In search of a better tender launching trolley...

Kukri

Kukri

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 Jul 2008
Messages
15,562
Location
East coast UK. Mostly. Sometimes the Philippines
Visit site
I am a mooring person not really a marina person, so this is a part of my sailing life:



A Malcolm Goodwin "Nutshell". Thirty years old and an absolutely excellent tender, but 90 lbs and maybe 110 lbs with the sailing rig (spars, sail, daggerboard, rudder) in, and the hard seems a bit long when I am single handed.

There must be a better design than the trolley I am using at the moment... any recommendations?
 
Minn said:
I

There must be a better design than the trolley I am using at the moment... any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Without knowing what you currently use, difficult to comment.

However if I needed one it would have large bouncy wheels, two just aft of the centre of the boat, one as a jockey wheel at the front which could rotate for steering and a handle on the draw bar at just below chest height. Don't know if such a thing is made commercially but not a big deal to have one made up.
 
I've seen some nice stainless trolleys which are really light.
What's the problem?
Getting the boat on the trolley?
Balance?
Weight up the hill?
Wheels sinking in sand?

I am surprised it's as light as 90lb. How long is it?

Most of the trolleys you can buy off the shelf are stupidly heavy, but that only matters if the slip is steep.
Anything with good wheels should be OK, wheelbarrow type as a minimum.
A good cradle lined with astroturf is favourite for hauling the boat on. For a trad boat, a wide keel roller might be good.
 
lw395 said:
I've seen some nice stainless trolleys which are really light.
What's the problem?
Getting the boat on the trolley?
Balance?
Weight up the hill?
Wheels sinking in sand?

I am surprised it's as light as 90lb. How long is it?

Most of the trolleys you can buy off the shelf are stupidly heavy, but that only matters if the slip is steep.
Anything with good wheels should be OK, wheelbarrow type as a minimum.
A good cradle lined with astroturf is favourite for hauling the boat on. For a trad boat, a wide keel roller might be good.
Click to expand...

Tender is 9ft, glued ply clinker. Barrowboats still sell the kit, although its not their design.

Present trolley is the very common type which has two wheelbarrow wheels and is made of square section galvanised steel tube and can be taken apart and stowed in the tender if you undo a few bolts. But it's a bit heavy and the boat sits high up on it because it has a central "spine".

It's quite hard work to pull up the (concrete) hard, and if it were the U shaped type the boat would sit lower. Love the Astroturf idea.
 
If it's similar to mine... the dinghy sat on 'stilts', I cut off the 'stilts' and the dinghy now sits on carpet covered wooden wedges, a couple of inches lower. The wedges have cut outs for the dinghy's bilge runners so it's always in the optimum position.
The pneumatic wheelbarrow wheels seem to be the best.
As others have said I have seen some very light and functional stainless trolleys, I imagine they are home designed. Wide enough that the wheels are not under the dinghy.
I've found that pushing the trolley is rather easier than pulling. Somehow the position of one's arms in front of the body makes breathing easier.
 
Could you get someone to fabricate a fitting that would go into the rowlock fitting that would take a strut and wheel with perhaps something similar for the stern. Something like a trailer jockey wheel only obviously it would have to be a fatter wheel/ tyre.
 
Go to someone who makes trailers for sailing dinghies. Looks about the size for a cadet dinghy trolley.
Or perhaps look for one of those trailer dollys that caravaners use to hook under the tow bars of caravans to move them by hand. Hook that under the front & then just pull on the handle without the lifting.
 
Last edited:
If it doesn't roll back down the slip easily, it's worth a look at the axles. The plating wears off and the rusty surface gives a lot of friction in the plastic wheels.
Some people saw off the stub axles and bolt on lengths of ss tube.

A lot of the ease or otherwise of pulling up the slope is about balance and the height of the handle.
 
Trolley wheels with bearings would make a huge difference to how much effort it takes to pull - the standard plastic-on-metal type are very draggy. You can get trolley wheels with roller bearings, but the rollers are probably steel and will rust very quickly and probably make things worse: http://www.rosscastors.co.uk/replacement-wheelbarrow-wheel-radial-tread-370mm-diam-1-hub-bore.html

Somebody needs to start making replacement trolley wheels with stainless steel bearings.

Some dinghy trolley makers are now making trolleys out of aluminum which are a fraction of the weight of galvanised steel - at a price premium of course.

It probably wouldn't be that hard to DIY a frame out of bolted together bits of something like this or this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top