Just got our boat !

Congratulations Tom&Shan:

A couple of things per your questions, as far as electronics; ensure you have a fixed mount VHF with a good antenna, a hand held will not likely have the range for where you will be boating. Do purchase a hand held though as a backup if you can afford it and install a good depth sounder or fish finder if you dont already have one. Another tip I learned on this board (unfortunately after the fact) is to attach a piece of STARBOARD or similar material to the transom with 3M 5200 and then screw your transducer mount into that instead of screwing direcly into the hull.

With you trailer, I dont know of too many folks that jack up their trailer and put it on blocks except for long term storage for the winter or when you will be gone for a long time (I am curently away from my boat for a year and a half and did that to mine). This relieves the strain on the leaf springs, keeps from flat spotting the tires etc., if its hot in your area I would also cover the tires to help keep them from being damaged from the sun and cracking (I dont have that problem where I am at).

As for backing, and in addition to the excellent advice you have already received, I have a very tight area in which to back into my drive and I have found that if I pull up farther past the drive and then begin to back toward the drive I have more time/space to make any corrections and get lined up properly. I can make a gentler turn and then cut it sharper once I get lined up properly. In other words, I used to pull up only to the point of where the outboard was just past my driveway and then I tried to back in with too sharp of an angle; pulling a couple of boat lengths further up the street and then backing toward the drive with a shallower angle made all the difference for me.

Finally, I make a second vote for naming your boat "FIT"; that one made me laugh out loud.

Andy
 
We use a dinghy to get to our mooring and always put the oars on board the C-Dory. We use them when going into a shallow area to check depth and also to push off if we get a little bit stuck. Also sometimes to push off when pulling away from the dock and to fend off if we start to blow into something at the dock. I wouldn't try to paddle the boat with them though.
 
If you have surge brakes, you might hear some thumps. Depends
on the coupler. But, if the boat wasn't strapped at the stern to the
trailer, I guess that would produce some big thumps, too.

Mike
 
Tom – when I picked up C-Voyager and towed her home, I noticed the bow would lift off the front post whenever I went through a sharp dip or hump in the road. I found that you have to crank the wench up fairly tight until the bow actually starts riding up on the front bumper of the post. Then as MartyP said in an earlier post , a strap holding the bow down will also help.

You can tell if the bow of the boat is riding up by looking in your rear view mirror, when you go over a hump or through a dip. If it is, you will see it come off the post bumper. That could have been the noise you heard.
 
Back
Top