Tanzer 16 -- small sailboats and the full trailer experience

Tanzer 16 -- small sailboats and the full trailer experience  -- May 14, 2015 -- Nobody that I know of ever bought a boat so they could enjoy the boat trailer experience.  The trailer is a necessary pain in the rear if you want to enjoy your sailboat.  At best it is a cumbersome inconvenience.  At worst its a big fat hassle every time you want to use the boat.  My approach is try and improve the trailer so as to minimize the hassle.  Here are my ideas for whatever worth you may find.

1a.  Try to get a galvanized trailer.  As you saw the other day, I went to considerable effort to swap out my regular steel trailer for one that is galvanized.  When you sail in salt water, the extra cost of galvanized metal will pay you back many times.

I bought boat 1313 on the left, so I could put the galvanized trailer under
my boat 1306 on the right.  Hassle to be sure but worth it.

1b.  If  you can't get a galvanized trailer take the boat off your steel trailer and clean up the metal.  Rustoleum makes good paint that will stick to rusted surfaces.  You don't need to go back to clean metal.  Scrape and bush off the loose stuff and apply paint.  It is usually too expensive to sandblast the trailer.  Change out the regular bolts for galvanized.

2.  Keep the lights out of the water.  Seems to me that salt water, copper wire, and electricity is not a very good combination.  It is not a lot of fun to have to dink with the lights every time you want to take the boat out.  I prefer to mount the lights to a board that stays in the truck while the boat is put into the water. This is a little tougher on the Tanzer because you can't just clamp the board to the transom.  I added two stainless steel studs to the transom and use those to hold the lights in place.

The cable runs over the top of the boat and plugs into the truck outlet.

I like the plug in cable instead of the flat connector.  After the boat was
placed on the trailer, the winch tower received several coats of Rustoleum
silver paint and new bolts.  Some stainless.  Some galvanized.

3.  Use Bearing buddies. Every time we take out the boat, we add a little grease to the Bearing buddies that hold the grease under pressure in the hubs.  On long trips I add a bit of grease every two or three hours of driving.  It is important to let the bearings cool before you stick the boat in the water.  Not usually a problem with a sailboat that has to be set up to launch.

I keep the grease gun in a plastic box along with a
supply of rubber gloves.

4.  A heavy trailer needs a jack.  My last trailer had considerably less tongue weight.  So this time I added a jack.  It helps a lot.  Of course I still have the trailer dolly I have been using for the last few years.

This is a cheap jack I bought from Harbor Freight so it
will probably need to be replaced in a few years.

So I have done what I can to reduce the hassle of trailering, and of course mast raising is now much easier.

Now if I could just bet better at backing that trailer down that long ramp at low tide.  I am still the worst I ever seen.  With constant practice I have improved to terrible.