Boat recovery- Turfer or winch?

[Kelpie]

Inspired by Lakey's video, I'm thinking of altering how I recover my dinghy. It's a Wayfarer so fairly heavy, and it lives on a steep bank. At present I run a rope to a pulley and then over to the car's tow-bar. This is a reasonable solution but requires a lot of running back and forth between boat and car to make sure it is heading the right direction.

I think I will change to a car-less system that uses a winch mounted on the trolley, so that I can just walk with it up the beach as I wind in the rope. However I think a winch will be a pretty slow way of covering the distance.

I've heard of these things called 'turfers'- would they be a better bet? Presumably that big long handle they have allows much more leverage to be applied.

 

[ripvan1]

Google tirfor winches and you'll see what they're all about, basically a box pulling cable trough it and locking till next pull of handle. More suitable when needing a steady controllable pull. Good gear but unwieldy and quite slow and you'll need something to attach it to as an anchor - whereas boat winch is a compact unit and I'd suggest a bit quicker.

Tirfors are also a nickable unit if left unattended !

 

[Lakesailor]

Tirfors are very heavy and very slow to use. They are grand for pulling felled trees up to a roadway or stuck Landies (yes, it does happen)
I think they were designed for pulling the sections of Bailey Bridges across rivers.

For my winch I found that the standard length handle didn't provide enough grunt so extended it by 50%.

You could carry on using a block (better a wire than a strap as it will go around a sheave and you can get a lot more on the drum) at the top of the bank and running the cable round it and back down to the trailer hitch. Doubling the grunt, but also the revolutions of the winch.

 

[Kelpie]

Ah OK, so a tirfer is not really the right tool for the job.
The trick will be to get something high geared enough to move the boat up the beach at a reasonable speed, but also capable of the final haul up the bank.
So maybe a normal winch and then at the end add in a pulley at the top of the bank to give a 2:1 purchase.

Funny thing is, because this is for a launching trolley rather than a trailer, fitting a winch could be quite tricky- I liked the idea of the tifer because it would just hook on. Maybe I can figure out a way of doing the same with a winch.

 

[Seajet]

This is off the top of the head, but how about using a 2-speed sheet winch and braided rope ?

That would give high & low gears, could be made detachable by a key-hole slot in a plate on the trolley ???

Winch handles are available in at least 2 lengths.

 

[sandeel]

boat recovery

stick with the car IMHO, but why bother with a pulley? I used to recover a small yacht using a length of rope from the car's tow ball to the trailer, pull the boat up to a flatter surface out of the water, then chock the trolley wheels, reverse the car to the tow hitch, attach, and carry on up the slope this was at Hardway and it is really steep there. Tirfors are for removing tree stumps and take an age to move a few inches!! really not an option
best of luck

 

[Csail]

Inspired by Lakey's video, I'm thinking of altering how I recover my dinghy. It's a Wayfarer so fairly heavy, and it lives on a steep bank. At present I run a rope to a pulley and then over to the car's tow-bar. This is a reasonable solution but requires a lot of running back and forth between boat and car to make sure it is heading the right direction.

I think I will change to a car-less system that uses a winch mounted on the trolley, so that I can just walk with it up the beach as I wind in the rope. However I think a winch will be a pretty slow way of covering the distance.

I've heard of these things called 'turfers'- would they be a better bet? Presumably that big long handle they have allows much more leverage to be applied.

i have a 12volt electric winch that i'm willing to sell.

 

[electrosys]

I would recommend a Dutton-Lainson 2-speed winch - you select the speed according to how much 'grunt' you need. If you need even more horsepower, then use the winch with a snatch block to give you an extra 2:1 - of course the more grunt you have the slower the pull. Such is life.

A D/L 2500 winch is rated at 2500 lbs, so would very easily lift a Wayfarer vertically if required to do so. Up a steep bank would be no problem.

 

[Lakesailor]

Electric winch on your towball with a remote so you can operate it whilst steering the trolley sounds a grand idea.
I have use my method because we don't have vehicle access to the field except by arrangement.

 

[DJE]

When I had to recover a Wayfarer single handed I put the anchor at the top of the slip and fixed a single block to the launching trolley then led the anchor warp down the slip and round the block. Hauling on the free end gives a 2:1 purchase and lets you stay next to the boat all the way up. A decent slipway and a jockey wheel on the launching trolley helps.

 

[Seajet]

I would recommend a Dutton-Lainson 2-speed winch - you select the speed according to how much 'grunt' you need. If you need even more horsepower, then use the winch with a snatch block to give you an extra 2:1 - of course the more grunt you have the slower the pull. Such is life.

A D/L 2500 winch is rated at 2500 lbs, so would very easily lift a Wayfarer vertically if required to do so. Up a steep bank would be no problem.

I can recommend Dutton-Lainson,

a great company to deal with; they supply the manual keel winch for the British Anderson 22 ( always did ).

When I required a replacement, they gave me a countdown in days to delivery, down to which ship it was coming on !

 

[Kelpie]

This is off the top of the head, but how about using a 2-speed sheet winch and braided rope ?

That would give high & low gears, could be made detachable by a key-hole slot in a plate on the trolley ???

Winch handles are available in at least 2 lengths.

The launch trolley is made of small section tubular steel and don't think I could incorporate a solid mounting platform for a sheet winch. There's also the small matter of price...

stick with the car IMHO, but why bother with a pulley? I used to recover a small yacht using a length of rope from the car's tow ball to the trailer, pull the boat up to a flatter surface out of the water, then chock the trolley wheels, reverse the car to the tow hitch, attach, and carry on up the slope this was at Hardway and it is really steep there. Tirfors are for removing tree stumps and take an age to move a few inches!! really not an option
best of luck

The pulley is only there to change the angle at the top of the bank. Otherwise I would have to drive the car into a wall!
Sometimes there are other parked cars in the way which is one reason I don't want to have to rely on the car any more.

When I had to recover a Wayfarer single handed I put the anchor at the top of the slip and fixed a single block to the launching trolley then led the anchor warp down the slip and round the block. Hauling on the free end gives a 2:1 purchase and lets you stay next to the boat all the way up. A decent slipway and a jockey wheel on the launching trolley helps.

Quite like the idea of a pulley on the trolley to give a 2:1. That might well be enough to let me do the bulk of the moving manually without too much effort.
I've added an axle with two extra wheels to the trolley (I had it sitting spare) which is in part why it tends not to just go the direction it is pulled in. Will consider a proper jockey wheel but think a large enough wheel to cope with the rough ground would prop the bow of the boat too high (remember the boat ends up on a steep banking as it is, I don't need it to end up at an even higher angle).

 

[sandeel]

The pulley is only there to change the angle at the top of the bank. Otherwise I would have to drive the car into a wall!
Sometimes there are other parked cars in the way which is one reason I don't want to have to rely on the car any more.

Ahh I see your point......