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A question about boat weight and displacement
"Bob Whitaker" wrote in message om... Sandy wrote: How do you get the boat back on the trailer and then get the trailer back on the hitch ball? You basically reverse the process... The trick is that the trailer needs to be designed with this use in mind. It also helps if the ramp flattens out at the top so you don't have to block the trailer wheels while on the ramp. To retrieve the boat, you launch the empty trailer attached to the rope, until it sinks out of sight (as when you lauched the boat)... I would advise extreme caution when using this technique! You will be backing the trailer a LOT farther down the ramp than most boats would need to go. I would make sure that the ramp extends that far before you attempted this. If your trailer reaches the end of the ramp and the wheels fall off the pavement you may not be able to pull the trailer back up! I would also advise using either chain, large nylon tow strap or a very large rope for this process. It could be disastrous if the rope broke while you were trying to pull the boat up the ramp. I witnessed such an operation one time at a reservoir (Lake Havasu). A boat had launched without first putting in the drain plug. By the time the owner realized his mistake the boat had considerable amount of water in it. He was able to get the plug in and keep the boat from sinking, but apparently didn't have a bilge pump. Rather than bail he decided to put the boat back on the trailer to drain the water out. With the boat so heavily loaded with water he was not able to back the trailer far enough into the water to float the boat on. The solution was to disconnect the trailer from the tow vehicle and lower it deeper into the water with a rope. They used ski line, which was a very bad idea. The backing of the trailer into the water went okay. When they started to pull the boat out of the water things went bad very fast. The excessive weight of the boat, trailer and water caused the rope to break about the time they had managed to get the rig just a few feet clear of the water. Now unrestricted on its decent to the water it hit with considerable force, and angle, which caused the water to surge up over the stern, sinking it completely. Now they had a sunken boat on a trailer on a paved ramp that extended a LONG ways (this was in spring, when the water level is high, and the ramp extends very deep to accommodate the fall when the water level can be very low). The end result was that the submerged rig rolled past the end of the ramp and off into the middle of the lake, requiring specialized diving equipment (because of the depth) to retrieve it. Rod |
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