For
the past twelve months without success, I have been looking out for a second
hand trailer that I could customise to suite the hull form of Beniguet. In the absence of any trailer even remotely
conforming to my requirements, I eventually came to the conclusion that it was
necessary to buy a new trailer. The design I chose was very flexible, this enabled
me to adjust many aspects to ensure a good weight distribution across the most
reinforced areas of the hull and I considered it well worth the additional
investment.
At
the beginning of the project I foresaw that it would be difficult to raise the
combined weight of the jig and boat from the concrete floor to enable rollers
to be placed beneath. For this reason I machined recesses in the jig sides to allow
the blade of a long heavy steel bar to be inserted then cantilevered from a
block to raise the jig sufficiently to insert wedges. Increasing the height of
the block two or three times each side by using timber packers, allowed a steel
scaffolding tube to be passed beneath the jig across its full width. This
process was repeated several times along the length of the jig and a
corresponding number of tubes inserted beneath. This proved to be an easy and efficient
method, I undertook the task single handed in under an hour. The whole assembly
was now very easy to manoeuvre, first forward then through ninety degrees to
position the bows facing out through the barn doors, ready for winching onto
the trailer. The turn through ninety degrees was made by again using the large steel
bar to lever the base of the jig over in small increments.
It
was then necessary to move the boat over the jig towards the trailer. A bottle
jack was placed beneath the backbone with protective timber packing to raise
the keel sufficiently to insert 100 mm timber rollers running over a roadway of
scaffolding boards laid on top of the jig. The drying out legs were now put to
good use providing extra stability and security. The trailer was simply wheeled
into place and lined up true ready for winching. Any potential movement of the
trailer was prevented by applying the brake and using a mini digger to control
lateral movement or lifting of the towing head.
I had
previously obtained the boat centre of gravity from Francois Vivier and from my
experience of the build knew the most reinforced robust areas of the hull that
could best withstand the forces exerted from the rollers, I had therefore made
as much prior adjustment to the trailer as possible, further adjustments were
made during and after the completion of the winching. The whole process took two of us a whole day
with the occasional further assistance from a third person. Now out in the open
and into natural light she seems to have taken on a different character, she
needs to be in the water!
