Powered Trolley for catamaran

We have quite a steep slip at the local club 1:8 and with cats weighing in at about 150-170kg, a few sailors were wondering if there was any sort of powered trolley available or if anyone had come up with some sort of contraption to make the job easier. It's ok if there are a few people about, but if you want to go sailing yourself then the weight of the boat is an issue

I have the same problem where I sail. My boat weighs in at nearly 400 lbs. On a slight incline I can move it around on my own with the beach wheels. But on this beach it takes tow of us an enormous amount of effort ot get it up to the trailer.

I launch at a public beach so I can't install anything to make my life easier.

I was thinking that putting a winch on a post past the top of the grade would be a big help. All you would need to do is have one person keep the boat balanced onthe beach wheels and one person run the winch. If you wanted to sail solo you could use 2 sets of wheels.

This seems to me to be the most robust and the least expensive option for solo launching.

A co-worker of mine said that in buffalo where his in-laws sail they use a small tractor to haul the boats to the water. I would guess they just drag the trailers to the water. Somebody on this list probably sails at that beach.

You could probably find an old riding lawn mower with 15HP cheap.

I know it is tuff even with the slight grade on our beach. My prindle 18 is only 300 lbs and I can move it easily on my own, but the guys with the Hobie 18s… I always run over to help push. That extra 100 lbs makes such a big difference.

Matt

I heard that someone in Quebec at the Mystere club has a power dolly..
http://www.catamaranquebec.org/index.php/Accueil

I think a simple powered ATV winch at the top of a ramp would work for you.
I used to use my hand winch on my trailer to pull my H17 up on the trailer when it was a steep ramp.

Hi:

I'm from the Buffalo Fleet (www.wnycatamaran.com), and yes, we do use a tractor to move our trailers down to the beach, then slide the boats off the trailers and into the water. If the surf is not bad, we put them on a mooring pin while we put the trailer on the beach. Usually a single person can launch or put his boat back on a trailer without problems. Most of us have winches on the trailer so we back the trailer partially in the water, then put the bows on, then winch it up the rest of the way.

But, you may want to contact someone from CRAM. About six years ago we participated in an "Around the Bay" Regatta around Toledo OH, where they had to drop boats into the water from a very steep incline. They built a ten by ten platform with a rug on it that they slid the boats onto. The platform ran on top of two rails (looked like highway fencing or crash guards). At the top of the platform was a smaller briggs and stratton engine with a large winch drum.

The platform had a bridle connecting a line that they could put 2-3 wraps on the winch, and by tightening the pressure on the line, the platform could be "powered up". They used the same winch to gently ease the platform down.

This was sort of a permanent set-up; seemed to work well.

Wyatt

I've also been pondering a powered cart. For moving a standard trailer, perhaps mounting a small engine with a centrifugal clutch on a Seitech or Trailex trailer mover would work.
http://www.castlecraft.com/trailer_mover.htm

Or perhaps a submersible electric motor driving one of the wheels on a Seitech #15 dolly. http://www.castlecraft.com/dolly_models.htm

Seitech also has an optional trailer hitch assembly for their dollies.
http://www.seitech.com/m/_general/p...ept=15&riIDItem=543&riIDClass=79

http://www.powermoverinc.net/htmls/pmaccarts.html

you could modify this and attach your beach wheels somehow.

How about a power winch attached to a post at the top with a remote control so you could guide the boat on beach wheels?

Not sure of the mechanics yet, but how about a slight modification to a garage door opener?

I have seen it and it is a monster.

It was located in Ecole de Voile Sansoucy, The catamaran school owned by the owner of Mystere catamaran
http://www.mystere.ca/index_files/Page1707.htm " target="_blank"> http://www.mystere.ca/index_files/Page1707.htm

It had hydraulic motors and and hydraulic direction and it had a lifting mechanism like a cissor lift

It is not very fast but it is perfect for these old heavyweights like the Mystere 6.0XL, the Hobie21 and the old Hobie 18.

Every yacht club in South Australia, (and all racing is conducted from yacht clubs), owns more than one tractor which tow the boats (sailing and rescue) onto and off of the beach, the boats (both mono and multi hulled) are usually rigged on the trailers (or transferd from the trailer onto beach rollers once on the beach) then positioned at the waters edge and launched from the trailers (or rollers) immediately before “heading off”. The trailers are left a little way up the beach ready for receiving the boats after racing. A few people use the same system but instead of the tractors, use their own 4WD’s. There are some of the mono hulls that rig their boat’s on the lawns in front of the club houses on wheeled “dolly’s”, but they still often use the tractors to pull the boat and the doley down to the waters edge and back up afterwards. All in all a very “civilised” way of operating (not to mention “easy on the back”). Boats are never “moored” here, the boats are taken home after racing on their trailers or can be stored in “lock up” storage, in a yard or at some clubs, under cover. We have a saying here that the only mooring that lets you sleep soundly at night is the one that your boat sits on in your garage at home.
(all the clubs are situated at public beaches as well)

Do a search for "Dune Dog". I posted something like this in a similar thread a while ago.

I bet you go through a lot of squirrels and maple syrup in a season! No really what part of the webpage am I to find this cart? We talked about this in our group here in Delray cause' the boats are gettin bigger and sometimes we end up with a clift at the waters edge. Do you think a 24volt drill on a flex shaft to some kind of wheel drive on the cat track for at least some power-assistance to get over the first hump might work. with the drill in hand you could still push from the bridle wires. The drill is easy to charge too. Or just take the nieghbors kids "Barbi Jeep".Thanks Bob G.DSYC

Evening Folks:

Having spent most of the last two summers rehabbing a pair of Hobies, my winter project is to see if I can make an electric cart to either move the boat and trailer or the boat on beach wheels down the public beach and close to the water.

I have most of the parts, electric motor, controller, frame, wheels, batteries, posi-traction axel, bearings, etc. but I have to think/work through whether or not the current wheels I have (10-12" soft slicks) will be able to get traction (without slipping or just plain dogging down)?

Anybody have any first hand experience with using the smaller wheels on a somewhat packed beach? Alter all, most of the parts I have came from a golf cart manufacturing plant...and they designed the stuff so that it would take two fat old golfers, plus their bags and coolers....up and down a frequently wet and slippery lawn; I think it has some chance of actually working.

Regards,


Paul,
Milwaukee, WI

Will keep you informed as the project gets underway. I am sure it will be slow....but hope it will be fun.

From my 4-wheeling experience I would like to comment that tires with large tread blocks are more likely to DIG than grip in sand, especially soft sand. My bald old street tires worked far better in sugar sand than the brand new Mud-Terrains, and my buddies with Boggers would get stuck first each time. If you're using golf cart/atv tires, go with a street or "all-terrain" tread for use in sand.

For those of you thinking about using a golf cart to move these beach trailers around, think about the weight you're trying to move: A hobie 16 is around 400 lbs and even a trailex trailer is another 400. Galavanized steel is about 50% heavier. Certainly, quite a load.

In our area on Lake Erie, we have a few property owners that have the golf carts to get around their properties and run along the beach. The carts can function okay if they stay near the water's edge on the hard pack, but at least four times we've had to get our tractor to pull these things out of sugary sand.

Another thing about tractors: Some work better than others. We had a Ford 8N for many years that worked well, but when we decided to upgrade to a newer machine from our 1948, we tried a John Deere full-sized tractor and it always bogged down in the sand. Last year we purchased a new Kubota diesel and it's four wheel drive option is perfect.

We've developed easy going systems for just about everything. Our trailers are kept behind the sand dunes to keep them out of the heavier winds and we also dropped in a forty-foot storage container with multiple racks for storage boxes and clothes racks for hanging up all of our wetsuits and sailing wear. We just show up to the beach with a change of dry clothes and a cooler. Life is good in Angola, New York. www.wnycatamaran.org

Beachcat tractor?

I have a hard enough time keeping sand out of my traveler as it is.

As a former dune buggy owner living on the soft sand of Lake MI, that's cool. Have to agree no one will let that on any beach. I am using the soft wheel Cat Trax on a H-18 and going down to the water is easy. With the water low 200 yards and uphill 50 feet isn't fun. If someone could come up wiith something inespensive I'll bet they could make a lot of money at a few regattas.

How about a gearbox from a commercial walk behind lawnmower attached to a 12 volt motor and some ATV tires. All State Parks and most city parks do not allow motorized anything on the beach.

the solution is easy!! A lighter boat...

Here is an electric aircraft tug on Ebay. It's set up for AC, but could likely be converted, or the idea adapted, relatively easily.

How about a counterweight type setup where the weight (Rolling resistance) of the trailer/dolley is balanced. That way you are only fighting the weight of the boat itself when rolling the boat and trailer up the ramp, which is easy enough, unless it is very steep. Without the boat, the trailer/dolley is pretty neutral (able to be rolled up and down with equal ease)?
Too me, this would be the low maintenance solution
I am imagining a small wheeled dolley with a hitch ball, with a cable to a "derick", say 1/4 times as high as the length of the ramp run plus the flat area where you hitch up. The derrick has a 4:1 travelling block ... and 4+ X weight of trailer/dolley counterweight...
Any takers...

sorry, read 4+ x rolling resistance of Trolley dolley counterweight up hill

How about beach wheels that are a modified version of a Segway? Get the boat balanced on the wheels, turn it on, and when you dip the bows down, it goes forward, dip the sterns down, and it goes backward.

I found a web site that says you can build a Segway-type thing yourself inexpensively.

Or an old set of blocks to give you 2:1 or 3:1 purchase and a lot of 3 strand cheap rope. Tie one end to the boat and the other to a stake in the sand (or something) and start pulling - however, this doesn't really solve your single handing issue. I sometimes have to move my trailer in my backyard using this method.

The aircraft tug looks about like the best idea, similar to what I would design & fabricate in my garage. Just exchange the motor to 12 volt and add a deep cycle battery. Change out the lift portion to accept a tube to connect to any Cat Trax and an adjustable riser to hold up the front main beam of any cat. One of these per catamaran club would be neat.

Just remember when adding an electric motor to anything that will be submerged is going to make it complicated.

Having worked on the Segway develpoment, I can tell you there are no cheap alternatives to a Segway, yet. The components that make it work are still very expensive.

The aircraft tug (if it is one of those small ones designed to fit on the front wheel of a small plane) will definitely not work on sand. They are designed ot work on fairly level paved surfaces. Plus you would have to seal everytign to keep the sand from tearing up the bearings.

After reading all of these posts, it seems the simplest solution would be to mount an ATV winch to a post. Then take the post to the top of the hill, bury the other end of it an inch or two in the ground with it angled "uphill" and have guy wires, two of them, like you would when putting up a cheap dining shelter you can get a Wal-Mart. Use a 12V battery to power the winch and a remote switch to operate it.

This is a totally portable system, the mechanism is kept out of the water, and there are no powered "vehicles" on the beach.

With a little bit of experimentation this could be worked out.