Taking boat out of the water this week...

[rbh1515]

I remember reading somewhere that when pulling the boat onto the trailer, you can gouge up the keel.  Any advise on avoiding this? 
Rob

[Subsailor637]

About the only way to avoid this is if your ramp is exactly the right angle and the water is exactly the right depth so that you can "float" the boat right onto the trailer.  I hadn't put any dings onto my keel (Horizon Cat) until this summer; the water levels on the Illinois River have been all over the place so hard to get a clean launch or retrieval.  If you have a pier right along side the ramp and you can bring the boat on without any power then no nicks! Good luck

[MacGyver]

Not sure what boat or trailer you have, but I have found that if you setup your trailer to be kid friendly, meaning like pvc pipe cover the angle iron, set the bunk boards that are used as keel guides to direct the keel into the center, make sure to add rollers to keep the keel from getting into any other steel, etc, then youll be fine. Otherwise, it is near impossible to not get a nick here or there, cause it is all under water where sadly, you cannot see.

If i would find a picture of all that I did to my trailer, Ill post pics.

Mac