At a recent meet, one of our North-West technical experts enthralled us with his advice on how to construct a hernia truss, using materials found in any DCA member’s store, such as a 12 inch ruler, various bits of timber, a child’s beach ball (containing a bell) and a ladies corset. Essential knowledge for all members of a certain age whose boat launching and retrieval skills require a little honing. I thought that the following ‘true’ (?) saga would help to illustrate the problem.

The launch

Before we were able to chock the trailer wheels on the concrete ramp, I had already backed the car and day-boat trailer between the serried ranks of dinghies with great difficulty, (my neck only turns left 30 degrees, spine 30 and eyes 40 — total required 180). My friend had watched with a superior smile on his face but I swear he only performs the manoeuvre in secret between dawn and 6am. Finally we lifted the hitch and retainer off the ball, ignoring for the present the raised and rigid jockey wheel. Sadly the pristine new plastic wheel chocks demonstrated their Teflon-like surface and the whole shebang began to move. My companion ran off in a semi controlled panic to find two large stones, leaving me with feet planted like a tug of war anchor, sliding into the water, whilst attempting to steer the trailer with a series of wild ‘lift and jerks’ on the jockey wheel. This took us down the ramp nicely, red of face and strained of groin, to the launching site, with the bearings just clear of the water. I assured bystanders that this was a preferred method.

The ramp at this point had a low gradient, so rather than lifting the trailer front we decided, for medical reasons you understand, to winch off the boat by passing the winch rope round a snatch block on the trailer axle and back to the stem eye. After a few turns of the handle the trailer rollers suddenly took over and the boat took off. No brake rope! As the boat weight passed the axle line, the trailer reared up and I lost my grip of the winch handle. I grabbed the frame of the trailer as the winch handle spun at speed Unfortunately at this point the boat departed and the front end of the trailer proceeded in a downward direction towards my right ear. After an interval, the air slowly returned from blue to normal. But what was that? I thought I detected with my left ear, a slight gurgling noise. Oh no! Up to my thighs in water, I confirmed that the bung was not in and indeed not on its retainer. Where is the bung? Where is the spare? There was only one answer, a quick retrieval.

The Retrieval

First, we had to lift the front of the trailer some 5’ in order to catch the rear roller under the stem of the boat, and, as the winch was now 7’ high I stood on my box. I suspect that at this point you are ahead of me. Winching proceeded well until, possibly aggravated by the additional weight of water in my boots, the box collapsed, as did I. Yes, dear reader, the brake rope was still unattached. The winch handle spun, the boat returned to the water, the trailer dropped and I understand that, at this point, my pal let out a squeal of anguish.

[With apologies to the memory of Gerard Hoffnung and the Bricklayer’s Lament]

A Few Comments for new Trailer Sailors

1) Always think out the plan and check the equipment, before the action. It was my turn to forget the bung this year. It is an honourable tradition in the North-West to launch sans bung.

2) Where possible and appropriate use a winch, a jack, telescopic jockey wheel, block and tackle and/or willing helpers to assist your heavy lifting. That last despairing macho lift is not a good idea.

3) Explain the launching system to your helpers before, not hysterically during, operations.

4) Even when you have a braked winch, a separate rope brake is advisable: e.g. take the painter round the winch post (see diagram).

5) I regularly launch and retrieve single handed my 650lb dayboat from a 300lb simple road trailer and rarely experience problems. However I do use a braked winch and a pickup roller clamped to a 3’ extension arm (see diagram). this reduces the winch height from 7’ to 4’ — Yes, I originally did stand on a box. Break-back trailers, piggyback trailers and pick up roller arrays all have some advantages and disadvantages (cost, weight, use restrictions etc). Many trailer sailors always float their boats off with axles immersed and experience no problems, but they take great care to regularly grease the bearings before each launch or retrieval.

6) There are some excellent articles on trailing contained in back numbers of the newsletter held in the DCA library.