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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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She is in the water!

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hewebb
Admiral

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USA
761 Posts

Initially Posted - 10/23/2011 : 04:26:01

Friday, at about 8:30 am, we headed to the lake with the boat (Catalina 25 WK/SR) to the lake where I rented a slip. It took about an hour to get there and it went well, so far. When we were making a tight left turn in the drive to go down the ramp the left rear wheel broke off the trailer. The axel was rusted completely through about a third of the way around just outboard of the mounting U bolts. The trailer is 5 years old. We broke a truck jack trying to get the axel up off the ground. One of my very good friends went to his shop and brought back a three ton floor jack and we got the axel chained up so we could move the trailer. Now it is about noon and we are hungry so the girls went for hamburgers. We backed the trailer to the ramp to a spot where we could step the mast. After quite sometime and we could not get it up and a marina employee brought a boom lift to get it started and then helped us get it up. Without his help we would not have made it. During this time we watched a couple of boats launch that stirred up the mud when they left the ramp area. So I started to worry about getting the wing keel in the mud. I backed the boat into the water and luckily the boat floated before we hit the mud with the left side of the trailer that was sagging badly from the wheel missing. Still cannot believe that remaining axel held without breaking. We tried for quite a while to get the boat off the trailer without success. I went into the water to see that all the pads were clear of the boat because they seemed to be holding. What I found was a safety line that was not removed that was holding the boat to the trailer on the starboard side at the stern. We must of messed with the thing for an hour before we got it free. I backed off the trailer and watched the depth gage very closely and had to jockey in a very small space to get out of the area. I watched it read down to 1.9 feet during this process. We did get it in the slip and got all the lines secured and the boom mounted and secure for the night. At this time it is 7:00pm. and this old man was worn out. We did have some on-lookers that made some interesting comments and it seems that we put on a good show. Thankfully, I had some great friends to help. Before we do that again there will be an A-frame for the mast and probably an electric winch. Hopefully it will be on level ground and not on a ramp. The lake is down about 5 or 6 feet which makes things a little more difficult.

Hopefully we will go sailing on Monday.

Edited by - on

GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4303 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2011 : 04:57:50

Congratulations Howard! Sorry things didn't go smoothly but it sounds like everyone stayed calm and now the fun can begin!

Edited by - GaryB on 10/23/2011 05:00:15

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2011 : 06:59:32

Congrats Howard, and thank you! We just spent $2,400 on upgrading our trailer, we had the axles replaced because I was 'worried' about the corrosion where the wheel stub is welded to the axle end. Your post helped validate my decision to spend that amount of money.

Go Sailing!

and update your profile so that we know more about you when you post

Paul

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2011 : 07:10:58

Peggy reminded me to mention. Considering the number of times we have launched JD from the trailer, you would think that what happened due to your safety strap would be old news for us. Nah! Just a couple of months ago we launched and the boat did not slide off the trailer. I had left the chain on the bow eye! That's about the worst as it takes a lot of effort to get the boat back up enough to be able to unhook the chain, the winch strap is in the way. Took nearly 15 minutes of messing about till finally was able to get the chain hook out from under the winch strap.

Retrospect: Pull the boat out all the way onto flat ground, deal with it, put it back down the ramp.

Of course, the peanut gallery is having a field day each time we screw up. Reading Cap'n Fatty's article in cruising in the med mooring stearn too by the dock, we'll take a more light hearted stance next time we launch.

Have you included your boat in the Owners Directory yet?

Paul

Edited by - on

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9080 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2011 : 10:14:53

I broke an axle pulling a boat out at the end of a season--had to put it back in and lash up the axle to get the trailer home... After we got a new fully galvanized replacement trailer (not "galvanized" with a painted tubular axle), it was snowing when we pulled out the second time. There was nobody around for that show.

If you stepped the mast on the slope of the launching ramp, you probably made that job a lot harder than it should be (as you've apparently concluded).

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 10/23/2011 10:16:30

JimGo
Admiral

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USA
962 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2011 : 16:09:40

Hopefully you've gotten all of the "bad mojo" worked out of your system, and now you'll have "smooth sailing" for a long time!

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2011 : 16:31:48

Howard,
Glad you were able to get your boat launched successfully even if it was to the amusement of the peanut gallery. Our first launch didn't go well either, we were stuck on the ramp for about 90 minutes. As others have pointed out, stepping the mast on a slope is not a good plan. It was a good idea to have friends with you, we launched SL the first time by ourselves and while we were eventually able to get the boat into the water, having a couple of friends around would have made it easier. Fortunately a couple of good Samaritans gave us a hand.

We also discovered some damage to our trailer after our last launch. I'm going to have to replace the receiver, and possibly the brakes.

Edited by - on

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