Trailering long distance

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paulburn

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Hi.

Am thinking of buying a Pogo 2 (21 foot lightweight minitransat boat). Unfortunately the company is in California. I have two transport choices to the UK (apart from sailing it !).


1) Boat on trailer to Florida. Then ship to UK.

2) Ship via Panama to UK. 3x the price.

The trailer is double axle with suspension (not the leaf type). The boat would be supported by two cradles (about 10 inch wide with intervening foam and carpet) acrossways at the position of the stringers. The keel would not be attached. The yard say all should be fine and they do it all the time and will stay below 50 mph.

I would prefer to ship all the way but just so much more expensive. Am i being too much of a worrier, and the road journey should be fine ? Do boats mind being transported long distance by road ?

many thanks ! Paul
 
boguing said:
Assuming that it is fully insured, your only consideration should be cost vs. time surely.
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I was kind of worried that bumping about on roads for several days might stress the hull and make it less rigid long term.

Tell me i'm being paranoid!!
 
paulburn said:
I was kind of worried that bumping about on roads for several days might stress the hull and make it less rigid long term.

Tell me i'm being paranoid!!
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I have towed a 21ft beneteau all over Ireland, UK and Europe with no apparent ill effect to the structural integrity of the boat. If you are concerned, what about getting a more supportive wooden cradle made up that sits on the trailer, take off the existing supports and put them inside the boat?
 
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I have towed a J24 a lot and a caravan (at seperate times), give me the J24 any day a delight to tow with low centre of gravity and good aft vision as you can see under the boat.
The mini probably has a bulbed keel and therfore a lower CG and with a nice fitted cradle I am sure you could tow her anywhere.
 
Just a quick point. The American Trailer. While you have the opportunity and the boat is in the US, buy a spare wheel (with a tyre on obviously) a wheel bearing set and a pair of brake shoes. As once the trailer is over here none of these things will be available.But if you have a bearing set you can go to a bearing place and match them up for peanuts.
 
The only worry I would have is if the boat is new and still a bit "green" it may distort, but that's probably just me being a worrier and not knowing enough about GRP (or FRP in your case)
 
Having recently sold my Pogo 2, I would suggest you consider either:

- buying a used one already in Europe. There are several available, some already fully optimised for the Transat. They will be cheaper to buy and ready to sail almost immediately. I know some of them and would be happy to give you my views on each boat offline if you like. 697 is really well optimised, for example.

- buy a Nacira. There are a couple of reasons that all of the top sailors in Europe who are buying new minis are buying Naciras. First is precisely because of the problem you have - since Structures licensed the build of new Pogo 2s to California, it isn't economical to bring a new one to Europe. The other reason is because Naciras are fast. Each of them (Pogo 2 and Nacira) has their good points, but a lot of the top sailors seem to be going for Naciras. I would not be surprised if a Nacira won the AZAB this year, and the MT next year.

- if you do decide to go ahead with the purchase, you might also consider posting your concerns on the Mini Transat Forum
 
paulburn said:
I was kind of worried that bumping about on roads for several days might stress the hull and make it less rigid long term.

Tell me i'm being paranoid!!
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West coast to east cost is a long way, and an uninterrupted trip like that will in some ways be more stressful than several shorter trips. But, having said that, a lot of people trailer minis all over Europe, several times per year.

One other option to consider, if you are going to buy a new Pogo 2, is to get it shipped in a container. That would mean removing the keel and putting the boat on an angled cradle in order to get it to fit in the container, but I believe it could be considerably cheaper than what the yard is proposing. I know of several minis that have been shipped from North America to Europe that way.
 
Factor in the emotional cost of taking years off your life expectancy due to trailering a boat long distance.

It is _not_ fun.
 
Slycat said:
Factor in the emotional cost of taking years off your life expectancy due to trailering a boat long distance.

It is _not_ fun.
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I think someone else would do the towing. He says the yard would arrange it and stay below 50 mph.

But I agree with your sentiment. I did it once with my boat and it was stressful until I got back and parked for the final time.
 
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