galaxy13
New Member
Is there anybody who knows how to launch this sailingboat from the trailer?
http://www.hood.de/xxlimage.cfm?imageID=15142635&filetype=jpg
http://www.hood.de/xxlimage.cfm?imageID=15142635&filetype=jpg
Launching a sailingboat (Etap 23)
- Thread starter galaxy13
- Start date
Alfie168
Well-Known Member
Hmmm I see your point.
My Dehler 22 Trailer Sailer sits much lower on the trailer and we just dump the trailer in the water and she slides off in about three feet of water at the most.
Trailer sailers either have a single trailer where you immerse the axles or a secondary dolly trailer which you lower by winch off the back of the main trailer, thus keeping the main trailer dry (this was the original Dehler method, but mine doesn't have it). I'd have thought the second type was more suitable to the Etap which seems to need quite a bit of water to float off.
Alternatively, if there is a tractor available you ask them to reverse your trailer into the water, thus avoiding your towing vehicle getting wet..or salty and wet. Or you have an extender bar fitted to your towbar so you can project the boat further into the water without the vehicle getting wet
The only other choice is a lift in....which is not what you want really costwise. If you are the new owner, what did the last owner do?
Looks very nice by the way. Etap seem pretty good quality whenever I look at one.
Not sure i've been any help, but good luck.
Tim
My Dehler 22 Trailer Sailer sits much lower on the trailer and we just dump the trailer in the water and she slides off in about three feet of water at the most.
Trailer sailers either have a single trailer where you immerse the axles or a secondary dolly trailer which you lower by winch off the back of the main trailer, thus keeping the main trailer dry (this was the original Dehler method, but mine doesn't have it). I'd have thought the second type was more suitable to the Etap which seems to need quite a bit of water to float off.
Alternatively, if there is a tractor available you ask them to reverse your trailer into the water, thus avoiding your towing vehicle getting wet..or salty and wet. Or you have an extender bar fitted to your towbar so you can project the boat further into the water without the vehicle getting wet
The only other choice is a lift in....which is not what you want really costwise. If you are the new owner, what did the last owner do?
Looks very nice by the way. Etap seem pretty good quality whenever I look at one.
Not sure i've been any help, but good luck.
Tim
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
[ QUOTE ]
The only other choice is a lift in....
[/ QUOTE ]Not so.
It's been discussed quite a few times. Put a strop between the coupling and the tow vehicle. Make it as long as you need it to let the trailer in far enough to float off the boat. Chock the trailer just above the water on the slip. Disconnect and drive forwards. Put strop in place, take up slack by moving forwards. Remove chocks. Reverse down slip. If the angle is to shallow for the trailer to move under it's own weight (most unlikely) either push manually as well as controlling with tow vehicle or if there is a pontoon alongside the slip pull by hand with a warp attached to the back of the trailer.
As a last resort make up an extended tow bar as suggested with a coupling at one end and a ball at the other. Thus you can actually push the trailer.
All these depend on having the tow combination in a nice straight line before the launch. Otherwise it all goes a bit skew-wiff.
Or just use a 4x4
The only other choice is a lift in....
[/ QUOTE ]Not so.
It's been discussed quite a few times. Put a strop between the coupling and the tow vehicle. Make it as long as you need it to let the trailer in far enough to float off the boat. Chock the trailer just above the water on the slip. Disconnect and drive forwards. Put strop in place, take up slack by moving forwards. Remove chocks. Reverse down slip. If the angle is to shallow for the trailer to move under it's own weight (most unlikely) either push manually as well as controlling with tow vehicle or if there is a pontoon alongside the slip pull by hand with a warp attached to the back of the trailer.
As a last resort make up an extended tow bar as suggested with a coupling at one end and a ball at the other. Thus you can actually push the trailer.
All these depend on having the tow combination in a nice straight line before the launch. Otherwise it all goes a bit skew-wiff.
Or just use a 4x4
Fantasie 19
Well-Known Member
Alternatively - if you have a tidal launch spot, position the trailer at the bottom of the slip at low water - warps from boat and trailer to somewhere above high water to allow recovery of both, and then just wait for the tide to come in.. you can then recover trailer and boat separately...
Spotted my local boat-yard using this method at the beginning of the year and thought I might try it myself at the end of the season when it's time to recover mine... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Spotted my local boat-yard using this method at the beginning of the year and thought I might try it myself at the end of the season when it's time to recover mine... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Alfie168
Well-Known Member
I forgot the strop /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I don't normally take my 4x4 that far into the water, and certainly wouldn't in sea water. Its not an issue at Rutland or Windermere of course.
Technical point: Don't try pushing a strop /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Tim
Technical point: Don't try pushing a strop /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Tim
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Only take it into the sea that far if it's leased /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Mandarin331
Well-Known Member
This is exactly how the yards at Pin Mill do it, where the hard is very long and flat.
Just sit on board until she floats off.
Just sit on board until she floats off.
William_H
Well-Known Member
I have helped friends a few times with fixed keel boats on trailer at our local club. The ramp is quite steep but with very little tidal change.
As said the trailer is backed to a position just above the water line. Put chocks under the wheels disconnect the trailer runt he car forward then attach w9itha stout rope. Pull the trailer up on the rope enough to remove chocks and allow the trailer to roll down until it is deep enough top float boat off.
Pull the trailer up again until clear of the water. Chock the wheels , back the car up to the trailer and reconnect.
Of the many thousands of boat trailers around here I have never seen the dolly on the trailer method used. (common for a Laser dinghy) Everyone just dunks the trailer. You need to wash the salt water off the trailer and pay special attention to the wheel bearings brakes etc.
The boat is retrieved in the same way though this activity is usually only once a season and boat is kept in water.
When the boat is in the water but on the trailer there is a big problem if the ramp is steep. The stern lifts with buoyancy tending tip the bow down in relation the trailer. This means that that lovely post at the bow is in the wrong place and or wrong height. My friend whom I help each autumn to retrieve his boat has to remove the bow support post or slide it forward out of the way. Another friend had his gunwhale at the bow damaged on launch by this tipping of the boat from stern low when on the trailer to boat level, trailer front high back low.
You will find the Etap 22 will tip by 40cms or so at the bow as the stern starts to float.(on a steep ramp) It is a real problem on launch. On retrieval you can't get the keel onto the trailer far enough before the bow hits the post.
On retrieval take a mask and snorkel and wet suit because you will almost certainly need to check the position of the boat on the trailer before you haul it out. What can be really useful is a steel rod guide or cage to guide the keel into the correct location on the trailer. It should be about 30 cms above the bottom of the keel to allow for the boat floating into the right location. Rollers under the keel can help here but most I have seen simply float the boat on. Which means the boat is above the trailer and hopefully lands in the right place as you haul out.
good luck PM me if you want to discuss more olewill
As said the trailer is backed to a position just above the water line. Put chocks under the wheels disconnect the trailer runt he car forward then attach w9itha stout rope. Pull the trailer up on the rope enough to remove chocks and allow the trailer to roll down until it is deep enough top float boat off.
Pull the trailer up again until clear of the water. Chock the wheels , back the car up to the trailer and reconnect.
Of the many thousands of boat trailers around here I have never seen the dolly on the trailer method used. (common for a Laser dinghy) Everyone just dunks the trailer. You need to wash the salt water off the trailer and pay special attention to the wheel bearings brakes etc.
The boat is retrieved in the same way though this activity is usually only once a season and boat is kept in water.
When the boat is in the water but on the trailer there is a big problem if the ramp is steep. The stern lifts with buoyancy tending tip the bow down in relation the trailer. This means that that lovely post at the bow is in the wrong place and or wrong height. My friend whom I help each autumn to retrieve his boat has to remove the bow support post or slide it forward out of the way. Another friend had his gunwhale at the bow damaged on launch by this tipping of the boat from stern low when on the trailer to boat level, trailer front high back low.
You will find the Etap 22 will tip by 40cms or so at the bow as the stern starts to float.(on a steep ramp) It is a real problem on launch. On retrieval you can't get the keel onto the trailer far enough before the bow hits the post.
On retrieval take a mask and snorkel and wet suit because you will almost certainly need to check the position of the boat on the trailer before you haul it out. What can be really useful is a steel rod guide or cage to guide the keel into the correct location on the trailer. It should be about 30 cms above the bottom of the keel to allow for the boat floating into the right location. Rollers under the keel can help here but most I have seen simply float the boat on. Which means the boat is above the trailer and hopefully lands in the right place as you haul out.
good luck PM me if you want to discuss more olewill
BAtoo
Well-Known Member
Some sites, especially at working yards, have a built in strop or wire rope you can use.
Whichever way you do it make sure you have fully greased the wheel bearings and wash it all down straight after - sea water if quite corrosive for steel.
Whichever way you do it make sure you have fully greased the wheel bearings and wash it all down straight after - sea water if quite corrosive for steel.
wallacebob
Well-Known Member
see PBO feb 2009, page 74. Colin Haines describes Etap 22i with a break back trailer. Also recommends seeing www.trail-sail.org.uk
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Hi Bob, welcome to the forums.
I'm guessing that you are reading the threads in "threaded" mode.
If you look in the pale blue bar above the post, at the right hand end it may say "FLAT" after "previous" "index" and "next".
If so, click on that and it expands the thread so that you read all the replies without clicking on each heading.
I'm guessing that you are reading the threads in "threaded" mode.
If you look in the pale blue bar above the post, at the right hand end it may say "FLAT" after "previous" "index" and "next".
If so, click on that and it expands the thread so that you read all the replies without clicking on each heading.
Avocet
Well-Known Member
One of my earliest experiences of this nature was with a Leisure 17 and a Reliant Scimitar on the River Wyre. If anyone knows the upper reaches of the Wyre estuary, it's one of the muddiest places on earth. My wife, a colleague from work and I had decided to go for our first sail on tidal water. We got to the slipway and put a rope between the trailer and car, then let it all roll backwards. We also had a rope across the tow hitch on the trailer at 90 degrees to the main rope so that my wife and colleague could "steer" the trailer while I backed the car down. The tide was ebbing fast by the time we were rigged and we started rushing a bit more than perhaps we should have done. Needless to say, there was a good audience too...
After a while the trailer stopped and the rope went slack. I got out of the car to help push it. We couldn't see what it was stuck on because the water looked like very strong Bovril! I could see our adventure slipping away so I rolled up my trousers and my colleague and I waded in to push on the trailer. It started moving and I shouted "KEEP PUSHING!, It's nearly off"! After a few feet, it got stuck again. With a Herculean effort, we both put our shoulders against the transom (Leisure 17s sit the "wrong" way round on the trailer) and gave one almighty shove. It started moving again. it was only then that I glanced back up the slipway to see the car (the rope having gone tight again!) also jerking backwards down the slope (I'd left it in gear) with my wife hopping backwards alongside it trying to get one foot on the brake!
Anyway, we did manage to get it off and our trailer-sailing expertise grew thereafter!
The only other comment I could make about the "strop" method is that when it comes to recovering, it can give the trailer'sjockey wheel a very hard time. Typically, if the car goes over the top of the slipway onto level ground while the boat is still coming up it, there is a significant downward load on the jockey wheel at that point. Worth geting the biggest jockey wheel assembly you can find!
After a while the trailer stopped and the rope went slack. I got out of the car to help push it. We couldn't see what it was stuck on because the water looked like very strong Bovril! I could see our adventure slipping away so I rolled up my trousers and my colleague and I waded in to push on the trailer. It started moving and I shouted "KEEP PUSHING!, It's nearly off"! After a few feet, it got stuck again. With a Herculean effort, we both put our shoulders against the transom (Leisure 17s sit the "wrong" way round on the trailer) and gave one almighty shove. It started moving again. it was only then that I glanced back up the slipway to see the car (the rope having gone tight again!) also jerking backwards down the slope (I'd left it in gear) with my wife hopping backwards alongside it trying to get one foot on the brake!
Anyway, we did manage to get it off and our trailer-sailing expertise grew thereafter!
The only other comment I could make about the "strop" method is that when it comes to recovering, it can give the trailer'sjockey wheel a very hard time. Typically, if the car goes over the top of the slipway onto level ground while the boat is still coming up it, there is a significant downward load on the jockey wheel at that point. Worth geting the biggest jockey wheel assembly you can find!
davidpbo
Well-Known Member
Preparation is the key, assist or watch others launch similar boats.
You also need a reasonable slipway, a pontoon or quay at or near the same height as the boat when afloat helps greatly as well. Rig ropes (fore and aft) and fenders dowm the side.
I have a Jeanneau Tonic 23.5 with similar keel. I use a 10m towing strop rated at several tons and a second strop to go through the trailer (3m I think) and do it as Lake Sailor says.
You also need a reasonable slipway, a pontoon or quay at or near the same height as the boat when afloat helps greatly as well. Rig ropes (fore and aft) and fenders dowm the side.
I have a Jeanneau Tonic 23.5 with similar keel. I use a 10m towing strop rated at several tons and a second strop to go through the trailer (3m I think) and do it as Lake Sailor says.
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
And as has been mentioned, if launching on a steep slip the bouyancy of the stern will cause the bow to slip down the winchpost. It may catch on the U-bolt on the stem.
DO NOT PUSH THE STEM OFF THE WINCH POST BY HAND
The bow will come down as the boat floats free and Sod's Law will ensure that the pulpit cracks you on top of your head. Very hard.
DO NOT PUSH THE STEM OFF THE WINCH POST BY HAND
The bow will come down as the boat floats free and Sod's Law will ensure that the pulpit cracks you on top of your head. Very hard.
