Trailing

There are various ways. I know people that hold it on with just rope and rooster sell a mount that should fit on the gudgeons (sp?) ( I say should, it didn't fit my boat?!)

For when we are travelling Lasernut has attached a piece of wood to the back of the trailerboard and fitted some pintles and a retaining clip to it. It just slots onto the laser gudgeons and stays on in the same way as the rudder does. He has fitted large pieces of foam/sponge to each end of the board to stop it wobbling around. We've travelled all over the place (longest trip UK to Porto, Portugal) with no issues with this set up.
 
I've made up a plywood board that matches the shape of the transom and have fitted fairleads that match the rudder gudgeons positioning. I simply drop an appropriate sized bolt through which I've cut off the treaded section. In 15 years of towing I've lost one bolt with extremely regular short & long distance 1000+km towing.
 
I assumed trailer light board i.e. indicators, brakes & tail lights. Legally in Australia they only need to be fitted to the trailer unless you have excessive 2 metre plus overhang, but the are more visible on the boats transom, but mine can be fitted either to the trailer or the boat.
 
I didn't know what you meant by trailer board either.You don't have trailers with lights fitted to it?
 
Same in the UK. Most trailer are only light weight over here, always see a trailer board fitted to the back of the boat rather than the trailer. You wouldn't be able to see it if fitted to the trailer itself.
 
LuckyJack said:
Same in the UK. Most trailer are only light weight over here, always see a trailer board fitted to the back of the boat rather than the trailer. You wouldn't be able to see it if fitted to the trailer itself.
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We don't have trailer boards, usually. The lights are part of the trailer.
 
Both of my trailers, and all the ones I've seen here, have the lights mounted to either fender. However I have noticed that people around here like to drive EXTREMELY close to the back of my boat. In fact my Capri 13 got totalled a few months ago when I stopped for a red light and the guy behind me didn't. After doing a search on "trailer board" and seeing a couple pics I'm thinking about making a board that slots into the Rudder Gudgeons with a couple reflectors and "STOP TAILGATING" in big red letters on it.
 
My road trailer came with lights attached to the frame (above the wheels). First thing we did was take them off.
Reason being, if the lights are at the middle of the boat thats a lot of boat sticking out behind the lights. I don't want to give other drivers any excuse to misjudge the length and drive into the back so only have lights on the stern of the boats to make sure its at the end of the trailer.
 
MIne is a 6 foot long 2 x 6 plank with rounded grooves in the end for the hold down strap to sit in. A 2x 6 is 2 inches thick and 6 inches wide ( 5 cm x 15 cm) and mine is made of a chunk of spruce I had around at the time i built in it 1969.

The bottom of the wood is padded with three layers of indoor outdoor carpet. The carpet is the type that looks like a Scotch brite pad. I use that because it wicks water away from the boat rather than holding the water against the boat. Indoor carpet is nice and soft but it holds water against the boat and blisters the gelcoat.

My lights are attached to the board with a couple pieces of angle aluminum.

There is a vertical pair of 3/4 inch plywood blocks bolted to the fromt and back with a horsechoe "U" in the top for masts and a couple 4 inch holes for passing booms or whatever through.

The sides of the plywood are also padded so spars can be tied next to the vertical supports.

There are also lots of holes and pad eyes where odds and ends can be tied for whatever reason.

I have seven separate lights for the turn signals, two brakes, two back up lights and a license plate light.


Each light has a separate wire for power and ground and the wires are thirty feet long wth labeled connectors on the ends of each one.

Originally it was set up to tie into wires connected to the individual lights on my 1969 Corolla. Back then American trailers didn't work with foreign car light systems so I built my own.

the board is six feet wide so it could be used on any of the Thistles, Fireballs, Snipes, or Stars I regulary towed to regattas.

There are also two wire basket can holders for beverage holding use while tying down for travel.


It has been long enough since then to use on everything but my J-24 and it's trailer has its own lights anyway.

I have built various "pigtails" since to connect to whatever other vehicles I have used to tow boats.

it's always pretty cool to show up with a trailer sporting back up lights.

and the heavy duty combination light rack, boat hold down and mast support unit has always been handy.
 
Sailorchick said:
My road trailer came with lights attached to the frame (above the wheels). First thing we did was take them off.
Reason being, if the lights are at the middle of the boat thats a lot of boat sticking out behind the lights. I don't want to give other drivers any excuse to misjudge the length and drive into the back so only have lights on the stern of the boats to make sure its at the end of the trailer.
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Aha! Great idea.
 
gouvernail said:
I have seven separate lights for the turn signals, two brakes, two back up lights and a license plate light.


Each light has a separate wire for power and ground and the wires are thirty feet long wth labeled connectors on the ends of each one.

Originally it was set up to tie into wires connected to the individual lights on my 1969 Corolla. Back then American trailers didn't work with foreign car light systems so I built my own.

the board is six feet wide so it could be used on any of the Thistles, Fireballs, Snipes, or Stars I regulary towed to regattas.

There are also two wire basket can holders for beverage holding use while tying down for travel.


It has been long enough since then to use on everything but my J-24 and it's trailer has its own lights anyway.

I have built various "pigtails" since to connect to whatever other vehicles I have used to tow boats.

it's always pretty cool to show up with a trailer sporting back up lights.

and the heavy duty combination light rack, boat hold down and mast support unit has always been handy.
Click to expand...

You need to add a backing-up beeper to go along with all those lights.
 
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