Retriever Mate

Hartley18 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008

Went sailing on the weekend for the first time in 6 months!

..and a glorious day it was. 10-15kt breeze, 2' chop.. boat didn't take on water and behaved itself nicely.. no problems..

It took blooming ages to get the boat ready and launched (no hurry on a nice day), but even longer to get the *%^!@ thing back on the trailer!

Okay, it was partly my fault - I forgot to run the wire out first ready to hook on as soon as the bow touched the rollers, then I remembered to put the pin in (tilt trailer) before walking down to clip on, but forgot to take it back out until the boat was halfway up! Had to let the boat back down, found one of the rollers had come adrift, fixed that up by pounding on it with the back of the trailer-winch handle, winched the bloody thing back up again - crooked..

An hour later we were off the ramp - lucky it wasn't busy!!

I know we've had a similar discussion before, but I really don't want to extensively modify this trailer - it's not worth it.

Has anyone had any luck with Retriever Mates on their trailer? I've been told that they may not work properly on TS's because the centercase slot is wider than the keel. True??

Thanks,
Cameron

sailingdog · #2 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008

Cameron-

Never used that particular product. SOmething that might work is making up a set of posts that mount to the back end of the trailer that are about the width of the boat...to help keep the aft end of the boat centered on the trailer. A friend of mine did this for their trailer and used 2" schedule 80 PVC pipe for the uprights. The two pipes stick up high enough to prevent the boat from wandering off center as it is loaded on the trailer.

Hartley18 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-06-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Cameron-

Never used that particular product. SOmething that might work is making up a set of posts that mount to the back end of the trailer that are about the width of the boat...to help keep the aft end of the boat centered on the trailer. A friend of mine did this for their trailer and used 2" schedule 80 PVC pipe for the uprights. The two pipes stick up high enough to prevent the boat from wandering off center as it is loaded on the trailer.

Thanks, SD - I've tried the hockey-stick idea, but with the Hartley being a fairly beamy boat for it's length it didn't seem to help all that much. The boat starts to track at an angle on the rollers before the sticks indicate anything is wrong.

I was hoping someone here might have used them...

Cameron