Contessa/International Folkboat Trailer Experience

[SkiprJohn]

Our club is building a trailer to use for haulout of our two Folkboats. I'd like to see if other Folkboat owners ever do this by launching and recovering their Contessa or Folkboat on a boat ramp.

Our current questions are how do you position the boat over the trailer while the trailer is in more 6 feet under water?

How is the bow secured for hauling out?

kind regards,

[Southern Star]

John, a number of years ago I owned a Continental 25 Folkboat that was built in Canada by Whitby Boatworks. While I did not have a trailer, I do recall a sister ship which had a custom tandem trailer. As I recall, there was an angled channel for the keel (angled as the keel is angled downward aft) and four adjustable pads. I don't believe they winched the boat onto the trailer, but rather put the trailer (which had a long tongue extension) a little further out so that the boat could be pulled up by docklines from both sides and floated about 6 inches above the trailer. The trailer was then pulled up until the keel rested in the channel, the carpeted pads were adjusted and lines attached to the trailer were then tied down to the forward and aft mooring cleats before the trailer was pulled out of the water. For longer trips ratcheting straps were used to hold the boat to the trailer.
I would think that you would need to have the boat out of the water in order to get the dimensions right, atlhough I guess one could get by with a pretty good set of line drawings so long as the boat was floating on her lines.

Brad

[klem]

I don't have any folkboat specific experience with trailers but I have used a bunch and looked at building one for my 30'er.

If you haven't looked at their site, I would recommend taking a look at Triad trailers. The trailers are pretty expensive but in my opinion, they are the best out there and have some nice features for float on and off. They may have even built one for a folkboat before.

Getting the boat lined up into the trailer is usually not too hard if you have keel guides which are easily built and installed. The trick is getting the boat to consistently sit in the same place on the trailer fore and aft each time. Fin keel boats are often run up until the keel hits the front of the keel guides but as the boat is hauled, it typically settles back on the trailer because the boat starts level and the trailer does not. With full keel boats, there is typically a v block which goes against the bow. Again, the bow can pull back from this as the boat comes out of the water. The best option is to really fully define a point up at the bow almost like a pin which constrains the height and horizontal placement so that the keel will ground out in the same place each time. Otherwise, you will find that you need to slack off the winch cable as the boat comes out of the water. I hope that this makes sense, please let me know if I should try to explain it better.

[olaf hart]

I used to have an IF folkboat.
The best trailer I saw was a cradle with four wheels designed to go onto a standard flat car trailer.
Float the boat onto the cradle, winch the cradle up onto the trailer. The only thing in the water is the cradle.
Then you store the boat on the cradle, not the trailer

[boatman61]

Back in my past at a boatyard in the UK we used a catapult shaped trolley for boats of all keel types.. there were holes in the sides of the U for H bars to be run through... there were also slots along the top to position scaffold pole for steadying and keeping in position.
An old tractor digger with a tow ball bolted on would run it down.. the boat brought in then tied on to the poles... carefully pull her out tighten the lines then haul her to her spot... then the digger would raise the front and we'd nip under and block her off.. then slowly settle her down... set the props... slide out the bars, drive clear then replace the bars... easy to store.. just put it round a boat...

[SkiprJohn]

These are all good points. We have constructed the dual tandem trailer and put it under one of the hulls that's in a yard. We've got 4 adjustable pads on both sides and now are getting ready to move it out from under the hull and then take it down to haul out the other Folkboat.

I pretty much understand what each of you said and we've almost decided on the best method for a first try. We weren't certain where the best spot to place the bow stanchion from the trailer. One of us wanted an eye at the stem of the boat to attach to the trailer and pull the boat up to the trailer, attach the eye and then as we pulled the trailer out of the water just let the boat settle on the trailer. That's an idea but my concern is will that pivot point allow the boat to settle on the trailer where the keel needs to be?
I think what we'll have to do is try a couple times to see what happens.

I like the U shaped trailer with the H brackets. I've used a similar one that worked really slick but in this case we already had gift of an old trailer that we're extensively modifying.

kind regards,