Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

[GWPSR]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Carriage bolts, heads countersunk before carpeting would be best. The bunks need to support enough of the bottom to have it not pitch forward. Anything from 2/3 of the chine length to the whole length of the chine is common. Some trailers have multiple bunks at different places and angles, but that is overkill for your yacht

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Thanks!

So bolt the boards on BEFORE carpeting? And use 2 by 4s?

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Just ordered the brackets! Feel kind of stupid not looking here first to purchase, since I'm using the forums!

Won't make that mistake again, but I don't see any winch posts here.

 

[GWPSR]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Thanks!

So bolt the boards on BEFORE carpeting? And use 2 by 4s?

As long as the bolts are through the wood and secure, you could carpet them and then bolt them on. Carriage bolt heads have a squared shoulder to prevent turning, so you don't need to have the head visible when tightening.

Yes, for a boat that size, 2x4 is plenty big. Any yes, they can/should be pressure treated. You're going to dunk them in the water a lot.

You'll see some iBoater's bunk projects include tapering the leading and trailing edges of the wood a bit as well to avoid sharp corners, though that'd be less dangerous to a wood boat than a paper-thin glasser.

 

[Ned L]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

It looks like you are gettign good advise on your trailer, -- You'll be out on the water in no time. Considering your boat is very light, you don't need anything complicated for trailer support (as has been said) simple is better).
When alone in the boat and rowing, you would sit on the middle seat facing the stern. There really is no situation when you would sit on the stern seat to row.

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Okay--I'm starting to get my head wrapped around the trailer. Gonna take a ride tomorrow to the ONE place near me that sells scrap metal and see if I can get lucky with the tow bar extension.

Otherwise, I'm back to square one with that.

Also, is there any reason a hitch post HAS to be angled like the one I referenced above? Can't I find something straight perpendicular that will work? Avoiding the angled hitch post wouldn't force me to extend the tow bar quite as much.

Finally, as I do the math on boat length, trailer bed length, tow bar length...

Is it at all acceptable to have the boat hang 1 foot over in the rear?

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Okay--I'm starting to get my head wrapped around the trailer. Gonna take a ride tomorrow to the ONE place near me that sells scrap metal and see if I can get lucky with the tow bar extension.

Sent you a PM...

Also, is there any reason a hitch post HAS to be angled like the one I referenced above? Can't I find something straight perpendicular that will work? Avoiding the angled hitch post wouldn't force me to extend the tow bar quite as much.

Nope, that will work...

Is it at all acceptable to have the boat hang 1 foot over in the rear?

Should be OK, as long as you don't hang a HUGE outboard on there...:faint2:

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Thanks, Gus.

PM replied to!

 

[Teamster]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

I would think that boat is light enough to just use a small 8 or 10 foot flatbed trailer,...

Put the boat aside if you need the trailer for other stuff,........

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

I would think that boat is light enough to just use a small 8 or 10 foot flatbed trailer,...

Put the boat aside if you need the trailer for other stuff,........

The trailer I already have that's titled and registered is only a 4' square flatbed--and I want to modify it instead of having to buy a new one.

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Who is this man? And what is he holding? And why am I smiling as I took the picture?

It's GT100000...aka Gus...and he's holding a piece of steel he fabricated for me to extend my tow bar:

For free, and it was ready for pickup in Miami just one day after he made the generous offer.

I've met some great folks on the net in my life, but Gus tops them all. He helped me fix an impossible-for-me technical problem, and did it at a time when my financial situation really needed it. Therefore, March 23rd shall hereafter be known as Miami Gus Appreciation Day.

Running to HD right now to get the bolts and nuts to get this sucker on there.

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

I'm not posting this here just for a bump. I want to keep ALL of my posts about my Piece of Ship in one thread. So since this is trailer related, I will start a new thread there just on this topic.

This has to do with ordering a winch post, which I want to do tonight while my wife is in a good mood.

I recently installed my bunk brackets and bunks. The brackets are temporarily on there (one bolt only) until I was sure about proper height and position, and so on and so on. This pram has a very curved bottom, and although she sits on the bunk boards fine, the boards only support her for a minimal length, so she has a kind of rocking horse groove if you've had a few beers and push on the bow or stern.

As presently configured, I have around 4" of clearance between the lowest part of the keel and the bed of the trailer, as shown below. (Yeah, one of the brackets is crooked in this photo, but as I said, this is temporary.) Here's the keel:

Here is my square bow, and dimensions to both the top of the "ship" and to midway to the bow hook. (Is that's what it's called? A bow hook?)

My questions are, I LIKE the 4" clearance because it gives me room to work on the bottom, but does that make my winch post choices ridiculous because of the measurements shown? Like, am I going to need a winch post HEIGHT of 28" to make this work, or a height of 21 1/2"?

So would an angled winch post with a LENGTH of 24" give me 21" of height? And is it logical to use the bow hook height, with an appropriate stop on the winch post?

All I really need is a straight winch post for this tiny boat, not even angled, but I haven't seen any that make financial sense. So if you have any links, thanks.

And thanks all for listening and your advice!

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

All I could find was this at Harbor Freight.
1000 Lb. Capacity Hand Winch
Still would have to get a "stand off" for it...
Or you might be able to do it this way...???

Just thinking out loud and cheap as possible...

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

So in other words, you think I might not need a post at all--just mount the winch on the tongue?

I appreciate your appreciation for as cheap as possible.

And PLEASE tell me I can mount the winch with U-bolts. The idea of trying to drill through that steel again doesn't appeal to me.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

I wouldn't say that it is a 100% guaranteed way to do it, but this is where my thinking goes with this...

The boat can't be that heavy, heck I even thought you might be able to get away without a winch at all, and just pull it up on the trailer with a rope, but I could be wrong about that...
The other thinking is that, even if you do need a winch to pull it up, it would tend to rock towards the front and down, by using the winch mounted on the extension...once you get it located in the right spot on the trailer, you loosen the winch up a bit to allow it to settle on its belly, tie down the stern to the trailer, then give the winch a turn or two to cinch it down on the bunks...you could easily experiment with this method at home in the yard...although make sure you hook the trailer up to the car...

I have never done anything like that before, but it might be worth a try, and if it works, you are good to go...If not, then we'll have to come up a way to mount the winch on a post...

And yeah, I think you should be able to U-bolt it to the extension...Maybe...:noidea::bolt:

BTW, if you decide to get the winch at Harbor Freight, look for one of their flyers in the mail or at the store...they usually have a 20% discount coupon for any one item...

L8r,gt

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Gus, I stole your illustration and modified it a little. Time to plan my Beverly Hillbillies canopy:

Instead of PVC, I'm going to use solid electrical conduit (solid meaning not flexible, but it's still actually tubing/piping), cause I have a bunch of pieces and it's a lot more rigid. It's about 3/4" diameter.

Need to find 6 rod-holder type "things" to mount on the blue dots, with enough of a collar to supply adequate lateral support to the 6 legs. Top end of the leg will be capped, with an exposed bolt JB-welded through the cap sticking up and out.

Install my legs, get a piece of canvas from HF, and mark my first hole to grommet. Stick my bolt through grommet, stretch canvas to next leg, mark and grommet, and rinse and repeat for all 6 legs. Later, trim and stitch edges of canvas to the profile.

Keep legs and canvas stored in a bag, and attach canvas via wing-nuts. Could probably keep the whole thing assembled and just stick legs into posts when needed.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Sounds like a really good solution...I like the sound of it...
Definitely post up some pics of the progress and outcome...

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

Even if you're broke, you can still work on your BOAT! (Hey, that rhymes.)

Today, I'm going to cut a small piece of my canopy piping--pocket size--and wander the HD aisles for suitable mounting options for later purchase. (Hell, I might even overpay for a hot dog there and make a real day of it. My HD has one of those hot dog carts.)

My winch post is supposed to arrive Monday, but damn if I know the exact specs to buy the proper U-bolts. Even the web site's "You may also need" section didn't make sense as to the specs on the bolts, and gave you several options. So I thought it best to have the post in hand and pick up the bolts locally.

For a bow stop, I'm going to use an 18" or 24" piece of the 2 by 4 cut off from making the bunks, and carpeted. Just have to figure out the cheapest bracket/mounting solution to get it on the post.

When I'm done with the canopy, I should fit right in selling fish on some river in Cambodia.

 

[IraRat]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

For the bow stop, I think all I have to do is use 2 u-bolts to attach the carpeted lumber to the post. It's not like the stick has to contact the bow perfectly...like the bunks which have to be angled a certain way.

It just has to keep the boat from banging into the post on short stops, which ain't gonna happen anyway with rear tie-downs.

 

[idonthaveaname]

Re: Help In Restoring An Old Wood Dinghy

You've done some nice work IraRat and found a good buddy with Gus...he's a great guy although I have never had the opportunity to meet him.