Trailer sailer antifouling - do you?

Kilo

Kilo

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Oct 2020
Messages
265
Visit site
I've a Manta 19 sat on a trailer, hoping to get out on her very soon but not expecting to leave her in the water for more than a month at a time.
I'm expecting to be sailing and mooring off the N. Devon coast and hope to be able to give her a quick hose down when she comes out each time.
Would the inevitable bumps & scrapes when launching & recovering just rub any antifoul off?
Interested to hear what folk here would do, antifoul or not?
 
I've done it both ways. Depends on the fouling in the area. If you have a decent shiny gel coat, pressure washing may be the answer.
Or use a hard a/f which would mostly avoid damage. There are cheaper ones. It's not like you are considering abrasion from high speeds. ;)
 
In my experience, the faff involved in stepping and unstepping the mast becomes an incentive to leavimg the boat im the water for longer periods, so yes, I would advise applying a/f. I don't think a great deal of it would be rubbed off during launch/ recovery, it's difficult enough to take it off when you want to do it deliberately.
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
In my experience, the faff involved in stepping and unstepping the mast becomes an incentive to leavimg the boat im the water for longer periods, so yes, I would advise applying a/f. I don't think a great deal of it would be rubbed off during launch/ recovery, it's difficult enough to take it off when you want to do it deliberately.
Click to expand...
I agree, except I had streamlined the mast stepping procdeure on two similar sized boats. It's the queing at the slip, and recovering if the wind has picked up that I found a pain.
 
I anti fouled my trailer sailer, now I'm not sure why as it spends most of it's time on the trailer.
A friend has his sparkly new trailer sailer in a marina berth. His is not anti fouled but he has made a kind of push me pull you hull scrubbing device that is pretty effective, but needs two people to operate as you pull it back and forth up and down the hull. I think it's based on non scratch scotchbrite. Either way it does no damage to the finish. It does need doing with some regularity...once a month at a guess.
 
Alfie168 said:
I anti fouled my trailer sailer, now I'm not sure why as it spends most of it's time on the trailer.
A friend has his sparkly new trailer sailer in a marina berth. His is not anti fouled but he has made a kind of push me pull you hull scrubbing device that is pretty effective, but needs two people to operate as you pull it back and forth up and down the hull. I think it's based on non scratch scotchbrite. Either way it does no damage to the finish. It does need doing with some regularity...once a month at a guess.
Click to expand...
ooh, here's an idea . And replacing one person with bungee cord off the rigging might work for us loners too....
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
In my experience, the faff involved in stepping and unstepping the mast becomes an incentive to leavimg the boat im the water for longer periods, so yes, I would advise applying a/f. I don't think a great deal of it would be rubbed off during launch/ recovery, it's difficult enough to take it off when you want to do it deliberately.
Click to expand...
I've seen the faff factor mentioned elsewhere & I'm mindful of the issues but unfortunately I've not yet found a club with moorings or affordable private moorings.
A marina would blow the budget in seconds!
Wherever we sail it'll be a mission to get there so I'm thinking a series of occasional long weekends to maximise time in water/Launch&recovery will probably be how it works out. That way we should be able to launch before the weekend crowds on a slip & recover once they've all gone home... At least that's the plan at the moment. Much depends on weather & work etc.
Cheers.
 
If your taking it in and out, I wouldn't bother. Incidentally, BethFran had a mussel farm under her when lifted after a year in a marina with alock gate. Pressure washed and scrubbed, not antifouled, and after 2 years in a drying mud berths where she only floats for 2 hours out of 12, she has hardly anything growing on her. Whether thats down to time spent immersed or the mud acting as an abrasive I dont know.

Meant to say, I have never antifouled her since I got her in 2015, ever. Probably will this year just as a practice before doing the big one.
 
I bought a trailer sailor once as a second boat. I had plans to do all sorts of things with it.
It never happened . It was the only boat I ever made money on though.

Experienced blokes on here say be mindful of where you launch. Parking the car and trailer
can be both difficult and expensive.

I had fun with mine. I'm sure you will too.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
I bought a trailer sailor once as a second boat. I had plans to do all sorts of things with it.
It never happened . It was the only boat I ever made money on though.

Experienced blokes on here say be mindful of where you launch. Parking the car and trailer
can be both difficult and expensive.

I had fun with mine. I'm sure you will too.
Click to expand...
Thank you, good point about car & parking, probably worth a thread in its own right.
 
steve yates said:
If your taking it in and out, I wouldn't bother. Incidentally, BethFran had a mussel farm under her when lifted after a year in a marina with alock gate. Pressure washed and scrubbed, not antifouled, and after 2 years in a drying mud berths where she only floats for 2 hours out of 12, she has hardly anything growing on her. Whether thats down to time spent immersed or the mud acting as an abrasive I dont know.

Meant to say, I have never antifouled her since I got her in 2015, ever. Probably will this year just as a practice before doing the big one.
Click to expand...
Music to the ears, I'm thinking that I'll probably only have time for absolute necessities before first dunking; then see what presents in the way of new necessities once we've been out.
 
Caraway said:
I agree, except I had streamlined the mast stepping procdeure on two similar sized boats. It's the queing at the slip, and recovering if the wind has picked up that I found a pain.
Click to expand...
Is be interested to hear what you did to streamline things ; was it practice or design tweeks?
 
Varies according to boat and mast step. A tabernacle boat with a weighty mast needed an A frame to winch it up and down under control. A boat with a lighter mast with a pivot on the step just needed a pre-ordained and well-practiced routine.
Another open cruising dinghy (a hefty boat) was quite easy as, although the mast was heavy, it was stepped on the cockpit floor and was pretty easy to walk up. The tricky bit is alway moving the mast far enough aft (from it's transport position)to get the pivot pin in. There is a lot of mast (and furling gear sometimes) hanging over the stern.

Getting the forestay attached is the key. Leave the shrouds attached, just make sure the rigging screws don't get twisted/kinked or they won't let you get the mast up far enough. Then everything is in balance.
 
Caraway said:
Varies according to boat and mast step. A tabernacle boat with a weighty mast needed an A frame to winch it up and down under control. A boat with a lighter mast with a pivot on the step just needed a pre-ordained and well-practiced routine.
Another open cruising dinghy (a hefty boat) was quite easy as, although the mast was heavy, it was stepped on the cockpit floor and was pretty easy to walk up. The tricky bit is alway moving the mast far enough aft (from it's transport position)to get the pivot pin in. There is a lot of mast (and furling gear sometimes) hanging over the stern.

Getting the forestay attached is the key. Leave the shrouds attached, just make sure the rigging screws don't get twisted/kinked or they won't let you get the mast up far enough. Then everything is in balance.
Click to expand...
If the design of the rig allows it, leaving shrouds attached does wonders for lateral stability while getting the forestay attached. I shackle the jib halyard to the bow fixture before raising the mast, take up slack in the halyard and then cleat it off to keep the mast up while I go to the bow to attach the forestay rigging screw to the bow fixture.
With some rigs you can leave lower shrouds attached while moving the mast fore-and-aft but not the uppers. Or the other way around; I forget which.
 
My Dehler 22 has an extra pair of shrouds that keep the mast straight fore/aft as you lower it from the cockpit using a winch and a rope going forward through the anchor locker and up a hole to the forestay . The mast has a tabernacle and it can be lowered/lifted single handed quite easily and quickly, but there is always that heart in mouth moment fulcrum moment when lifting the mast or lowering it where you seriously hope nothing goes wrong. Its a very tall mast for a 22 footer as well at around 8 metres.
 
Thread drift, from anti-foul to stepping the mast without faff, but definitely related. :) No, I don’t use anti-foul; it is easy enough to lift her out to clean her off while keeping the mast up.
 
steve yates said:
If your taking it in and out, I wouldn't bother.
Click to expand...
My Hunter 490 has red Trilux on her bottom, but really because it was the only safe-to-use-underwater paint I could find except some Jotun stuff which came by the barrel. My Drascombe has some old eroding antifouling from its days in the sea, which I leave on because I can't be bothered to remove it, and the fresh water where she lives know gives no more than a little slime. One day I'll roll her over, take that off and slap some Trilux or other hard antifouling on there. I only used Trilux on the Hunter because I got a 2.5 litre can of it on eBay for forty quid, years ago.
 
I'm thinking about a trailer-sailer now, (again) after 18 months keeping a 24fter in one of the Solent's cheaper marinas. I actually believe the marina was fine value - we could be on board within ten minutes of leaving home, on foot. But it was still £5, every day of every week of the year, including about seven cold months when I had no desire to go sailing. I've already saved £900 since selling her.

I can imagine keeping something like a Swift 18 on the trailer at home (when I have a driveway), thereby enjoying taking meticulous care of her; and when the weather is at its best, I'd just accept the cost of a berth over the summer.

I'm not persuaded by regular trailer-sailing, after years launching and landing a big dinghy. But the option to keep a mini-yacht at a safe, convenient all-tide marina for four or five summer months, then hauling out for a free winter at home, is very appealing - more so than keeping her on a cheap drying mooring all year.

The Manta is a pretty little boat. If I get something of a similar size, I'll want a fully-retracting keel, so the underbody is like a dinghy. I would attempt to make either a submersible pontoon that the boat can be floated out of the water upon when not in use, or I would make a heavy tarpaulin 'bag' which the boat could be parked in and either have the seawater pumped out, or a dribble of biocide pumped in.

I would be in favour of antifouling, if it wasn't so much bother and cost, and not invariably effective.

Cripes, hasn't it got late. :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top