Final Year student - help needed!

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Hi All
Thought i would put this in here as well as the slipway launch point section as it might get overlooked!
This i a bit of a random post but i'll explain the background to it. I am in my final year studying vehicle design at coventry university.Every year i go wakeboarding in wales and use my familys fletcher. Over the years we have come across many obstacles when launching the boat especially seeing as its off a beach. This leads me to why i am posting. For my final year i am proposing to design a new launch vehicle and trailer system to make the launch and recovery of a boat much easier and user friendly. I have developed a really short questionnaire and it would be absolutely fantastic if the members on here could answer the questions for me. It would help my research a great deal if i get answers from a variety of users. i'll post the questionnaire in the next post. Thanks for your time. i look forward to your replies

 

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User Questionnaire - Boat Launching and Recovery

Thank you for taking part in this questionnaire none of the details provided by participants will be forwarded onto to any third party

1-Age

2-Occupation

3-What type of boat do you own?

4- What is your vessel used for? Recreation/waterspouts/travel/work/fishing other please state

5-Where do you use/launch your vessel

6-What type of launch facility do you use – Beach/slipway/mariner/other please state

7-If you self launch what type of vehicle do you use in the launch and recovery of your vessel? Car/4x4/Tractor/other please state

8-How many people are involved in the launch and recovery of your vessel at anyone time?

9-Do you allow the towing vehicle to get wet at anytime during the launch/recovery process?

10-What difficulties do you come across when launching/towing/recovering your vessel?

11-What could be improved on in regards to the vehicle or trailer to make launch/recovery easier?

12-Do you think there could be scope for a new vehicle and trailer system in the present market that is geared towards the launch/recovery and lifestyle surrounding boating

13-If so what features would you like to see in this concept vehicle? State two of the following options – Waterproof interior – anticorrosion materials – water proof brakes – automated winch- adjustable vehicle height – extendable tow bar – use of advanced technology – vehicle to be a viable mode of transport for road use – economy – low retail cost – provide option of covered seating etc. for use on the beach.

14- Additional comments – any other ideas or issues that you have about any of the processes activities or equipment involved with handling a vessel around the land and water
If you could put the question number and answer alongside it going down the post it would be most helpful when i come to analyse the results

Thank you for your time

 

[gjgm]

thats alot of questions. Try doing a search on this topic and see peoples comments.
To my mind what does work well is
1.steep slip=plenty of deep water
2.powerful enough car= manage steep slip
3.roller bunks on trailer= easy to get boat on and off.

With that/launch and recover is straight forward. Downside is the trailer brakes need replacing all the time as the salt ruins them very fast.
Location is the issue. If your only slip is very shallow, you have no option but to get the trailer out into deep water.Convention is an extension pole,or ropes.
BTW some complex trailers have a sort of dummy cradle that slips the boat out a short distance. Cant see its any use in other than a very specific situation.

 

[B175Chris]

Hi Widget, you may get more of a response using a forum poll with tickboxes - just click the box below the smileys and it will direct you to a page to insert questions and responses etc, then people can just click the answers they wish - just make sure your totals add up because there are some who will answer a few questions and submit and you end up with 7 questions with 30 responses and the other however many may only have 24, which can make averaging somewhat tough /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Easy to do, you must have got into university using common sense anyway /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Hugh Foulis]

Hi Widget, I would be happy to complete the questions too, but I agree with post above re inserting a poll for us to tick boxes.

Best of Luck with the project

HF

 

[theguvnor]

Why do you need the Occupation question ?

 

[Sneds]

In case your an auctioneer! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif