Some thoughts after hauling out my BayCruiser

[Julian Swindell]

I hauled out Daisy Grace yesterday. The process gave rise to a few thoughts.

The water ballast makes an enormous difference. I hauled out on the Baiter public slipway in Poole, which is notorious for being at a very shallow angle. Every other person there recovering any boat either had to unhitch their trailer and push it far out, or else drove their cars so deep in that their exhausts were bubbling! I just had to get my tyres wet and I could crank her onto the trailer. Lining her up was a problem as there was a wind in just the wrong direction, straight up her stern, but someone held her straight for me and then she just came on.

The Coppercoat antifouling really works. It was just slimy, whereas any part of the paint work, or the stainless steel rudder mount, which touched the water had a great beard of green weed.

There should be a photo below showing her ready to drive off. You can see that the full length mast stows easily and doesn't need to be in two parts. It could be slid a bit further forward even. She was very "nose light" on the trailer. With the engine mounted she actually tipped down at the back. It looks like there is far too much space between the boat and the car. I moved the winch post 200mm forward after I got home which should improve the balance a bit. I also wonder how legal the light board position is. It is so far under the boat, it must be barely visible from behind. Is there a law about this? She tows beautifully. Only on steep hills do you notice she is there and there was little increase in fuel consumption cruising on the motorway. Now for a winter of tinkering and waiting for launch day. We are planning to motor her on the Thames from Lechlade before taking her back down to Poole.

[Peter Cockerton]

Julian

I to moved the winch post forward when i first got my Bayraider home on similar lines as to your comments i.e a little light on the nose and also there seemed to bit a lot of space in front of the bow on the trailer. I got caught out in two ways, one was my winch strap was only just long enough to get to the bow cleat and with moving the winch forward it was not. Secondly when i tried to launch the boat because the centre of gravity of the boat had moved forward i could not raise the bow to ease her into launching of the trailer. Just though i would mention this however i can't remember how much i moved the post forward.

Peter

[Julian Swindell]

Both good pointd. My strap is more than long enough, I just can't keep it centred. I had the winch post even further forward when I launched and it did take a bit of effort to push her up and off. So I moved it back to the original position but it does look too far back. I have moved it forward again but not quite as far as it was, so I hope I can still launch her OK. I'm not sure why the draw arm is so long. There may be a reason for it. On my old boat the previous owner hade sawn a metre out of it and it seemd to work fine, but it was a much shorter boat.

[Peter Cockerton]

Julian

Glad to hear your winch will not be a problem, one thing i did consider is you can probably overcome the increase bow weight should you wish to get the sitting further forward on the trailer as long as the nose weight doesn't increase to much by moving other aspects of the trailer forward. The rollers, wheel axles all are adjustable should you have the patience. My one problem in doing this is the mast trailering position (being one piece) is that the foot will encroach over the car, not sure if this is a problem when trailering but it will be when opening the hatch. You do seem to have a large overhang from the axle position on the trailer which results in the your lighting board being so far under the boat.

[Tony]

Hi, Julian.
Nose weight when trailing should be about 50kg.(Lift your jockey wheel -unhitched - onto bathroom scales to check)
 Make sure the boat is stopped from moving backwards off the trailer by something other than the winch strap. If it fails (eg ratchet knocked off by road stone - it happens!) the tie downs wont hold her - unless they are so tight you crush the hull!
If trailing abroad move the mast forward so it doesn't overhang the back of the boat too much as the rearmost point should carry one of those red and white diagonal "long vehicle" signs.
I didn't have one on my first trip to Greece and was pulled over by an Italian motorcycle cop who accompanied me to a service station and stood over me while I fitted it. The alternative was an on the spot fine of €60.
This item was the only thing the RAC trailing guide did not mention. Check it out before you go abroad.

[Tony]

Download failure!
I'll try again!

[Julian Swindell]

Thinking back over all the work I did last winter, I had forgotten that when I adjusted the trailer, I had slid the whole draw arm in, but moved the winch out to keep the boat at the same point on the trailer. This summer when I moved the winch back, I forgot to pull out the draw arm again, which is why I was so nose light. I seem to have it well balanced now.

The point about putting on a front tie is well made, I hadn't thoguht about the ratchet coming off.

I tied a plastic bag on the end of my mast, but next time I will slide it further forward. Is there any problem with the protruding rudder on the Baycruisers/Bayraiders? It sticks out a long way from the boat.

[Peter Cockerton]

Seems a convenient time to mention it, i recently changed the winch to a clutch lifting winch, this requires the handle to be turned to release the load. I have tried it on a couple of launches and it works fine, when the boat reaches that moment on launch when it decides to slide away at great speed it is now under the control of the winch without a spinning handle. When launched i leave the hook on one of the lighting board adjustment knobs to save turning the handle to release the line on recovery. As it can't release under load hopefully it has benefits on the accidental ratchet release that was raised. Currently it has wire rope galvanised which i guess will rust at which point i will change to something else stainless or maybe the in material dynamee if suitable. I certainly have the length of wire now to go well beyond the trailer now if required and it rolls on the drum without risk of catching in the teeth and chewing the webbing.

Peter