Boat catch - Great idea for Trailer Launched Boats

[PAR]

Agreed with the antics at the ramp Brendan, though I'm still firm about what rollers do to wooden planks. The contact patch on a roller is very small and narrow, which creates huge point loading, even if the rollers can pivot and follow the hull to some degree. I've actually watched as fasteners poked out, then retracted back into planking, as that area passed over a roller. This isn't a real problem with 'glass boats, though they can get distortions after repeated use (eventually).

Mostly loading and launch issues are skipper experience. I launch a heavy, long straight shaft (single) powerboat regularly and have few issues, regardless of conditions. Most folks watch me back and fill and just wonder if I'm testing the engine or something.

So Brendan, how long do you wait at the ramp, while a novice tries in vain to start and pull off, while his stern is getting deeper and deeper, about the transom plug? You try to be nice and not insult someone about this seemingly innocuous bit of gear, but at some point, you know it has to be said. Okay, what percentage have answered your question with the "what transom plug" retort?

 

[rwatson]

In practice, having something to 'snap onto' as you drive the boat up the trailer would save the problem I have seen of having to run the outboards at high throttle as someone runs up to the bow to fasten the winch hook on.

Then again, you wouldn't want it to catch if the boat was misaligned, as that would mean you would have to unhook it to back up and have another go, or get someone to wrestle the semi floating hull around on the trailer.

This thing would be most useful when there is a launch ramp, but no handy jetty alongside, and you have to motor off the trailer, single handed, to motor away to the mooring place, so you can run back to the car and clear the trailer off the ramp.

I'm sure you could design some sort of self aligning guide setup ...


edit. Though a close look at the video, show a great deal of self aligning ability - must do a few sketches.

They could show it working in a bad chop and wind though, I agree

 

[rwatson]

Home made version

This guy rolled his own.

The BIG thing, is not having to have someone skid around on the slippery muck next to where the winch hook is located. You could even have an option where the vehicle driver could release from the dry section of the ramp.

 

[rwatson]

and yet another variation - with a tragic story

"I am sorry to say that the only time I have ever dropped a boat off the trailer and onto the boat ramp was when using the L&R Boat Latch. A colleague stalled the car, this was enough for the boat to move forward unlatching the mechanism but unbeknown to us, the latch did not spring back into place as it should have and stayed half open. Started reversing down the ramp and to my horror, the boat rolled off the trailer and onto the ramp. Skeg stuffed, hull scraped and dented. Latch binned."

 

[whitepointer23]

Agreed with the antics at the ramp Brendan, though I'm still firm about what rollers do to wooden planks. The contact patch on a roller is very small and narrow, which creates huge point loading, even if the rollers can pivot and follow the hull to some degree. I've actually watched as fasteners poked out, then retracted back into planking, as that area passed over a roller. This isn't a real problem with 'glass boats, though they can get distortions after repeated use (eventually).

Mostly loading and launch issues are skipper experience. I launch a heavy, long straight shaft (single) powerboat regularly and have few issues, regardless of conditions. Most folks watch me back and fill and just wonder if I'm testing the engine or something.

So Brendan, how long do you wait at the ramp, while a novice tries in vain to start and pull off, while his stern is getting deeper and deeper, about the transom plug? You try to be nice and not insult someone about this seemingly innocuous bit of gear, but at some point, you know it has to be said. Okay, what percentage have answered your question with the "what transom plug" retort?

That reminds me . Once I was talking to a neighbour who was at our local boat ramp jetty trying to get his outboard going. I was standing on the jetty talking to him and he seemed to be getting lower . Been there 1/2 an hour and the bungs were laying in the outboard well. Jeez that boat was heavy when he pulled it out. The same person crossed the harbor barely moving with the suzuki roaring because didn't know he had to tilt it down. I think his lack of boating skills had something to do with the casks of wine he was always drinking. A friend of mine hit his trailer off center that hard driving on that he sunk the boat behind the trailer at the ramp. .. its never dull at the ramp.