So I thought I'd share this experience, not to really bash other boats but to give the first hand account as to dealing with another boat.
I recently assisted a friend in retrieving his Catalina 250WK a couple of weeks ago from the FL coast. He decided that, after just purchasing and moving it there, he couldn't deal with the close calls of hurricanes. So, we moved it north to the local lake.
Just getting that boat on the trailer was challenging. As you know, since it is a wing keel, it sits much higher on the trailer on 6 pads instead of bunks. This also meant getting the trailer deep in the water. Problem was, even with the tongue extension, we ran out of usable ramp. That said, we actually dropped the trailer tires off of the edge of the ramp. Could've gone horribly wrong I know but, when you've driven 6 hours to get it, you really want to complete the mission.
Now that we've got it deep enough, or as deep as I'm willing to get it under these conditions, the two aft pads that the boat rest on keep flipping around. So, my friend has no choice but to go for a swim and keep them flipped over to the correct side. They can be adjusted and tightened but the hardware was seized beyond our "on the road" tooling capabilities.
We finally get her out of the water but the bow is some 1 inch from the roller. As good as she's gonna get given the circumstances so our 6 hour drive home turned into 8.5. 56 mph was the magic number.
Unstepping the mast was a bit more complex that on a H260. Partly because I believe the previous owner had some incorrect hardware installed.
My conclusion, the H260 is a sailboat designed to be trailered whereas the 250WK is designed so that it can be trailered. Huge difference. Now, if the 250WK never leaves the water, she's a fine boat to own I'm sure.
I recently assisted a friend in retrieving his Catalina 250WK a couple of weeks ago from the FL coast. He decided that, after just purchasing and moving it there, he couldn't deal with the close calls of hurricanes. So, we moved it north to the local lake.
Just getting that boat on the trailer was challenging. As you know, since it is a wing keel, it sits much higher on the trailer on 6 pads instead of bunks. This also meant getting the trailer deep in the water. Problem was, even with the tongue extension, we ran out of usable ramp. That said, we actually dropped the trailer tires off of the edge of the ramp. Could've gone horribly wrong I know but, when you've driven 6 hours to get it, you really want to complete the mission.
Now that we've got it deep enough, or as deep as I'm willing to get it under these conditions, the two aft pads that the boat rest on keep flipping around. So, my friend has no choice but to go for a swim and keep them flipped over to the correct side. They can be adjusted and tightened but the hardware was seized beyond our "on the road" tooling capabilities.
We finally get her out of the water but the bow is some 1 inch from the roller. As good as she's gonna get given the circumstances so our 6 hour drive home turned into 8.5. 56 mph was the magic number.
Unstepping the mast was a bit more complex that on a H260. Partly because I believe the previous owner had some incorrect hardware installed.
My conclusion, the H260 is a sailboat designed to be trailered whereas the 250WK is designed so that it can be trailered. Huge difference. Now, if the 250WK never leaves the water, she's a fine boat to own I'm sure.
