Trailering an H25

[Randalf]

I need to move my '82 H25 from Canyon Lake TX to my home 90 miles away ASAP. I have the trailer that the boat came with, but the PO warned me that he had loaned it to someone else years ago, and they had readjusted the support arms to fit a different type of vessel. The trailer has four telescoping arms that appear to be designed to stabilize the hull, but not provide any actual load-bearing support for the boat.
Is it safe to put the full weight of the boat on the fixed keel for transporting/storage, or should some of the weight be transferred to bunk boards or the support arms? I seem to recall reading that some fixed keelers should have no more than 60% of their weight placed on their keels, and the other 40% strategically distributed over other bearing areas. What is the truth for my boat?

 

[Benny17441]

When the boat is in the water the keel-hull joint supports the entire weight of the keel. There is no reason why with the keel on the hard that it would not support the weight of the rest of the boat. The bunks are needed to provide balance and support for the hull with very little load, just enough to prevent the hull from sliding.

 

[Randalf]

That was what I was hoping to hear. When I bought the boat eight years ago it had already been in the water for a couple of years, so it hasn't been hauled, cleaned and maintained in a decade. I'm not sailing it anymore, so I want to pull it out of the water and store it at home until I decide whether to restore it or sell it. The PO said that he had moved the boat to the Texas coast and back to Canyon Lake (200 miles each way) on the trailer, but he had loaned it to someone who promised to mark the support arms before adjusting them, but didn't. The trailer sat in a pasture until the support pads rotted off, so I didn't have anything left for patterns. I made four 12 X 12 pads by laminating two layers of 3/4" marine plywood together, and was hoping that they were only there to stabilize the boat, and not to bear the load.

 

[Nodak7]

I need to move my '82 H25 from Canyon Lake TX to my home 90 miles away ASAP. I have the trailer that the boat came with, but the PO warned me that he had loaned it to someone else years ago, and they had readjusted the support arms to fit a different type of vessel. The trailer has four telescoping arms that appear to be designed to stabilize the hull, but not provide any actual load-bearing support for the boat.
Is it safe to put the full weight of the boat on the fixed keel for transporting/storage, or should some of the weight be transferred to bunk boards or the support arms? I seem to recall reading that some fixed keelers should have no more than 60% of their weight placed on their keels, and the other 40% strategically distributed over other bearing areas. What is the truth for my boat?

Randalf, word of caution! If the pads are adjusted incorrectly (high or low) they can either indent the hull (if to high) or allow the boat to lean (off balance and put excessive weight on the low end pads) if to low. I would suggest that you lower the pads down before loading the boat onto the trailer. Bring the boat up to the trailer and before pulling it out dive on the pads and raise them up to the hull. Once you begin to pull the boat out you can watch how the boat settles into the trailer. The weight should be on the keel and the pads should only be snug but not overtight against the hull. If the weight of the boat is not on the keel and you trailer it you can damage your hull.

 

[Randalf]

Thanks, guys. I think I'm going to leave it to the professionals. I got a quote of 500 bucks to move the boat from it's slip at the Air Force marina around to a civilian marina and have it loaded onto the trailer. That seems fair to me. They want a couple hundred more to unstep the mast, which doesn't seem so fair, so I may try to do that myself before I let them move the boat.