retrieve without getting in the water?

[jacuthbert]

I cannot figure out how to put my 25'C-Dory onto the trailer without ending up wading. When the temperature is reasonable, no big deal, but with winter weather I am trying to figure a way to hook it to the trailer without doing any wading. Any body have a way that keeps everybody dry?
Amanda

[C-Hawk]

I usually power the boat onto the trailer and have Pat pull it out of the water- won't work if you have rollers on the trailer.

[Will-C]

Amanda,
If there is a floating dock back your trailer as close to it as possible. Then carefully and slowly power the boat on to the trailer. Trim up the motor a little If someone is with you they can hold up their two hands and try to give you dimensions on how far you are from the winch stand . Get the boat within the distance that you can get the security chain on the bow eye. Then climb off the boat onto the dock or step on the trailers fender and on to the dock. Walk up and attach the security chain tip toeing down the trailer tongue. Pull the boat up and off the ramp and winch it the the rest of the way to the bow stop Having trailer guides on the trailer helps and you need a carpeted bunk trailer or the boat will probably slide back off the trailer. Make sure the trailer is the water enough so the boat can be loaded with relative ease If all that fails get some hip boots. Not the black patent leather kind.
D.D.

[hardee]

Amanda, maybe this can help,

I have a friend who does this:

1. On returning to the dock, back the trailer into the water close (1-2 feet) away and parallel to the dock.
2. Run the winch line out far enough to reach past the end of the trailer and take the hook with you onto the dock.
3. Secure a stern line with enough slack so that the stern can be pushed out from the dock 8-10 feet.
4. One person pushes the stern out the other keeps the bow close to the dock, or one person, push the stern out first then go to the already secured bow.
5. When the bow is close enough to the dock to reach the bow eye, secure the winch line hook to it.
6. Return the boat position to parallel with the dock, and centered over the trailer.
7. Winch it onto the trailer and secure it with the safety chain.

This system will work with either a bunk or a roller trailer. (His is a roller system). Hardest part might be that you may have to lay down on the dock to reach the bow eye, and then get up.
I have a bunk trailer, and generally with it backed into the water until the tops of the fenders are submerged about an inch, I can pull the boat up onto the bunks close enough I can reach the bow eye from standing on the trailer tongue. I don't have, but have seen, trailers with a bit of a catwalk built onto the tongue to eliminate the highwire balancing act there.



This was an early launching. I later learned to back down to where the rear pickup wheels are just at the waters edge,and that puts the trailer where the wheel fenders are just covered, and the boat goes both on and off much easier.

Harvey
SleepyC

[smittypaddler]

I just strip off a lot of strap from the winch, climb on the tongue and tightrope it down to hook it on to the bow. I don't get wet, most of the time.

[Alyssa Jean]

I have a 25 on a roller trailer and I power it on all the time. No dock. If you look at my album you can see the ladder and small cat walk that I have added to the trailer to make this easyier.
I power onto the trailer just up to the bow stop and then leave the engine on in slow forward which keeps the boat in place. I go forward along the cabin, down the ladder and secure the bow with the winch and safety chain. Back to the cabin or reach through the side window and back to neutral and shut down the engine. Back down the ladder and up the tongue to the truck bed and into the truck.

For some reason I can't put a picture on a post any more.

[matt_unique]

Here are my steps:

1.) For me it starts with the weather. If I've got a strong cross wind or cross current I leave more of the trailer bunks out of the water. (More trailer out of the water means more cradle but more effort to get full on). If the conditions are calm I put more of the trailer bunks into the water. (This makes it easier to get the boat winched all the way to the stop).

2.) I then walk from the back of my truck onto the trailer tongue to play out the strap. Make sure you have plenty of strap out.

3.) Next step is to drive the vessel onto the waiting trailer. If you are working against a cross wind/current this will take some finesse. Don't be afraid to abort the approach if it does not look good. Once the bow is in the 'cradle' of the bunks I add power to get her closer to the stop and secured on the bunks. Once on the bunks but good, turn off engines and trim engines all the way up.

4.) Walk to the bow and down over the trailer. This is when I wish I had one of those fancy ladders that some C-Brat's have. So far I have been spry enough to carefully hang on to my bow rails and step onto the trailer. Once there, carefully connect the winch strap to the bow eye. Make sure the strap is not twisted when you connect it.

5.) Last step is to crank it up to the stop. Once pulled to the stop, I slack the strap a bit and connect the safety chain. The steeper the ramp, the more the strap/chain will tighten as the stern sets down when pulling up the ramp. Once secured I walk along the trailer tongue and back into my truck - no wet feet ever. I always stop at least once as I am pulling her out of the water to loosen the strap and chain to make sure it's not cranking the bow eye super tight. (Otherwise you may exert too force on the bow eye and have some serious potential energy in the winch - if the winch slips or if you go to slack it for any reason you could be injured). Once I'm on level ground I check the strap/safety chain again. I keep it snug but not cranked down too tight.

Good luck with your efforts.

[rogerbum]

My guess is that Amanda is speaking mostly about a ramp without a float adjacent to it (perhaps at Lake Patagonia). David's method is the most applicable to that situation.

[Almas Only]

Buy a pair of hip boots. Best boating investment I ever made.

[patrick and linda]

i agree with almos,
waist high boots work well for many different applications. we use them all the time.
several years ago, i walked into the water to hook the boat to the trailer, totally forgot that my cell phone was in my lower trouser pocket. the phone was destroyed!
best regards
pat

[cemiii]

Even the cheap $2-3 (on sale) picker-upper similar to this grabber from Harbor Freight will give you another couple feet of arm extension from either the trailer or dock to hook up a bow eye hook. Suspect that a lot of boat hooks could reach even farther (maybe a little duct tape?).

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?category=&q=grabber

[localboy]

[Jim & Dara]

[Casey]

A couple of comments.

(1) Be careful walking on the launch ramp near the water, climbing on/off the boat, etc. A few years ago El (Fiero) fell and broke her femur due to the slippery/mossy conditions, and it put her (El) in drydock for most of the winter.

(2) I watched a solo-boater recently that had a variation on the loose-strap-launch technique. The boater had attached one of his bow lines to one of his rear trailer guides while doing his pre-launch preparations. He then backed the boat trailer into the water far enough so the boat floated-free. Then when he towed the trailer out of the water - the boat was brought right up to the shallow water. He resecured the bowline to a nearby branch, parked his truck, and headed out. All this was done in the dark (about 0430) with twenty other bass boats being launched (he wasn't one of the bass-boaters). As smoothly as the process went, it was pretty clear he'd done this many times before. ...looked like a pretty slick technique.

Best,
Casey

[Karl]

For single-handing the boat, the hip boots sound like a good suggestion.

Also, depending on location, some public ramps totally prohibit power-loading, either for safety reasons or to prevent erosion of the bottom by prop-wash.

Trailer platforms, with gritty no-slip, seem to be obvious...

Worst case scenario: loading the boat onto the trailer, solo, nobody at the ramp or on the boat, after dark, a slight misstep from the trailer tongue, broken femur, no cell phone coverage...oh, add "compound" fracture, and "severed femoral artery"...guess what's next? (cremation, or have you alrerady bought a plot?)

It might be a stretch of the imagination for something to get so far out of hand, but the shit can hit the fan very suddenly, so you try to minimize all your exposures beforehand. Also, some of us major risk-takers have gotten more conservative in our old age...