[Rhodes22-list] placing the boat on trailer

[Mary Lou Troy]

I did a search in the archives and lo and behold I found the "Fred/Mary 
Lou" boat recovery technique. I forgot that a departed but fondly 
remembered Rhodie named Alex had inadvertently named it after us. I've 
copied a couple of pertinent entries here and given some links to other 
entries that I found in the search. All are from 2000-2002.

This entry from Alex and the next one from me are on the Rhodes owner's 
site in the FAQ (http://www.rhodes22.org/blew_skies/recovery.html)

I will add that whenever we retrieved the boat, we moved the bow stop on 
the trailer all the way forward to give the bow room to move and then 
moved it back when the boat was in position. We painted a vertical line 
on the bow stop arm to mark the spot where the bow stop would rest 
against the boat if the boat is ideally positioned on the trailer and 
used this as a check when retrieving the boat to make sure it was where 
we wanted it. And note that this varies by ramp and probably by trailer 
- ours was a single axle Triad.

Alex said:
"Pamela and I used the Fred and Mary Lou technique several times with 
very good results. They were dry sailors and launched and recovered many 
more times than most of us. To review:

Bring the boat up as far as it will come. We usually have about 6" of 
the support bunks showing. If we submerge the bunk all the way, the boat 
floats all over as you mentioned.

As one person drives and pulls v-e-r-y- slowly, a second person can 
crank the winch as the bow comes down from on high. We would move maybe 
a foot and crank, then another foot and crank and so on. The result the 
last time we pulled the boat was that the boat was against the stop all 
the way forward, which I felt was too far forward and we backed her down 
again and let the boat slip enough to allow the bow stop to be moved 4" 
from the post.

This method works well for our Triad trailer and the R22. As I said, we 
had the boat all the way forward with no space between the bow stop and 
winch support post. That probably would be fine, but I think it might 
give excessive tongue weight at that point.

It seems that the launch and recovery procedures might be different 
based on the trailer. My old Rhodes had a 1987 Triad that was not as 
difficult to recover and launch as the newer (1996) Triad that supports 
Blue Daze. I don't recall anything major in the way of differences, but 
there was something different. It might be that the older trailers let 
the boat sit a bit lower to the ground than the newer ones??

Alex"

and I replied

"Wow, what an honor to have a technique named after us! It is, however, 
patented so you can send the royalties to...

Glad to hear it works for others but I truly believe that you have to 
adapt the technique (ours or others) to the ramp. The ramp at Bowley's 
is relatively steep which is one of the reasons we developed the (ahem) 
Fred/Mary Lou technique. For the last haulout of this year the tide was 
way WAY out. We could drop the centerboard and have it hit bottom long 
before it was fully deployed. With the tide that far out the angle of 
the ramp was not nearly as steep as usual. We've never used the tongue 
extender at Bowley's and didn't this time but we could have, as the 
tailpipe of the Blazer was bubbling away. We normally have the bunks 
just breaking the surface of the water. This time, with the Blazer 
backed as far as we could without it drowning (or giving up and actually 
using the extender) the best we could do was leave about 6" to 8" 
showing. Fred was able to winch it all the way forward because the angle 
was less steep. We did take up a little slack as we pulled her out but 
not nearly as much as usual because the stern was already mostly 
supported by the bunks.

We've marked the ideal position of the bow support with a bit of red 
paint. We were right on the money this time and could really tell the 
difference trailering her home. She was only about an inch and a half 
further forward than she was last year but what a difference it made in 
the ride. We also took the rudder off and stowed it in the car and took 
the anchor out of the lazarette to lighten the load aft.

Now that we are taking a slip I guess we'll get out of practice.

Mary Lou

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this is helpful to someone.

There is more at the link above and Roger's and Stan's comments are 
here: http://www.rhodes22.org/blew_skies/tip001.html  also from the 
Rhodes owner's FAQ

Former Rhodie Rik Sandber had this to say in 2002




On 12/7/2019 11:44 AM, Graham Stewart wrote:
> Roger says that placing the boat in the correct location "is an adjustment you do once". I can adjust the bow bracket into what would seem to be the correct position but have had a devil of a time actually placing the boat that far forward. While the boat is still in the water I can draw the bow into the bracket but as the boat is drawn out of the water and the stern lowers onto the bunk there is enormous pressure exerted onto the hull at the forward end of the bunks and as soon as the winch is released the bow springs up and away from the bracket.
>   
> When I stripped the bottom of paint I found a mass of hairline cracks and permanent depressions on either side of the hull where the front posts of the bunks are located. That didn't seem right to me and now that it has been repaired I am reluctant to risk damaging the hull again.
>   
> I only tow my boat a few miles to the ramp and back going a low speed so I don't worry about getting the boat forward but if I were to take it on a longer trip at highway speeds I would be much more concerned to get the boat properly balanced on the trailer.
>   
> Others have mentioned the same problem and I am wondering if those who have solved this problem might give advice on how they balance the boat on the trailer.
>   
> Thanks,
>   
> Graham Stewart
> Agile 1976 Rhodes 22
> Kingston Ontario
>   
>   
>   
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of ROGER PIHLAJA
> Sent: Saturday, December 7, 2019 12:06 AM
> To: Dana LeTendre; The Rhodes 22 Email List
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Trailering with outboard
>   
> Dana,
>   
> How many outboards on power boats do you see being trailered down the road?  How many do you see with the outboard removed and secured inside the hull?  The Rhodes 22 transom is built like a tank.  Having the rudder and motor mounted won’t hurt anything.  As long as the weight of the motor and rudder don’t affect the trailer tongue weight too much and cause instability on the highway, removing them for trailering is waste of time and energy.  Getting the tongue weight correct is simply a matter of moving the boat fore and aft on the bunks until at least 10% of the total weight is on the tongue.  It’s an adjustment you do once and it’s done.  While it doesn’t hurt anything to remove the rudder and motor, there is plenty involved with rigging and unrigging the boat without messing around with the rudder and motor too.
>   
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>