| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| amorphia |
Posted - 12 Jun 2008 : 11:17:07
Hi all,
I just ordered a Stratos center board varient. I think it's possibly going to be one of only two in Sweden because I think there's only one Laser dealer here and they only sold one before. I'm quite excited! Anyway, I'm hoping to get some advice on my toughest problem - getting it in and out of the water (well I guess in is easy, it's out that's the problem!).
What prompted my purchase was that we've just moved to a new house which is just 50 metres from a lake (which is big enough to sail on but also connects to the sea through a lock). I can't moor in the lake, but we do have a car parking space, and as we don't have a car, I am going to keep the Stratos in that space on a trolley.
The lake unfortunately doesn't have a slipway or even a sloping beach. Where I have easy access, it has a grassy bank. Fotunately, the bank top is quite close to the water surface. So I figure that I might be able to build a kind of portable wooden frame slipway that the trolley can go down. I would be very interested to know what you folks think of this idea!
I have taken some rough measurements of the bank and there is a sketch attached. The lake bottom near the bank is not so even but is rocky and firm.
I also attach a picture of the sort of design that I am thinking of. Hopefully if you look at it you can see how it would work. The wheels of the trolley would go along the planks which have guides to keep them on. The legs would support the planks and would almost certainly need to be of adjustable length, to deal with the uneven bottom and to allow the optimum slipway angle to be got.
Ideally I would even like to be able to use a winch to get the boat out single handed. I think I'll need to start with at least two people though!
So, anyone think this could work? Any better ideas? Maybe something the boat can slide up and down without the trolley? I was going to use these: http://tinyurl.com/4g7n7f (in swedish but the pictures are obvious) but they don't look like they could cope with such a steep drop.
Having not yet seen the boat or trolley yet except in pictures, I have some very specific questions I would also be grateful if anyone could answer. How far underwater do the trolley wheels need to be in order to float the boat onto the trolley? How much of an angle can the trolley be at when you float the boat onto it? I assume there is some good method to stop the boat sliding off it while you pull the trolley up and out? Could the slipway be quite steep and this mechanism still work? How wide apart are the trolley wheels?
Thanks in advance for any help at all!
Cheers,
Ben
Image Attachment: banksketch.jpg (49.43 KB)
Uploaded on 23-Apr-2015 04:42:13
Viewed 1466 time(s).
Category:Other
Description:
Sketch of the bank
 |
Image Attachment: boatslip.jpg (24.1 KB)
Uploaded on 23-Apr-2015 04:42:14
Viewed 1713 time(s).
Category:Other
Description:
An idea for a portable slipway
 |
Image Attachment: banksketch.jpg (49.43 KB)
Uploaded on 23-Apr-2015 04:42:13
Viewed 1466 time(s).
Category:Other
Description:
Sketch of the bank
 |
Image Attachment: boatslip.jpg (24.1 KB)
Uploaded on 23-Apr-2015 04:42:14
Viewed 1713 time(s).
Category:Other
Description:
An idea for a portable slipway
 | |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| amorphia |
Posted - 19 Jun 2008 : 15:54:37
Thanks for all your advice folks, a number of things people said helped me decide that a wooden slipway wasn't going to cut it, so I'm going for the roller system instead. I've ordered some of the klurig modular roller parts, and a winch. I'll let you all know how it works out!
Cheers,
Ben |
| woody |
Posted - 16 Jun 2008 : 16:57:42
Just a thought if you build your ramp in wood it will float making the job harder. Perhaps aluminium would be a better choice. I have also seen a system in Holland for such problems but cant remember the name and my dutch friend is off working in India for a few weeks. When I do get hold of him I'll let you know. You can purchase aluminium ramps from a company in the uk called Northern tool & equipment have a look at their web site. |
| amorphia |
Posted - 13 Jun 2008 : 16:34:09
Thanks a lot for your replies Sayling and Pete! From what you wrote, Sayling, I start to wonder if I might not be better off with a method like rollers which allows me to pull the boat up out of the water and onto the trolley which is dry on the bank. That way there is not the problem of lining up two moving things, boat and trolley, in the water. I can find a way, pegs or something, to fix the trolley at the top of the rollers and then I just need to winch the boat up the rollers.
I'd be interested if anyone would like to look at the pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/3rd6hz and let me know if they think that sort of roller system might work, with two or less people. Well it should certainly work on the right sort of shore I suppose, but my shore is more challenging...
Cheers!
Ben |
| Pete1 |
Posted - 12 Jun 2008 : 16:49:25
Sayling, Ben is talking about a centreboard not a keel. (edit ... re-read and I assume you mean keel in a generic sense??)
Ben, we have a centrboard Stratos and at low tide we sometimes have to drop our trailer off the end of our slip into about 50cm of water to recover the boat. There is no gradient on the sea bed at this point so we float/lift the boat onto the trolley then one person pulls while the other lifts the stern to lift the trolley wheels onto the slip. It looks from your diagram that you might be able to do something similar but the gradient of the bank may be a problem. It will take at least 2 people to do this, 3 would be better. Single handed you will need a winch!
|
| Sayling |
Posted - 12 Jun 2008 : 13:37:24
Hi Ben,
Welcome to the Stratos forum. I have a Stratos centreboard version.
The cradle part of the trolley which supports the hull is located about 3m from the bow. (My boat is at our sailing club now, so I am just looking at some photos I took recently.) The keel (I mean just the bottom of the boat, not the bob keel of the keel version) sits on the trolley at about the level of the top of the trolley tyre, which is 40cm diameter. I think you would need about 50cm water depth to get the trolley under the boat.
My experience in handling this boat (and also others) is that even in light winds and no current, the tricky part is keeping the hull and trolley lined up together. The trolley tends to float with the bouyancy of the wheels, but this isn't enough to keep it in position under the keel. If you use the rails for the trolley wheels in your proposal, that is yet another item to keep in line as you get the boat out of the water. And at 190Kg, the Stratos is quite heavy, even for two people.
The standard Laser trolley comes with a glassfibre cradle covered with ?neoprene? which doesn't allow the boat to move on it easily. Maybe you could modify this so that the hull sits on rollers. There is a winch on the trailer part of the combination, but I only use this for getting the boat/trolley together onto the trailer.
best wishes,
Sayling
sail no. 568 - 'Ketchup' @ FGSC |
|
|
