Parking Lot to Water Times

[LeeandRick]

On average how long does it take you to rig and launch. (Parking lot to ready to sail away at the launch ramp dock). I know some small boats can be done very quickly, I used to be able to sail away on my Hobie 16 in 6 minutes at a beach with a parking lot next to it, but I'm talking 20 plus feet or keelboats. Two ( or group) and single handed times please. Also include mods that make it go quicker.

The reason I'm asking, my wife is getting tired of me modifying the trailer and boat to knock another 30 seconds off the time. I want to use the boat as often as possible and it not be a big drama to launch and retrieve. We launched 18 times on 10 different lakes on a 2 month trip last summer. (Yellowstone Lake the last week of August was bliss and no one at the back country docks)

We average 33 minutes if no one is trying to talk to us (no running at the ramp). No one gets their feet wet launching or retrieving. This includes pulling and collapsing a 10' extension, raising the mast with gin pole, and everyone knowing their duties. The heaviest lifting is bringing the boom with sail on deck. Boat is an O'Day 23 with roller furling (sail on). We do put the mainsail slugs in the track on the first hoist.

Oh, and you gaff rigged catboat people, you are in a class all your own.

This has probably been discussed before but this area of the forum looks kinda dead. I'm not sorry for this long post, because that is a stupid thing to say. (If your sorry then don't make it so loooong...)

 

[RussC]

I do 99% of the setup myself and it takes me right at 65 minutes every time. multiple people working together would really cut that time, but we don't have that luxury. I think I have a pretty efficient setup with gin pole, quick pins and snap shackles scattered about. I recently started using a d shackle at the tail of the boom so I can leave the sheets and hardware on the boat ready to just clip onto the boom.

 

[Karyon]

I think for me it takes 45 min max, to do a set up, seems like every time when I set up something gets tangled or dropped. My wife does help me, but she is always very unsure. She is the one that loads the boat with goodies, beer and lunch, plus backs down the ramp and parks the vehicle. Once we leave the ramp she steers the boat under power while I hook up the sails boom etc.

 

[fred1diver]

I mostly do it alone, so it takes me around 1 hour to 1.5 hour, but thats taking my time , no rush

 

[rgranger]

On my mac22 with my daughters help we could be in the water in 20 min
With my balboa 26 it took two hours

(Which is part of the reason i sold her)

 

[topcat0399]

30 min tops

 

[Joe]

Damn... the last thing I want to do is have some one put a stop watch on me when I go sailing. I got into that mindset when I trailer sailed and it eventually drove me to have a boat in the slip that offers me so much more that just sailing. It's worth the expense, really. At least consider mast up storage someplace you like to sail.. it's a game changer.

 

[Kermit]

30 min tops

I guess that makes you the Top Cat!

 

[woodster]

ever notice when you are sitting in your boat and decide to go out ...that it seems to take forever to unhook the shore power and the lines........even though it's not really.......

 

[Ron20324]

Usually 25 minutes. If I have help, an hour.

 

[flynhi4u]

We can go from lot to water fast enough we don't mind doing it and yet we don't miss doing it either now that we have our slip. I would say we had our Hunter 20 ready to splash in 45 mins and that was with me safety wiring the mount mount and few other extras thrown in.
Having a slip now means we sail much more than we would have or could have. We have an hours drive each way and even keeping the mast up we needed to allow an extra hour for launch and recovery. Now we are ten mins from parking lot to sails up.
We ran over to the lake Saturday and took Cindy's sister for her first sail with us. We only got to spend an hour or so on the water due to storms but it was still a great sail and one we could not have done without our slip. We feel it is money well spent each year to allow us to enjoy our favorite summertime activity as much as we possibly can.

Sam

 

[Cat 310 #1 in GA]

My former boat was a Rhodes 22 and I had numerous gadgets to speed up the process. Still it took 1.5 hours to launch and one hour to retrieve. The R22 has nine stays so it is slightly more complex...

 

[Dennis Kitchen]

Great question! With my Hunter 23.5 I had it down to about 45 minutes to put the rig up and dunk the hull. Then I had to bend on the sails, another 15 to 20. This spring I had a CDI furler with the sail already on it. It took a little longer to raise the rig but the sail was already on. Also had the sail on the boom in a sailpac so only had to hang the boom and install the slugs into the mast. All together about 55 min. to an hour.

 

[Gene Neill]

Our best time ever was 25 minutes. We probably average 40. It's pretty rare to get an accurate time though. Either some stranger(s) will walk by and want to talk, or I'll be setting up with friends on another boat and we ALL want to talk, or I'm installing some new gadget, or some new rigging method, or doing some rig tuning, or something.

 

[LeeandRick]

Having a slip now means we sail much more than we would have or could have. We have an hours drive each way and even keeping the mast up we needed to allow an extra hour for launch and recovery. Now we are ten mins from parking lot to sails up.

Sam

I know what you mean about having a slip. We put the boat in a slip (8 minutes from home) as soon as we returned to Arizona last Oct and pulled it the end of April when the mad power boater ratio increased. Now we are headed to Lake Coeur d'Alene and have a slip there until fall that's 5 minutes away. I agree that the boat gets a lot more use with a slip.

It's still nice to have an easy launch/retrieve just in case another pond beckons for a few days. I know next February our Lake Havasu gathering (not as big as the old HPCC but just as much fun) will probably take in Lake Mohave also and then there is the thing at San Diego, and...

Rick

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

wouldn't it be nice to have a telescoping mast that push of a button would go up with boom held in place? I asked if it could be done when a dealer but everyone laughed. Someday it will be done and I sure bet someone will make a lot of dough.

 

[sailnewbie]

I thought the same thing, or at least a foldable mast, flip up half and then raise other half via hydrolics or something, sounds do able

 

[kito]

It took me 45 minutes on my C22 if I trailered it to the lake. When I started storing it at the marina "mast up" that 45 minutes went to under 10.

 

[LeeandRick]

wouldn't it be nice to have a telescoping mast that push of a button would go up with boom held in place? I asked if it could be done when a dealer but everyone laughed. Someday it will be done and I sure bet someone will make a lot of dough.

This guy says you can power this one. You could probably figure out a way to store the boom on the mast.
http://www.google.com/patents/US20110100278
One of the reasons I gave catboats a caveat in the first post, you just raise the mast at the hinge and the boom and sails are in the gallows ready to hoist.