Close Fit?

So I measured my garage to see if I could fit an F18 in there. It's 20 feet deep. Will it fit with the trailer?

No. The nose on the trailer has to be significantly more than 2ft or the hulls will hit the back of the tow vehicle when making a turn. Now if you made a detachable trailer nose it may fit. Where were you planning on keeping the mast?

Chris.

Chris is right, assuming that you keep the boat in the same position on the trailer for traveling vs. storage.

While it may be a PITA, one option may be to untie the boat and slide it forward on the trailer just so you can get it into the garage. You'd have to slide it back and tie it down each time you need to take the boat anywhere.

Mike

Thanks Chris. That'll be a bummer! I can keep the mast in my yard next to the fence. Might even be able to place it in hooks off the fence so it's not on the ground. The garage is 24ft wide. Not sure if the mast will fit corner to corner in the roof.

Mike, thanks! I might have to make the cat fit but turning it at an angle. The car might have to be outside.

Why can't he just roll the boat forward on the trailer when he backs it in?

Okay follow Chris on this figure out how to make the tongue detachable and use a pin to attach it. I used to have a Hobie 16 trailer that did this which I kept in a carport in an apartment. Mast will hang in the garage corner to corner. If your dimensions are accurate you should have 31.5 feet to hang it in: A²+B²=C²

Dan

I come up with 31.24 ft or 31' 2 15/16". How long is an F18 mast?

This is winter storage, but the Tiger fits into the garage quite nicely in the summer, too. You have to push it forward on the trailer to fit it in.

Actually, you have to push any boat forward on the trailer to fit in - it's the trailer that barely fits, not the boat.

Masts go sideways, hung from the ceiling. Three car garage and the Tiger mast has about 1 foot of clearance.

Karl's avatar


That is pretty sick Karl

Oh sorry the mast is just under 30 feet, so it should fit but not a cakewalk.

My friend Adam cut a 6 inch hole in the back wall of his garage for the mast to fit through. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I've got enough room to fit 4 cats hanging from the ceiling plus masts......my builder wondered why I wasnt upset when I ended up with 12 foot clear in the garage (the architect hadnt counted on the slope of the yard and the foundation guy lowered the floor to meet the driveway elevation.)

The space between the top of the plywood- (the top of the garage door) and the floor above it is 3 feet!

Sweet!

I think that's what I'll have to do, Les.


Gotta admit, Matt, that is the pic that got me thinking that I could stow the boat in my garage. I have a two-car garage and only one car. Course, most of my neighbors don't even use their garage for their cars, but I do everyday. Anyway, I won't stick out with mine outside.

I think that's the best one I've found yet! I know, I know, get a hobby.

Doh !

can you really believe the Banjam fella can;t work this out himself

reckon he's takin the piss out of you lot , hook line and sinker <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

OK Matt, so where does all that stuff go in the summer???

Mike

I can BARELY fit me 4.3 in a 25' storage unit. Mast is a tough fit, but it goes in.

Doug

Wow, Karl, that's much better than my Hobie 20, 16, and Laser all in a low-ceiling two car 19x20 garage! Our cars have to sit outside, too :-( No way a 30'+ mast fits in 19x20 though; do the simple A sq + B sq =C sq triangle math. I've also found that a lot of 19x20 standard garages are only 19 deep; that would be a challenge.

The trailer is the key; my sailbox and rear cradles hit the back wall and the tip of the tongue clears the garage door lip by less than 2". I put a pair of rollers on a 2x4 and hang it off the trailer winch; as I pull the 20 forward on the trailer this supports some of the weight (the 20 has LONG bows). That 2x4 also comes in very handy for installing the hull covers single-handed (lift up the bows and slide the covers over the cradles). The 16 has plenty of support when slid forward and doesn't need the 2x4.

I also knew of someone who lifted the tongue of the trailer up in the air; this also reduces the overall length of the rig. Make sure you chock the wheels; this guy had the boat in nose first, tilted up, and all ready to take off down a STEEP driveway :-) Pretty scary looking.

The Laser rides on a custom wood cradle on the 16, and travels to winter frostbite races that way. To get the 16 all the way in the garage, AND to have a central walkway, I have to put a floor jack under the axle and scoot it sideways over to the wall. That IS a PITA, but every time I have to do it, I keep saying "$800 a year storage, $800 a year..."

16 and 17 will live in the garage this summer. 14 goes out to Whitmore Lake where we manage some apartments (that also just happen to have a boat storage lot). I can be on the water 40 minutes from leaving my desk.

The Tiger is going to live down at Crescent Sail YC for the summer. A few of us are doing a week-night F-18 series on Lk. St. Clair.

What you don't see in the photo is my daughter's Laser. We haven't really figured out where to put that just yet.

I was expecting you to say, "On the trailers that stay outside for the winter." So, where do all the trailers go?

Mike

Not so, Cod. I have never trailered a boat in my life. I kept my previous cats on the beach, and my powerboat at a marina. I have no idea how you even hook a trailer up to a vehicle, but that's what I'll be doing at my next purchase. I need to learn a lot about trailering and stowing in the meantime, so that's why I'm asking questions. I did the same before I bought the powerboat. By the time I got it, I had done courses on boating safety, GPS Plotting and VHF operations. I subscribed to several magazines and did plenty research. Even hired a certified captain to take me out for 4 hours to show me everything I needed to know. I take nothing for granted when purchasing a boat. So any questions I ask here, are asked without malice.

The only reason for putting a boat in the garage is because your neighborhood or community does not allow you to have a boat outside; right?

If that is the case, I would say you should move to someplace that does not have restrictions like that. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Why would a sailor to choose to live in a neighborhood that does not allow sailboats, or powerboats, or RV's? Any sailor looking for a house to buy should think about things like that.

Mary, I know that's easy to say, and I also know you'll know what property prices are in South Florida as we speak. But yes, the reason for putting it in the garage is community rules. I bought the house before I owned the last cat. The powerboat was a 7,500lb 28' cruiser, so there's no way I was going to be trailering that. Besides, trailering and launching a powerboat on a busy weekend here is nothing short of chaotic. From what I've seen, I don't think I'd look forward to trailering a powerboat. Much cheaper to keep it indoor at some marinas.

I know it is not easy after you already own a house, but as I said, other people should think about it before they buy one.

We just don't want to live in a neighborhood or community that prevents you from keeping your possessions on your own property. Or chickens and goats, for that matter.

And some people, on the other hand, probably would not want to be our neighbor. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

P.S. We don't even have a garage.

Just to drag this totally off-topic - people seem to think that roosters crow at dawn. This is not true. They crow whenever they are awake. Which is often at 3 in the morning.

I have a .22 with a scope. I have come very near to sitting on the roof with it trained into the neighbors yard...

On the neighborhood rules topic, I live in an older (70's) small subdivision with a new (00's) 10-feet-from-eachother (don't have a problem with these - I hate my yard and it's only a 1/4 acre lot. Grass sucks) literally next door whos rules prevent parking RV's, boats and such. Which means that they end up in front of my house. Pain in the butt - I can see why they want to keep them off the street (it's hard enough to make it by with cars there) but at least allow it in driveways. Silly.

Nope. Two good other reasons - snow and sunlight. Both are bad for boats. Ever since I started keeping my boats indoors, they look better much longer.

And Mike, there are only two trailers. One is in the photo. The other lives in the back yard in the winter and under the 14 in the summer.

We had those very things in mind when we bought. The funny thing was we were inquiring about whether we could widen the driveway - the sellers were looking at us like we had two heads. It finally came out that the community doesn't care if you park on your own lawn! Score! Keep a boat in yard? It's practically required that you do! Perfect! I can see the mast of the F-27 in the community slip from my back yard, park boat trailers wherever, and drag my kayak across the street to hit the Bay. Kids park on a beach half a block away, and our community dues are $10 a year.

I hear my friends talk of multi hundred dollar fees, they can't keep their own property on their own property, and they need to bow down to the community association to change their doorknob. No thanks!