In the DCA’s Bulletin for the summer of 1990, an article ‘Over 50 Years Ago’ appeared [127/22]. The last sentence read, ‘What followed is another story!’.

Several ‘stories’ further on, in 1981, I acquired GP14 no. 1367. According to enquiries from the GP14 Class Association, it was first registered in 1956, though it could have been built before. Although sailable, it was not in very good condition when I bought it. Its road trailer and launching trolley had obviously been homemade. To transfer from trailer to trolley and vice versa it was necessary to lift it bodily, one end at a time. That was quite impossible singlehanded. In addition, there was no protection for the trailer’s wheel bearings, which were worn out. So, as soon as I could afford it, I bought a Snipe combi‑trailer. I have a horror of immersing the wheels of a road trailer into the seawater, or even fresh water — I fear the eventual breakdown of the bearings through corrosion. Even then, my troubles were not over — the boat sits on the trolley, which in turn, sits on the trailer:

If the boat and trolley are rolled off as illustrated, then there is far too much weight on the handles of the trolley, so that trundling is nearly impossible. I fixed some handles low down on the boat’s transom, so that I can pull the boat backwards until it balances on the trolley. I have marked the painter and belay it to the trolley handles, so that when I pull the boat back, I pull it far enough, but not too far. This, and the erection of the mast, must be done with the trailer still attached to the car. After turning the mast, I get its foot under the foredeck, then get into the boat and push up the mast as I walk forward. It would be far too unsteady to do this if the boat and trailer were not attached to the car.

Having got the mast up and the boat pulled backwards (about 2 or 3’) it is necessary to remove the mast support in order to free the trolley. It is now an easy matter to roll the boat and trolley off the trailer. With the boat balanced right, it is an easy matter to trundle the lot to a slipway.

When recovering, I use the mark on the painter to make sure the boat is balanced properly. On gentle slopes, I can pull it out singlehanded, in spite of my age of 70 years! On steep slopes, I look around and gratefully accept any assistance offered to get the boat on to level ground. If not assistance is forthcoming, all is not lost — I get out a gadget that I keep wedged under the bow bag. It is in effect 2 wooden chocks kept apart by a length of broomstick, the length of which equals the distance between the trolley’s wheels. Having got the boat as far out of the water as possible, I attach the gadget behind the axle of the trolley. If I then pull the handles of the trolley sideways, the chock holds the wheel that wants to go downhill; the other wheel rolls uphill, dragging the chock behind it. The latter is in place for when I pull the handles the other way. In this way, I can ‘zigzag’ up a slope that is too steep for a direct pull. However, I accept any help offered in order to avoid the fiddle of attaching the gadget.

Having got the boat back to the car, I attach the trailer to the car. I then roll the boat as far as possible up to the trailer. The handles are now 3 or 4’ in the air. I tried pulling the handles down, but got worried about bending them, so I attached a rope to the axle of the trolley, as near the centre as possible. At a point corresponding to the position of the mast, I made a loop with a long tail. I bought a winch at a boat jumble which I attached just behind the mast support. The winch rope has a snap hook attached. When I have pulled it out, I snap the hook onto the loop. Then, with no difficulty whatsoever, I winch the boat and trolley on to the trailer. If I left the boat in this position there would be an upward pressure on the ball hitch, so I take hold of the handles on the transom and push the boat forward until its stem piece is up against a rubber pad on the trolley handles. In addition to the mast support on the Snipe combi-trailer, I made another support which fits into the mast position of the boat. This stops most of the flexing of the mast when towing.

I keep a ‘cumminhandy’ box under the stern buoyancy bag. In it I keep the winch handle, a spanner for the bottlescrews of the shrouds, a spanner to fit the nuts on the trailer (which fits the clamp for the mast support as well). When towing, I put the bottom part of the bottlescrew on the forestay, in a plastic bag in the ‘cumminhandy’ box. If I leave the whole bottle-screw on the forestay, the bottom half is liable to shake loose and drop into the boat, necessitating a possibly frustrating search. I also keep a screwdriver and a pair of pliers in this box. The latter are useful for dealing with shackle pins. For the running rigging, I use shackles with ‘captive’ pins.

I have made a gadget that clamps onto the trolley handles, so that I can tow the boat on the trolley. That set up is not for towing on public roads, but merely, say, for getting the boat from a camping spot to the water. The bolts involved are of the same size as on the trailer, so the same spanner can be used.

When I scrapped the original trailer, I saved a roller. I made another gadget incorporating this roller, which I can attach to the front of the trolley. This, in effect, can act as a ‘jockey wheel’.