New Orleans Area Boat Ramps?

[jpmckay]

So, I have a 22' trailer sailor which is currently happily living in a slip in a marina near New Orleans. Come winter I want to pull her out and spend the cool weather working on her in the convenience of my back yard. In the spring I would kind of like to keep her trailer based but I am having a hard time finding boat ramps in the New Orleans area which will work for a swing keel sailboat. My marina doesn't have a ramp and every one I know of is either 30+ miles away or else in incredibly shallow water.

Anybody here have any recommendations?

Thanks

[Target9000]

Have you checked if the West End marina which is about to be reopened can handle it? I think the boat ramp there is still fine. Also I'd check with Southern and NOYC.

[jpmckay]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try West End. I am in South Shore Harbor where they, oddly, do not have one.

[tamicatana]

I've launched my trimaran at whatever that's called at the end of Bonnabel, next the Coast Guard etc. Is that West End?

NOYC/SYC don't have ramps, well there is one for the harbor but I think it's real shallow. I didn't want to use it, hence my experience with the above suggestion. That said, NOYC does have a crane.

There might be something near Slidell?

[Target9000]

The ramp at the end of Bonnabel/Coastie station is West End.

[River Cruiser]

"There's a app for that"

Check out this application on the App Store:


Boat Ramps
Derek Trauger & Associates, LLC
Category: Lifestyle
Updated: Jan 3, 2012
14 Ratings

[Cormorant]

Also, if the shallow ramps are near you, and if they don't just stay shallow but gradually drop off beyond car + trailer range, you could try the launching method where you uncouple the trailer up on the flat near the top of the ramp, attach it to your vehicle with a 25' or longer cable or strap, gently tension that at full length to your car, then slowly let the trailer down the ramp (probably need a push from several people or from another vehicle to get it going down the ramp). Then, slowly backing your car down the ramp, let the trailer roll itself all the way out as far as it will go underwater, thus reaching the deep water 25' further out.

Full disclosure: never done it myself! But I recall Phil Bolger recommended back about 10 years ago when he was still alive and writing.

For getting the boat back on, I assume you would need some trailer "goalposts" or other method to get it aligned properly while out farther.