Bought my 1981 oday 25cb in the fall without a trailer. I stored it for the winter on land at the marina where I bought it for $875. In may I am going to sail her to my mooring which I will keep it at for the summer for $1625. I absolutely love the boat and had a great time sailing her in the fall before I stored and cant wait to sail her in a month but I have a little bit of buyers remorse for not holding out for a boat with a trailer or maybe even getting something a bit smaller with a trailer. I have fallen in love with sailing and will be doing it for as long as I am able and I can see how these fees are going to start adding up year after year. I would still be getting a summer mooring either way for the sake of convenience ( I do not want to step and unstep the mast every time I go for a sail-which will be very often). I know that the $1625 is steep for a mooring but the marina is so close to my house that even if I found a place for a little cheaper it would prob make sense to pay a little more and keep it close to home and get more use out of it. But if I had a trailer I could trailer it home for the winter and avoid that fee. Does anybody else have no-trailer remorse? I def cannot buy a brand new trailer fo $3000 because that depletes my whole purpose of saving money I just wish that I had bought a package deal. I would entertain buying a powerboat trailer for $1000 or less but I wouldnt know the first thing about modifying even if I saw pics and stuff-(mechanically challenged). Very long winded I know but I had to get it off my chest and see if anyone else has had the same feelings and if there is a viable and cheap solution.
no trailer remorse-oday 25
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You can get away with a large capacity powerboat trailer with tandem axles. You would need some flat bunks and long adjustable extension brackets to support them from the trailer's cross members. For the keel you would need two pressure treated planks to attach to the center of the cross members. To get an idea of what you need, you may be better off talking to a dealer who sells EZ-loader trailers or Long Mfg Trailers. I have a Long tandem powerboat trailer that I converted over to a sailboat trailer with 24" extension brackets for the bunks. You may need to buy a trailer that will take a 26' boat in order to be long enough to float your boat on and off at the ramp. My trailer is good for a 23' boat and has a 4600 lbs capacity, which is plenty for my boat. If you're not too mechanically inclined you'll need to have someone set it up for you and pay them. If you really like this boat, I think that the trailer is just a minor problem. The bracket in the picture is what I used to hold my keel board to the trailer's cross members. No holes through the cross members are necessary with these brackets which are galvanized steel and can be obtained from any power company free of charge. They use them to mount lightning arresters, fuse cutouts, or URD pot heads to utility pole cross arms. These are sometimes mounted on poles without cross arms and the brackets are not needed and they discard them.
Joe
Joe
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So can any powerboat trailer that can handle the weight be modified for this boat? Do I need to get a specific brand or type? Rollers?bunks? I personally do not know the first thing about welding..Is there anyone on this forum in the northeast that would want to get involved in a project like this? How much would it cost if I were to hire somebody to modify for me? Where would I get the materials? Obviously not very knowledgeable about this stuff and not very handy but I am very interested in getting a trailer setup..There are a couple of trailers on craigslist that could handle the weight but I am hesitant to buy because I am not sure that they would be the right trailer and not sure if I could get anyone that knows how to do this kind of stuff..
Your O'Day 25 like my boat and most O'Days, have nice thick hulls and are able to take either a roller trailer or a flat bunk trailer. Roller trailers are more pricey and if you're going leave the boat in the water at a mooring of a slip, your best bet is a flat bunk trailer. Will a large tandem powerboat trailer that's capable of handling the weight of your boat work for your O'Day 25? Absolutely. Will you need to do any welding to your trailer to make it fit your keel/centerboard OD25? The answer to that questions is no. Can you set it up yourself? Yes. If I was able to do it, so can you. My Long Mfg tandem trailer was a powerboat trailer when I bought it new a few years ago. I didn't have to weld anything or even drill holes in it to convert it to accommodate the hull of my boat which has a keel that hangs down about 8". What's the main big difference between a powerboat trailer and a sailboat trailer that will fit your boat? The answer to that question is the height of the bunks, and possibly the height of the keel board. So you need to buy some long extension brackets to hold the bunk boards high. The keel board on your trailer may be about 6 or 8" thick and you want the bottom of your keel to sit on those trailer cross members, as low as possible. So you'll need to buy a couple of pressure treated 2x8" or 2x10" planks and sandwich them to lay on the center of your cross members for your keel to sit on. Get some galvanized brackets from your local power company to hold them to the cross members of the trailer.
Here's what you should do. Look for a reputable trailer dealer and tell him what you have and ask him if he has anything that will work for your boat. He has the specs on your boat, I'm sure. I went to Walmsley Marine in Warren RI because he's the only Long Mfg dealer in my area. He set me up with a powerboat trailer with 24" extension brackets which are adjustable to any height and they bolt around your cross members. These extension brackets are the best that I've ever seen and they're easy to set up. My boat is 22' and this trailer is good for a 23' boat. So you may have to get a trailer that will take a longer boat in order for it to be able to float your boat on and off it. Even if you don't buy a trailer off them, you'll have an idea of what you'll need. If those brackets will work for your boat, you may want to buy them and put them on the trailer of your choice whether it be a new or used trailer. If you need more info or pics, email me and I'll send them to you. sailtrinkka1986@verizon.net
Joe
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hey thanks for all the info...very informative..its amazing that those brackets can support all that weight of the boat..How did you take the measurements? Im assuming the measurements have to be precise to make sure the boat sits securely in the bunks..so mfg long and ez loader are two of the best? Should I exclusively be searching for one of these? Are they much better than the rest? So you got all those extension bars that hold the bunks higher from the trailer company? What does a new powerboat trailer of this size go for? sorry for all the scattered questions but you seem to be a wealth of good information..this project may actually be doable after all..Fortunately I have a good amount of time to get this done..I would like to have a trailer setup by october..then I could store the boat in my backyard and not have to spend money on winter storage fees..
One thing to consider when modifying a trailer to fit your boat- it must be long enough that approx more than half the keel (length wise) can be positioned forward of the axles centerline. If the boat is too far back, you will not be able to get enough tongue weight for proper handling. Also a trailer on the longer side, makes floating the boat off much easier. Good luck.
That's a good point well taken Lance. When I bought my trailer, the dealer told me that I should get the trailer that will take a 23' boat so that the trailer could be long enough to float my boat off without swamping the tow vehicle. Check out the location of my winch stanchion in this pic and you'll will note that it's placement is on the tongue, inside the A frame. This is where I had to place it in order to get the proper tongue weight on my hitch. It also provides plenty of tongue length to get my trailer in deep enough to get "Trinkka" off and on.
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My trailer originally had 8" extension brackets and the dealer at Walmsley Marine had the 24" extension brackets in stock and told me that they would work for my boat. A lot of the boat's weight is going to be sitting on that keel board on the cross members. The bunks just keep the boat from tipping over. If you have any reservations or worries about the bunks slipping down, and this is quite understandable, you could cut some short pieces of 2x4s to fit between the bottom of each bunk and the top of the cross members, and zip tie them to each extension bracket. There's no way that they would slip.
When I bought my new trailer, my boat was already in the water at the club and I needed to get the trailer adjusted to fit it. I brought my bathroom scale, tape measure, two of my sailboat stands, and my hydraulic jack with me. I had my truck jack with me also. The first thing I did was set my bunks up to an approximate height which in this case, a little higher is better than too low. I didn't want to pull my boat out of the water leaning over to one side because the bunks were set too low. As it turned out, my keel was off the trailer's keel board about two inches when I pulled the boat out and that was good. I pulled the boat and trailer up on level ground and uncoupled the trailer from the truck and set the tongue on a block with the scale under it. The trailer needs to be level when you get the tongue weight. I needed to get about 210 lbs on the tongue and I was getting about 300 which is too heavy. So I backed the trailer down the ramp and let the boat float back a few inches and brought it back up and repeated the process. I got 211 lbs. Close enough. The next think that I did was put two of my sailboat stands on each side of the stern of my boat, and I took my hydraulic jack and put it under the bow of the boat close to the front of the keel, and jacked it up snug with a block and piece of carpet in between the jack pad so I wouldn't mar the hull. I then loosened all the extension brackets and used the sailboat stands and the hydraulic jack to lower the boat so that the weight of the boat and keel is sitting on the trailer's keel board. Then I placed my two jacks under the middle extension bracket on both sides of the trailer and jacked it up so that the bunks were up against the bottom of the hull and even. This is where the measuring tape comes in. I tightened up each of the two adjusters adjusters and did the same thing with the other four adjusters. The bunk boards will bend to conform to the shape of the hull. The last thing I had to do was move the winch stanchion up into place so that the bow roller is up against the bow of the boat and tighten it down. It took me longer to write this out than it took to adjust my trailer that day. In fact, I was able to put my boat back in the water before the tide went out and bring my new trailer home. I like my Long Mfg Trailer, but it's Aluminum and it may not be suitable for the weight of an O'Day 25, I don't really know. EZ-Loaders are great trailers but I can't say enough about the quality and construction of Long's extension brackets. They're the best I've seen yet. Talk to a dealer first and ask a lot of questions. They could probably set the trailer up for your boat. You really should consider the safety issue of doing something like this. There's a lot of weight involved with these boats. Have someone help you out who is familiar with this if you decide to go this route. You have plenty of time to think about it. Good luck!
Joe
I didn't mention the two bunks under the bow portion of the trailer. There is no way to place these bunks in a "V" shape or a triangular position without removing the lags that hold the extension bracket flanges to the bottom of the bunks, and relocating the holes for the lags to attain the new position which will give more support to the bow portion of the hull. The is very easy to do and it only requires an electric drill, drill bits, and a ratchet and socket set. It's really not a big deal and can be done in no time at all. The first pic shows the two forward bunks the way they came when I got the trailer and the last pic shows those same bunks after I changed the position of them to fit the bow.
Joe
Joe
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