I had an awful time finding hull cradles that were cheap, tough and readily available.

I finally found a broken section of thick gauge and large diameter PVC pipe at a constructions site, in their dump pile.

It was given to me after a short conversation with the site foreman.

I took the broken piece home.

From this discarded PVC remnant, I cut four pieces to the shape I wanted.

After marking where I wanted the new cradles to support the cat on the trailer, I slid the cat off the trailer and capsized it on my lawn.

I then placed towels on the keel, at these marked location and used my wifes kitchen oven to heat the four pieces that I cut from the salvaged PVC remnant.

You have to watch the heat carefully, but the PVC will quickly become very pliable and rubber-like.

Using oven mitts I gingerly removed these pieces from the oven and placed them on something to carry them outside and to my overturned cat.

I then placed the heated PVC shapes on the boat's keel at the right locations and let them cool.

When cooled, they returned to being as rigid and tough as before the PVC material was heated and shaped exactly to the shape of my hull, in the desired locations.

I then cut two slots in each of the new cradles, where I used large hose clamps from Home Depot's plumbing Department to affix them to each end of my trailer's bow and stern cross member supports.

After gluing and cutting a bit of new carpet remnants obtained for free from a carpet shop, to pad the inside of these new cradles, I was ready to flip the boat right side up and put it back on my trailer.

These are absolutely the best cradles I've ever used and they are tough, resilient and sitting in the hot summer sun hasn't caused any deterioration that I can see.

I still have enough left over PVC material for a few more cradles, when I want to replace those on my other beach cat trailers.

Try it, you may find that you like them as much as I do. These are cheap, easy, tough and made from readily available materials if you just keep your eyes open and ask a construction site foreman.

A cold soda in hand, may help a bit with the transaction.