Mast trailering question

[Bill R]

I am posting this up here in B&R since it will probably involve fabricating something, either metal, wood or both.

I just a small trailer for my O'Day Widgeon. (I know, wrong material for the WBF) Trailer is 14'+/-, boat is 12'+/- and the mast is 18' +/-.

What is the best way to mount and transport the mast? My initial thought is to build a pedestal on the tongue of the trailer to support one end of the mast and secure the other end to a bed that will fit over the transom. Obviously, there will be overhang, so my thought is to elevate the vehicle end of the mast to around the roof height of my truck so the angle will eat up some of the excess horizontal length.

I had toyed with the idea of lashing the mast to the rack on my truck, but since my truck will not be the only tow vehicle, I would prefer to keep everything on the trailer.

Towing will be infrequent (boat lives in the water during the season) and most towing will be local. (nearby lakes and Casco Bay)

I have reasonable metal fabrication/welding skills and good woodworking skills. I also have a couple hundred thousand miles of towing trailers of all shapes, sizes and weights, but never before a sailboat.

Any suggestions, guidance and assistance is greatly appreciated as always.

[Thorne]

I vastly prefer keeping the mast on the tow vehicle due to the issues with overhang and idiot drivers if carried on the boat.
http://www.luckhardt.com/tow_boat1_web.jpg

The usual method seems to be to build a match crutch that fits in the partners / tabernacle for the forward end of the mast, and the other end supported by a crutch that fits in the rudder gudgeons.

Flag that overhang WELL, and consider using a light bar instead of the trailer-mounted lights for night travel -- and run a wire and red LED out to the back end of the mast. You can make a combo light bar support and mast crutch to fit the rudder gudgeons if the rake on the transom isn't too steep.

http://www.luckhardt.com/elk6.jpg

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

.
For an 18' mast you probably only need two support-points (although three won't hurt.) The key thing is that they should not move relative to each other, which means either that they should be both on the truck, or both on the boat.

Putting a support on the tow-bar can satisfy either requirement, and is exactly what I did when I wanted to transport a much-larger mast on my old Mazda coupé several years ago. Here's the idea. (Note that the mast isn't supported by the trailer at all, which was only there to protect the overhang) --


http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/mast-on-car.jpg

And here's a close-up of the prop's construction --


http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/public/tow-bar-prop.jpg

It consists of two sliding-fit steel tubes, the lower one welded to a base-plate held in turn to the towing tongue by the tow-ball itself. A short steel cross-bar (with tie-off loops at each end) is welded to the the top of the upper tube. The cross-bar carries a piece of 5/8" marine ply, slotted at each end so that it can be slid up and down by just over the distance between the bolt-holes on the inner sliding tube. (In combination, these allow infinite height adjustment within the limits of the construction.) The two tubes are fastened by a 3/8" through-bolt, and the ply by coach-bolts with wingnuts at each end.

The prop is shown here fitted to another car where the towing tongue doesn't project as far as on mine; hence the fitting is mounted backwards to clear the bodywork, and therefore in this case can't also be used to tow a trailer at the same time. (I have the same trouble on my present car, and will need to fit a longer towing-tongue to surmount it.)

If you choose to use this sort of prop as the forward mount and a scissors-crutch or something in the boat as the after one, there'll be some swivelling of the mast on the tow-bar support as you corner, so you'll need to give it some additional protection at that point.

Finally, if you have long overhangs (as in the first photo,) you'll need to tie them both down hard to avoid see-sawing as much as possible. (That set-up got me about 30 miles across Melbourne through heavy traffic without any problems. But I admit I took it pretty easy.... :) )

Mike

[RodB]

In my experience working on FG boats from daysailers to 40 foot cruisers... I think the easiest and most convenient way to handle the mast is to have a "y" support attached to the tongue of the trailer, which supports the mast above the vehicle... and then a secondary "Y" mast support (slotted board) connected to the transom at the gudgeons.... just as the rudder connects.

The "Y" support just immediately behind the hitch is very common and you can usually get them from any trailer supply. .. just a galvanized square pipe with a flange at the bottom with holes for bolting to the tongue...and a metal "Y" at the top usually covered with a piece of hose etc to protect the mast. The rear "Y" support is usually a simple cut out on a board....with two cutouts ususally, one for the mast, and one for the boom. The other end of the boom usually is supported by any available line on the mast to keep it off of the boat.

This is a very common approach on many small boats and works well.

RodB

[RT MAN]

When I trailered my Alerion home from CT which is about 3500KM I strapped the mast down to the trailer along side of the keel it didn't budge all the way home.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f118/Alerion111/Alerion/IMG_2382.jpg?t=1238555173

[BBSebens]

When I trailered my Alerion home from CT which is about 3500KM I strapped the mast down to the trailer along side of the keel it didn't budge all the way home.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f118/Alerion111/Alerion/IMG_2382.jpg?t=1238555173

oooohhh.. I spy with my little eye.... someones very nice old Bimmer.

[Thorne]

I checked the Widgeon plans and you should have no problem with a transom-mounted rear mast crutch.

But if the transom has a lot of rake, the rear crutch can swing wildly from side to side unless you attach it somehow to the boat or trailer -- don't ask me how I know this...

[Bill R]

Thanks all

[rbgarr]

... my thought is to elevate the vehicle end of the mast to around the roof height of my truck...

I'd go with RodB's general suggestions. It sounds like you've got the metal working skills to do it.
Meanwhile here's an interesting rig in keeping with the non-wood nature of a Widgeon. :D

http://i43.tinypic.com/2yytmbs.jpg

[RodB]

RT man... I think your post was not a trailering idea...but a "gloat" on the wonderful Alerion... :D

You better post some nice pics later on.... Pleaaaaaaaaaase


RodB

[RT MAN]

RT man... I think your post was not a trailering idea...but a "gloat" on the wonderful Alerion... :D

You better post some nice pics later on.... Pleaaaaaaaaaase


RodB

Iam proud, and guilty, I'm going to set up an extra bracket to stow the mast low on the trailer. I'm also rigging a small boom crane on the trailer to lift the mast up on the deck and lower into place. Kind of a cantilever boom with a weight on the end.

Rufus

[Woxbox]

For a 28' mast I had a shop make up a bracket that bolted to the trailer tongue and then cantilevered forward over the back of the tow vehicle. The forward crutch was far out enough from the mast step on the boat (15') so that I could slide the mast forward without pushing the balance point beyond the crutch. Then it was easy to put the base of the mast down into the pivoting step and rig the whole thing to be cranked up into place.

The fabrication was big, all 3" square steel tubing, but it still didn't cost much to have made up.

[RT MAN]

For a 28' mast I had a shop make up a bracket that bolted to the trailer tongue and then cantilevered forward over the back of the tow vehicle. The forward crutch was far out enough from the mast step on the boat (15') so that I could slide the mast forward without pushing the balance point beyond the crutch. Then it was easy to put the base of the mast down into the pivoting step and rig the whole thing to be cranked up into place.

The fabrication was big, all 3" square steel tubing, but it still didn't cost much to have made up.

Woxbox could you please quickly draw this and post it.

Rufus

[Woxbox]

Here's a quick sketch. Not to scale, of course. But the unit replaces the winch post, so the winch is bolted to the new upright. steel plates are welded to the bottom of the lower tubes so that U bolts can be used to bolt it down the the trailer. So the entire thing consists of 3 pieces of square tubing, same diameter as the tongue on your trailer, plus the two flat plates on the bottom and a pair of triangular gussets, which probably aren't necessary if your welder knows his stuff, but I asked for them for peace of mind.

I bolted two pieces of hardware store angle iron to the top end, set out in a V shape, and then put a short piece of PVC tubing over them to act as rollers for the mast. As I pointed out before, there are two reasons to do this -- first it supports the mast well without having it hang out the back of the boat, and secondly, you can roll/slide the mast forward until the heel reaches the step without getting the balance point beyond that forward bracket. (If your spreaders are halfway up the mast, they won't get hung up on the support, either.)


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f92/Woxbox/Mast-support.jpg

[Pernicious Atavist]

For my thistle I had a yoke mounted on the trailer winch post and a yoke that rode in the gudgeons and doubled, like Thorne's, as a light and reflector mount. Now--unlike Thorne's, I mounted a running and brake light assy on the masthead, which extended a couple-three feet aft of the transom, about, ohhhh, windshield height to the average auto. Now THAT's an attention-getter!