Building or Buying a Sailboat Trailer? Check this out What You Should Know

Rusted Suspension Nuts

Rust it seems, interferes with every salt water sailor’s allotted distance made good over water. 

No matter what the reason, whether long neglected home improvement projects – After all we don’t live aboard the HideAway.  Or worse, our sailing dollar must include costs to keep the 20 year old pickup wandering down the road. –No truck means no launch capability. Not many sail their trucks but on the HideAway it’s a fact of life. 

 Well you get the picture

So, for the last many tides the HideAway sat unattended but not abandoned.  She is fully found.  Her keel thirsty for any water that does not fall from the sky.

The Scene

After a particularly heavy deluge of sky water I climbed HideAways ladder, tied it off to the stern cleat, and opened the cabin to check the water depth in the small buckets hanging from partially opened ports.  Three inches port side - One inch starboard.  The rain was more horizontal than vertical that.


I dumped the water down the sink and then on a whim, flipped on the bilge pump.  Yeah, I know it should be automatic – Another incomplete project.   Sadly, these days HideAway does not spend enough time in the water for that to be worrisome.    Pumped about a quart.  Must have been some storm.

Going With The Flow

Structural Rust 

The pumped or dumped water follows the contours of the hull. I tracked it along the boat’s sides, under the hull, down along the keel coming to rest for a moment on the 2x12 keel plank, then on to the trailer frame and finally, mother asphalt.
It is important for you to know this because when I returned the next day I found water still dripping from a trailer cross member.  The beginning of a trailer sailor’s nightmare.   Horses aside, I reached under the beam and dislodged a hand full of rusted boat trailer. 

My Savings Account Moaned 

Further inspection revealed more rust, some of it structural, all of it too costly to repair.   Our ten year old junk yard trailer needs a one way ticket to its former home.

The Trailer Has Traveled Its Last Mile

Hopefully it has few more yards left in it. One more launch is all we need. 

Here’s the rusty details and some cool sailing scenes if I must say, and do.

“A Sailboat Trailer’s End”   The movie- Part One

Next time we'll talk about the spanking new trailer.

Custom 4" Marine Photo Cube
by SailingHideAway

SMALL BOATS ROCK!!