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Our Sailing Hideaway Blog and YouTube videos will remain active. Join the HideAways as we tell, through blog stories and videos, what life really is like on a small, 23' Com Pac sailboat. We'll show the joys, thrills and chills of the sailing life, but also what it takes to maintain a boat, trailer and truck. You are just as likely to learn how not to do something correctly as to do it right. That's important too! New! The Hideaways take to the road! Follow Traveling Hideaway: Winds of Wanderlust Transitioning from Sailing Hideaway to Traveling Hideaways as sailors learn to travel without heeling, well, not much, anyway. The Paint Wasters Society unlocks the art of paint squandering with sheer delight, free from the shackles of remorse or guilt. Trust me, a century down the line, nobody's going to bat an eyelash, so why not indulge in some paint splattering shenanigans today? Let's turn those pricey pigments into a canvas of laughter and joy.

Monday, September 3, 2018

A Trailer Sailor's Nightmare: Does Your Sail Boat have Tires?



The HideAway has four, along with the attendant axles, springs, and rust.


Driven by a nonresident wet slip rate of close to $265 per month (just over $3100 per year) the HideAways were motivated to sprout wheels regardless of additional maintenance worries.     
  

The Florida sun has an insatiable appetite for trailer tires. 


It’s sneaky too.  A tire with plenty of tread can look perfectly fine with no observable spider web wall cracks, yet fail without warning, or a tire can have all the warning signs no tread and still hold air.  I should mention that the HideAway has only left the left the marina once and that on good wheels.

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I LIKED THIS TIRE BECAUSE IT SLID EASILY 
  

A Maintenance Library


The rebuilt junk yard trailer of unknown lineage has kept the hull off the asphalt for a solid decade and provided a library of trailer maintenance experience.

The most important lesson I've learned is constant vigilance  

I do a thorough inspection every month and always before the trailer moves.  That way in all likelihood, I'll trip over a tie down line, discover a wheel chock still doing its job, or my 8 foot ladder bumming a ride to the ramp before I start the truck.  All these annoyances have occurred, mercifully not at the same launching. 

With these thoughts in mind I noticed this boat in the marina.


At first glance the tire looks fine.   In fact it made the journey from the far north just last spring.  
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No cracks - Nice deep tread


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As I walked by something didn’t look right.  Upon inspection --

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If That Weren't Enough

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About a foot off the ground


The cock pit was nearly full of water and the boat was sitting on its rudder. 
  
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Cockpit bath tubs are over rated
I called the owner who sent someone to make emergency repairs.

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SOME WATER LEAKED INTO THE HULL


As a sailor you have to be creatively resourceful – 


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 As bad as this looks they relieved the rudder stress and prevented more damage

But Wait There's More!


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Sometimes the universe just does not like you that much.



Glad it’s not my turn

SMALL BOATS ROCK!


 




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