1
Who says
the boat
has to be
upright? Here
is a clever way
to lower the
centre of
gravity and
reduce the air
draft whilst
towing.2
A long, shallow slipway will leave
the car up to its wheel arches
before there is enough depth to launch.Instead, walk the boat out on a long line
attached to the trailer’s tow hitch. You
can retrieve the rig the same way.3
A recovery
on a
concrete slipway
using a steel long
bar. These bars
have a tow ball at
one end and a tow
hitch at the other.
They form a solid
and very safe
connection that
keeps the car out
of the water and
are very useful on
steep gradients.4
You don’t
always need
a ramp. Here
boats are being
launched from
trailers into an
Austrian lake by a
fixed crane –
much better for
your trailer’s
wheel bearings!Jake
Kavanagh,
former editor
of Motorboats
Monthly, has
some sage
advicehas a 1994 Land Rover Defender, which
proved to be excellent, both for bringing
Free Spirit from the south coast to Brough
and for going to/from Argyll. On retirement
I subsequently obtained a 1996 Land
Rover Discovery, which does the job just
as well. I could now be independent of my
son. Second problem solved.
Launching was now the next headache
to overcome and although it’s possible to
run the loaded trailer down a ramp, this
was a very definite no-go for several
reasons. A word of warning: don’t rely on
the advice of a boat supplier who says
you can launch using your road trailer.
Firstly, my trailer is steel box section
with drain holes. This is bad enough if rain
water is forced inside but I hate to think of
the corrosion problems if immersed in sea
water. I pumped as much old engine oil
into the sections as best I could to
hopefully reduce corrosion. A trailer with
angle or I-beam construction can of
course be washed off after immersion if
this is the chosen method of launching.
However, there is another problem lurking
to catch the unwary. This is the matter of
sealing the wheel bearings.
Old seals almost certainly will allow
water to enter the hubs and thus mix with
the grease which, unless you’re very
lucky, will result in bearing failure and
possible loss of the wheel. Sod’s law says
this will happen at night on a remote part
of road or motorway.
There are a number of manufacturers
who advise that their bearings are
adequately sealed and thus the trailer can
be immersed, but in my experience
there’s only one safe way and that is to
strip each hub and repack with new
grease after each immersion. Therefore
Top tips for launching
‘Sod’s law says
bearing failure will
happen at night on a
remote part or road
or motorway’
TOWING A BOAT
Be aware of the fact that tyres are rated
for load and speed