Looking for trailer for a CS22 swing keel.

[Rogerthat]

Hello, I live outside of Halifax, NS. and need a trailer to pick up a CS22 swing keel sailboat in St. Johns, New Brunswick. Please let me know if you have any leads.

 

[Indysailor]

Used sailboat trailers are hard to find, though from the ones I see at our club I wouldn't be surprised if a small powerboat trailer could be modified to work. Just a thought.

 

[pgandw]

Used sailboat trailers are hard to find, though from the ones I see at our club I wouldn't be surprised if a small powerboat trailer could be modified to work. Just a thought.

A powerboat trailer can usually be modified, BUT

• Powerboats of around 22ft length are heavy in the stern area (big engine weights) and wide in the stern area. Lots of trailer support needed at the transom and trailer wheels have to be located rearward to get sufficient tongue weight.
• As a result, to modify for a swing keel sailboat, wheels must be moved several feet forward. A keel tray and/or keel rollers must be built to be sufficiently robust to hold the weight of the keel. The keel tray and/or rollers must be as low as possible for launching at shallower launch ramps.
• Because the swing keel of a C22 does not fully retract into the hull, a raised roller or bunk (usually bunks) assembly must be built above the trailer frame to support the middle of the hull and most of the hull weight.
• The rear end of a sailboat trailer must have rollers in the correct position to start the bow going correctly to get the boat onto the bunks.

The above is a significant amount of metal work. Moving existing wheel and axle locations assumes existing is bolted, not welded. The new bunks and rollers will have to be bolted unless there is a galvanized steel or aluminum-proficient welder available. And of course, welding assumes you can get the new locations for frame attachment right the 1st try.

I would have photos (and plans and measurements if possible) of a known successful C22 trailer before I started. Otherwise, you can easily spend enough money and time to justify buying a new C22 trailer in the 1st place.

I went through this adjusting a new sailboat trailer to my ODay 25 - and that was a bolted, not welded trailer. It took me several tries to get the wheels and axles to the correct location for tongue weight, and properly aligned. A lot more labor than I anticipated. With my current Mariner, one of the key selling features (and part of why I paid a premium price) was that the boat came with a 2019 factory fitted trailer in tip top shape.

Fred W
Stuart (ODay) Mariner 19 Sweet P