I never thought that buying a boat trailer in a Maritime province, or even in Canada as a whole, would turn out to be as hard as it's been. I got my trailer hitch & accessories from etrailer.com in just 4 days - if only they sold boat trailers! My boat will be arriving at my front door on June 27th. My trapeze harnesses, boots and gloves cleared Customs yesterday and will be here in a day or two. I have my wetsuits and PFD's. I've been waiting 2 weeks for a quote from the only trailer company in Nova Scotia that even understands what a catamaran IS, and I had to leave him pictures! Can anyone recommend a Canadian company that might at least attempt to give me better service than I've received to date, a US company that can ship to Canada (so many won't...), or else sell me YOUR trailer ?

There are usually a few for sail. You would just need to arrange a pick or transportation to you

http://www.thebeachcats.com/classifieds/showproduct.php/product/10538/cat/4

You really only need a simple trailer to which you can add transverse beams and cat cradles. I used a jet-ski trailer (the double-wide size) and adapted it to a 20ft cat.

I know of many who converted old galvanized boat trailers to cat trailers

What kind of catamaran are you picking up? When do you need your trailer by?
I could build one for you, given I have enough lead time. I'm in Quebec City.

The boat is a used AHPC Capricorn, so it's 18 feet long. My local AHPC dealer picked the boat up in Florida for me, along with a bunch of other boats, and it's sitting at his place in Halifax until next weekend. He's bringing it to my house in New Glasgow on his trailer, but after he shows me how it's rigged and we take it out for a trial run, it's going to end up on the floor of my garage until I get a trailer. Quarath, that is one nice trailer and I'd love to have it...too bad it's in California and I'm in Nova Scotia. Not only would delivery be expensive, the bureaucratic tangle you have to go through to import a trailer from the US to Canada is a bit daunting. AnthonyB, thanks for the kind offer of building me one! Again, delivery is an issue, although less than the first trailer. I'm just PO'd that there are no nearby trailer companies that could import an RCA-18C from trailnsail.com, for example. Maybe I could go the jet-ski trailer route...there IS a local dealer for those, I think; and I know a guy who's pretty handy with a welder...

Your "Cat" dealer doesn't do trailers? That's an odd one.

Try Trailex? They are based in Ohio. I know they build trailers for Canadian sale.

www.trailex.com

You might try calling some of the Hobie dealers up there in Canada. Likely they would have trailers in stock I would think.

This one comes up on our dealer finder...

ATLANTIC WINDS ADVENTURE
552 WINDMILL ROAD
DARTMOUTH, NS B3B 1B3
Phone: 1-902-468-0205

Rick White has said he uses a flat bed utility trailor, I see them for sale in the parking lot of the Mega Mart Home Improvement stores down here. You then have a trailor that has more than one use. You could do a search on this site.
I believe the Trailex trailors can be shipped directly to you, then they just bolt together. I've had one for eight years, that came with my used boat. Almost 20 years old and going strong.

I second that. You can use any almost any trailer with very little extra work. Last week we trailed a Supercat 15 in a motorboat trailer and it was quite easy.

We tied to the trailer two transversal beams, wrapped eva foam where needed, tied the boat to the beams and to the trailer structure and left.

You can use pipe, timber or whatever is strong enough and the right size for the beams, while most school supply stores sell EVA foam.

You can fix the beams to the trailer later. Or never.

Good luck,
Luiz

Nice attitude Matt. The Hobie group attacking AHPC, and carrying a holier than thou stance at every opportunity does not reflect anything positively on your company, your organization or yourself.

Why don't you take the time to spend talking down other companies, and use it to point out the benefits of your own.


Old Salt- I picked up a 4 place snowmobile trailer for $1500, it works pretty well. I have the cradles temporarily mounted to 2x4's until I come up with something better.

Your reaching hard on this one Karl. The point is not against AHPC, its simple logic. Plus I followed up with helpful information for the guy looking for a trailer for a boat we didn't even sell.

Wow...go away for a couple of hours and all hell breaks loose.

1. Since my "Cat Dealer" drove for 85 hours round trip to pick up my USED boat (so it wasn't even a sale for him), and will be spending next Sunday at my place (another 3 hour round trip) helping me set up and sail my purchase, I thought the least I could do in return would be to get my own damn trailer, so I told him not to worry about it. How hard could it be, right? The sorry state of Atlantic Canada's manufacturing sector isn't his problem.

2. I've been to Atlantic Winds Adventure. I have nothing good to say about that visit. He didn't have any boats, let alone trailers. Matt, you might want to spend some time worrying about your franchisee's customer service skills, too.

3. I just got off the phone, someone told him about this thread. My trailer issue will be resolved, and quickly. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Now I just wish I'd called him first instead. I know I made the right choice!

4. Next Sunday, I will be sailing the Northumberland Straight on my birthday (well, one day early...). Nothing is going to be able to top that!