Goboatingnow wrote:
> I thinking of buy a sport cruiser that I can trailer behind my Range
> rover. The all up weight of the boat + trailer will be close to the
> 3500Kg limit. Has anyone experience of towing such weights behind a
> Rangie , Any lauching tips. I dont fancy seperating the trailer from
> the
> RR''s hitch to launch it with a rope like some suggest
You're in luck, at last, something I speak about on this group about
with authority! As part of my job we launch / recover boats of all
shapes and sizes up to 5 or 6 times a day.
A big help will be having a decent roller trailer, bed trailers are ok
if you are keeping your boat in the water but otherwaise you can't beat
a good quality roller, if you are having one made for your boat then I
can put you in touch with someone who I believe makes the best trailers
bar none.
Your Range Rover will easily tow the above weight assuming that you
stay legal weight wise and the nose weight is ok. Before we bought our
Td5 90 for launching and recovery we used a Tdi range rover and
regularly towed a 25ft sportscruiser at around the weight you are
talking about, we can sell you one also if you want
(
www.quadraboats.co.uk) !
I also have a Tdi RRC of my own and it happily, although slowly, tows
over 3 tonnes when taking my bobtail RR to events.
Like i mentioned before just make sure your nose wieght is ok,
otherwise you end up with the "tail wagging the dog!"
With regards to lauching and recovery, i treat it like off-roading, and
by that I mean get out and walk it first, I speak from bitter
experience. I've seen someone come piling down a slipway, try to brake
and jack-knife their rig on the seaweed on the slip.
>From experience you should not have your boat totally floating, there
should still be some weight on the trailer. The loose technique
(proven!) we use is to reverse near to the waters edge. Take the
trailerboard and rear strap off. Reverse into the water just enough so
the engine can cool and start her up(trim the engine or leg down). Once
you are happy that all is well engine wise, reverse further until you
are happy that the majority of the boat is floating. Remember that
these boats are designed to roll of these trailers not just float off.
It is no good deciding to go in "as far as the mudflaps" or "so far up
the wheel" this only works when you know your particlular set up and
how steep the slip is.
Once you're happy, take the front strap off and try to unwind the winch
strap, the boat will most likely try to roll back so get the skipper to
engage forward gear to hold it while you take the winch strap off.
Then it's just a case of a telling the skipper he is free to go, he
pops it back into neutral and she rolls off the trailer. Lovely. As
Rich B says, it really is easy.
Putting it on however takes a bit more skill. Because sportsboats have
planing hulls they are more affected by wind than displacement type
hulls so you need to have your wits about you. The wind will always try
to push the bow around and this is really tricky to control at slow
speed as is always multiplied when you are putting a boat on a trailer
because you have to trim the leg or engine up which means you lose
steerage to a certain extent.
The person with the trailer can help you by pointing the trailer
slightly into the wind.
The technique, if you can master it, is to point the boat into the wind
and then swing the front of the boat onto the trailer at the last
second (this is where your good roller trailer comes in handy). Also,
in windy conditions you really need to go for it, none of this
half-hearted butting up to the trailer while the winchman pays out 25ft
of cable to winch you in, you'll be off up the harbour before you know
it. If you try to put the anchor on the rear wiper blade of the RR
you're not far wrong!!!. Once you're on, you may need to hold her in
gear briefly while your winch man gets the hook onto your boats towing
eye. Easy!
Sometimes you need to remember though that things can get very tricky
very quickly. A while ago I had to take a boat out where a spring tide
was running in one direction and the eind was blowing in the other.
Interesting. Especially when it's 50 grand of someone elses money!
Give me a shout if you need any more advice,
Dave
