Orkney 520 - Trailering

Two questions I hope you can help me with. I have an Orkney 520 on an Orkney trailer with 3 rollers and a bunk on each side.
1. How much weight should be on the bunks.
2. How much of the trailer needs to be in the water when recovering the boat. Worried about pulling the winching ring out of the stem. Thanks in advance.

see the post below, but an extra couple of rollers will help and if you get the nylon ones that would be better again.

How much trailer you put under water depends largely on how much you enjoy changing wheel bearings!!!! but you should be ok without submerging the wheel hubs, put the trailer in too deep and cross winds and currents can make the job more difficult than it need be.

also look here:-
http://worldseafishing.com/forums/showt ... hp?t=46596

Not a great fan of bunked trailers myself. What weight should be on the bunks? I would gues that it is a matter of balance etc. Basically the bunks should support the hull. If the bunks are too low then the boat will rest on the keel and will not be steady. If the bunks are too high then the the keel rollers will do nothing. It should be a balance of distribution.

It is interesting to note that on a Warrior 175 the keel rollers at the stern are not used to support the boat, only for winching on. When the boat is on the trailer then the side rollers support the hull and the front keel rollers support the bow.

With bunks it seems that the trailer needs to be more in the water than would be the case with a rollercoaster or breakback trailer. You can see from the thread on WSF that the biggest grief seems to come from alignment.

Make sure the bunks are covered with a slippy substance (carpet is popular). You will strike a happy medium between depth of water over the trailer and ease of winching and alignment. The "D" ring is a strong item. I would imagine that the difficulty in winching would eliminate the possibility of pulling out the ring.

Finally, not much help I know, but your life would be made much easier by having a rollercoaster. Basically once you have enough water under the stern you can winch the boat up on an almost dry trailer.

Jim.

hi cladagh as for bunks i think their function is just to hold the boat stable on the trailer for transportation there a pure bollocks as for your trailer being in the water guess its to do with the shape of your hull and type of trailer i cringe everytime i have to drag the boat on the trailer ive a winch big enough for the titanic . Ive tried with the trailer submersed it was bloddy impossible to keep the boat straight and on the rollers but shes a longliner. I still think its sore on a boat winching it on a trailer no matter how many rollers u have. wouldnt it b great just to b able to drive straight onto the trailer like i see guys in ribs do.

You can drive an orkney onto a trailer fine if you have a good few rollers for the keel ,though rollers instead of bunks make a hell of a difference .my mate has/had an orkney (he just bought a redbay 19 at the weekend) and i would drive it onto the trailer and he just hooked the winch to the D ring when the boat was far enough up ,it takes practise but you can retrieve alot quicker and clear the slip in a couple of minutes .

Thanks to all for the help

Your bunk trailer should support the boat on the keel of the boat. The bunks themselves are basicly there to support the boat and stop it falling off the trailer. the weight should be supported on the the main chasis of the triler. If it is'nt going over bumps while traveling leads to all the pressure coming down hard on the points supporting the hull. This is the reason why bunk trailers are actually better for transporting boats than roller coasters which only really support the boat at a few points. Most new hull designs by now have reinforcment built in to counter this problem but older boats do not. Roller coasters are a dam site easier to retreive also .

When retreiving a bunk trailer a good tip is to deliberately dip the trailer bunks only partially and bring the boat tight in to the bunk. Then attatch the winch and bring it in tight. then slowly reverse the car whle reeling in the winch at the same time. This will help keep the boat aligned and gradually bring the boat on. Of course it depends on the boat and trailer and the amount of wind thats wrecking your plans but another good way to do it in good calm conditions is to dip the trailer, then motor the boat out til its facing the trailer and using a rope from the slip standing at the trailer slowly pull the boat in by hand and into position. This is what i used to do with my previous boat. there was a shallow keel that slotted into the trailer. Once it was in position i tightned up and then dipped the trailer a bit more and winched it on fully before she was pulled out. As i said, it depends on the boat and trailer we are talking about. It comes with practice. Try and make sure your first few attempts don't include too much wind and a person or two wearing waders is a big help.
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