At our club we have 2 floating wooden ramps to launch our boats off of. They are ok for our older boats but I always cringe when a new boat has to use them. They are hard when you run up on them, and one has some screw heads that occasionaly will pop up and grab some glass. Wondering what other people who do not have a beach do. The ramps are off a metal wall. We need to rebuild one of the ramps soon so if anyone has any new suggestion would love to hear them. Also what could we cover the ramp in to maybe make them more boat freindly.

Thanks
Jody Abrams
H16 modified 59467

Could you just cover them with indoor/outdoor carpet?

or maybe closed-cell foam pads

jabram

Where can I find a picture of a floating ramp or a plan for one?

Sorry I don't have a picture, but I've seen a couple of different basic types:

1 Oil drums are placed inside a band of pressure treated lumber which is then decked over. There are also plastic drums built specifically for this purpose.

2 Concrete is poured over a mold containing a very thick styrofoam plug. In this case the styrofoam is @ 12" thick.

I keep my boat at a floating dock. The dock itself is of the styrofoam/concrete type, which is anchored around standing concrete piles. The dock is thus very stable and rises and falls with the tide, making docking very simple.

Hope this helps.

Jody, how high is the metal wall?

I've used two Sport Port floats (www.sportport.com) under my Hobie 14 Turbo for several years. They have a contoured channel down the middle with a tapered lip that I sail right onto. Checkout the website's photo gallery to see if it would be applicable to your location.
Wally

The wall is usually about 3 feet above the water. Ramps are about 19-20 feet long and 10 feet wide (the 18 squares were intresting to get down the ramp). The water will drop sometimes and the wall is then about 4-5 feet aboce the water.

I do not have any specfic plans on the ramps. They are the metal frame with the drums under them and board laid across the top. For the general purpose they work ok but would love to figure out a way to make it more boat freindly (or fiberglass friendly that is)
If you do not have beach launching ability how do most other people get thier boats in the water?

Thanks for the help

Jody

Jody

We have belonged to clubs that do not have beaches, and in those cases both monohulls and multihulls usually launched either off their trailer using a concrete ramp or off the wall using electric hoists. One place where we had to launch the cats over a concrete wall, we carpeted the heck out of the wall and just pushed our boats over. Getting them back out took considerably more manpower, though.

It sounds like what you already have is the best possible way to deal with it. If the only problem is screws popping up, wouldn't the best solution be to just replace all the screws with nuts and bolts (nuts on the under side) and countersink the bolts on the top side?

The very best way is to build floating docks, as I described earlier, but it's serious money!

I'll send pictures of my dock. Bear in mind this is a City owned and operated facility. Any chance of getting the "givmint" to step in?

I've seen a floating dinghy dock that had an electric water pump in one bouyancy barrel that could be filled with water, effectively sinking one end of the dock so the sailors could shove off and land easily. At the end of the day they turn on the pump, and the dock would rise up to normal level. Very expensive setup I'm told.

Tad,

I've seen the same principle but with a vacuum cleaner (shop vacuum using a blowing option) in a waterproof enclosure and 50 gallon barrels (the plastic ones can be had cheaply if you know some Rodeo folks). This could be done relatively inexpensively - although getting it 3 to 4 feet out of the water (with stability) might be a little more of a challenge.

Another durable and inexpensive way is to cover the board with old firehose. Sometimes the fire departments sell hose in auctions, or even give it away free in my case. I cut it in half lengthwise, spread it open flat on the board, wrap it around the edges of the board, and staple it with stainless steel staples. It is waterproof, and extremely durable.