tried the slippery PTFE idea when recovering on to the trailer yesterday.  The good news is that it worked by allowing the boat to ride up over the swinging cradle bar by winching alone.  The bad news is that the PTFE sheet was ripped up in the process.  Back to the drawing board....

[PeterDT]

Last weekend we winched our BRe on the trailer, using Matthews method. Which worked fine.
But i needed to help the bow over the aft roller bar by standing on the bar and gently jumping up and down, thus wriggling the bar under the boat.
We took some time to let the ballast water run out, before completely winching the boat on the trailer.
Off course at that moment the centre board was only halfway up, as the halyard jammed again. I cant get this fixed.

[Graham W]

After failing with PTFE, I've now banished obstructive swinging cradle misery by bolting a piece of thin stainless sheeting on top of the bar.  Where the sheet overhangs at the back, I've bent it downwards over a piece of stout stainless tubing which is fixed underneath and across, flush against the back of the bar. 

On retrieval, the bow now meets a slippery rounded ramp that helps it up and over, instead of jamming into a piece of high friction galvanised bar at right angles.  A bit of lanolin grease on the ramp helps things along.  Photo below.

[David Hudson]

The stainless steel deflector is an excellent solution to a problem. I encountered the described problem on recovery number one.

Another solution might be to mount a roller on the rear vertical surface of the swinging cradle. I have an SBS trailer.

ps in my late 60's, lubrication is not the solution it might have been in the 60's.

[Peter Taylor]

Talking of lubrication - and being totally ignorant when it comes to trailers that actually go near the water - where does the trailer need lubrication and what do people use - I'm thinking of things like the rollers (or are they nylon, self lubricating?), the swinging cradle pivots, etc.  I have a CLH trailer.

Peter

[Graham W]

I use Ambersil silicone fg on the rollers every now and then.  They tend to bind on their spindles, which makes getting the boat off the trailer harder than it need be.

[Graham W]

Here (below) is the definitive solution to the problem of the bow jamming against the CLH trailer swinging cradle on recovery, rather than riding up and over it, as it should. 

The photo is of the back of the trailer, starboard side.  The black shrink sleeve (left) is where the extending arms for the lighting board used to go.  I found that the exposed metal could inflict nasty scratches on the gelcoat and needed covering over.  Next right is the swinging cradle itself and then to the right of the picture, the clever bit - a bracket that prevents the cradle from swinging 90° to horizontal, which encourages jamming. 

There is an identical bracket on the port side of the trailer and both acting together mean that the cradle never swings more than about 45°.  The boat therefore slides easily up and over the cradle, helped additionally by the greased stainless plate (described four posts above), which I have retained.

I think that the jamming problem mainly developed when my trailer was converted from unbraked to braked and in the process 13" wheels were substituted for the original 10" ones, raising the back of the trailer by a small but significant 1.5".

Anything that makes recovery easier is worth considering and this modification is a must if you suffer from the jamming problem.  Now I'll try to solve the issue of the boat not going on straight.....