Trailering a sailboat

[FSJDan]

Hi everyone;
My Brother-in-law and I just purchased a san juan 24, and bought a new trailer for it, and now have to transport it. The trailer has a swing arm, so it can be driven farther into the water.
It's a fin keel, with 4' from waterline to the bottom of the fin.
The owner's manual is pretty vague, but it say's you should have about half the weight of the boat (3200lb.) on the keel.
How do you figure that out? especially when the trailer will be in about 5' of water?
The info I've found on the web says to have the forward tip of the keel inline with the front axle (the trailer's center of moment)
How do you know if your bunks are high enough?
Thanks very much

[Hartley18]

FSJ, what the manual is really trying say is that the boat should be sitting snugly on both bunks with the rest of the weight on the keel, positioned as close as possible to the centerline of the trailer.

Your biggest issue is going to be making sure the wieght is balanced properly to allow you to tow it without snaking madly all over the road.

Have you got any photos you can post? (Join in the song thread if you need to get your post count up)

[eMKay]

You'll just have to guess, what I did when I picked up my boat was drop the boat onto the bunks with the center of the keel about a foot in front of the axle, and the raise up the rollers under the keel with a jack until I guessed about 1/2 the weight was supported there. I have a trailer that I modified for the job though, it has adjustable bunks and rollers. It may work a similar way for you if you are getting it out of the water, you can set the bunks up high then raise the keel support, or if that's not possible, use a jack between the trailer frame and the bottom of each bunk corner, and lower onto the keel support that way.

[Faster]

I see you are on a lake.. scuba divers may be scarce in your community, but often there are locals that will do jobs like this fairly reasonably.. any dive clubs around?

You may want to hire a diver for the first go at this... Being in northern BC it may be tough to do it yourself without proper gear (ie with snorkel and mask)

With a diver you could float the boat over the trailer and have him/her set the pads once you think you have the weight balance correct (trailer tongue weight). You could fine-tune the pad settings once the whole thing has been dragged ashore.

Once the pads are set then you should be able to relocate the boat in the same place on the trailer the next time.

[Sailormann]

The most accurate way to do it would be to go to a Travelift and have the boat hoisted by the crane, let doewn slowly onto the trailer and halted when the lift scale indicated that half of the boat's weight had been taken up by the keel, and THEN adjust your bunks.

In real life most people just make sure that the keel supports more of the weight than the bunks/rollers. The keel can safely do this. The boat's hull should not be subjected to heavy lateral compression loads such as those created by a roller oilcanning the hull.

Good Luck ! Hope everything works out well.

[FSJDan]

Thanks everyone so far, today we tried to get it on the trailer.
basically, putting it on the trailer, driving it up a bit to see where the keel was, and how the bunks looked, driving it back down adjusting the bunks, ad infinitum.
We've got it fairly close now, but called it a day when we learned (helpful bystanders) that the local yacht club has a swing arm for easier mast removal.
To clarify things, I'm in Kelowna right now, and the water is pretty warm for swimming in. I'm going to take the boat up to FSJ, about 1200km north of here.
But I might just throw in the towel and go grovelling to the yacht club and see if I can use their swing arm, but more importantly get someone who knows what they're doing to lower the mast. I'm a little worried about the roller furler foil (it looks expensive, and easy to break).
That being said, it's a deck stepped mast, i'm 6'2 220, and have some same sized friends.
I've heard you can lower the mast with the spinnaker halliyard, and the mast (28') doesn't look that heavy.
any suggestions?

[FSJDan]

Oops - at around 5.30, we called it a night, as I don't have insurance on the boat, and I learned today you need insurance to moor it at the yacht club. So I motored back to where we're storing the boat right now, and will try again tomorrow.

[Hartley18]

Originally Posted by Faster

...With a diver you could float the boat over the trailer and have him/her set the pads once you think you have the weight balance correct (trailer tongue weight). You could fine-tune the pad settings once the whole thing has been dragged ashore.

Once the pads are set then you should be able to relocate the boat in the same place on the trailer the next time.

To be honest, it might be an easier (cheaper!) task with a crane. Some sailing clubs have hoists & slings for lifting Etchells/Solings/etc. out of the water and that would be ideal for setting up a boat on a trailer if needs be.

..but pick a quiet time to do it.

[Faster]

Originally Posted by Hartley18

To be honest, it might be an easier (cheaper!) task with a crane. Some sailing clubs have hoists & slings for lifting Etchells/Solings/etc. out of the water and that would be ideal for setting up a boat on a trailer if needs be.

..but pick a quiet time to do it.

True, a crane or a travel lift (also mentioned earlier) would be best, but hereabouts I'm pretty sure I could "rent" a diver for less than a crane.

But the SJ24 is not that heavy and if the proper lifting gear is available there may be a local lift/crane that could get the job done. Those public "swing arm" type cranes, though, often won't lift a keelboat high enough to get over the trailer bed.

Originally Posted by FSJDan

....I've heard you can lower the mast with the spinnaker halliyard, and the mast (28') doesn't look that heavy.
any suggestions?

Even though the mast doesn't look that heavy, if you're at the bottom 6 feet and it gets away on you, it'll go its own way. You can try to lower it with a halyard esp if you use a spinnaker pole as a "gin pole" to improve your angle. But you still need a way to control the lateral movement as it comes down... two other guys hanging onto the shrouds might do it. But don't underestimate the leverage that long arm can exert on you. (Don't ask how I know!) You should also have some means of making sure that the bottom end can't skid away on you as the mast is dropped... and pay attention to any wind at the time.

[FSJDan]

Thanks Everyone, that gin pole suggestion might come in handy tomorrow. I think we have it pretty close.
The trailer we bought has a fixed keel 'plate' ( two 2"x6" running down trailer), and a bunk on each side with adjustable height - we slid the back ones out as far as possible (they're on u bolts to the frame), so on the last effort, the keel was hanging just off of the bottom. We moved the rear bunks out a final 1/2",(which is all we have), so maybe some 1/2" or 3/4" plywood under the keel to make sure it is carrying the weight?
One question, should the boat be level on the trailer?
Thanks everyone