Work and Weather

Weekend: 27 & 28 March, 2010

Last week, I had to bring in 40 ton of 2" gravel to rebuild the base to our driveway. I had to cancel my plans of putting Galactica into the Gravois arm of the Lake of the Ozarks.

The weather hasn't been cooperating with getting the boat onto the water and there are a lot of chores in running a small hobby farm. Hopefully, next weekend will see Galactica swim again!

In an effort to make it easier to load the boat onto the trailer at ramps, I'm building guide lines. Originally, I was just going to run a line from the winch post to the aft goal posts. The winch configuration on the 2009/2010 trailer is slightly different than what I've seen on similar mods on the MacGregorSailors web site. There isn't a good place to just tie the line. I decided to use what I have on hand. I started by welding a bracket made from 2" angle iron, 1" box tubing and a used horseshoe from one of my horses.

I heated up the horseshoe and beat it into a new shape. Even softened and using a 2 pound hammer, it took a surprising amount of persuasion. Next, I welded the components together. 2 of the 5 welds are pretty. 3 of them are humbling--but I know that all 5 welds are strong.

I mounted the bracket using the top winch bolt but immediately saw that I'd need a brace. I fashioned the brace from a leftover piece of stanchion and bolted it to the lower winch bolt.

I spent quite a bit of time attaching a braided line to the port goal post, threading it through a 3/4" pex water pipe, knotting it to the bracket on the winch post, threading it back through a pex pipe on the starboard side and attaching it to the starboard goal post. The port side is pretty good even though the pipe touches the boat--which I really don't want.

I rebuilt the starboard guide line 5 times but never got it to my satisfaction. Pulling on it pulls the pex off of the starboard side of the bracket. The port stays on. Additionally, the pex piping is too flexible. I think that it would whip up and down against Galactica's pretty blue hull while trailering.

This has been a learning experience; but I'll get tubing that is more rigid and perhaps use a steel cable instead of 1/2" braided line. I can tie the line temporarily at the ramp's staging area until I can get the components to try again with the guide lines.