Trailering your 27

[Roger Schwake]

I trailer my CP 27 to and from the lake every spring and fall. A garage in my backyard lets me get some work done in the winter. The table in the main cabin has not survived these trips real well. The first year I trailered with the table in the up position. That broke the board that the piano hinge was connected to. The second year I put the table down and the leg jumped out of the hole in the floor and broke the leg. Now I put the table down and put bungey cords over it to hold it in place. Hope this helps other CP owners out there.

[spaul]

Hi Roger, I too have a cp27/2. 1992 model but my table attachments appear to be quite strong. While my boat spent most of it's prior life in Boston Harbour I did trail it from Boston to Indiana.
My question is this: where this broke, would you have done something differently in the attachment? Larger bolts, screws, backing plate etc.?
Just curious as I might like to do something myself. I will admit, for now we just haul out each Fall and leave it at the club till Spring. Little to affect the table attachment. We do plan to trail her to the Great Lakes in two to three years for some long term sailing, so we're just looking ahead to possible problems.
Regards,
Steve Paul
CP27/2
IM PAUL SIVE
Nashville, IN

[Roger Schwake]

The table is connected to a 1x4 with a brass piano hinge. Mine broke between the hinge and the bulkhead. I trailered my CP home from New Orleans over 1,000 miles. Also the CP on display at the Strictly Sail show in Chicago two years ago was broken the same place mine broke. You could make a pair of brackets to install unded the 1x4 to help support it, making it stronger. This is the only problem I have had with my 1989 CP in the three years of ownership.

[spaul]

I looked at my table and hinge yesterday. I agree it's a weak point in the design. I think You're right a small support would be appropriate just to avoid damage as you sustained.
Steve Paul

[Craig Weis]

Sounds like a hard riding trailer under the weight of the C-P 27's.

[spaul]

Skip you're on to something here. I have torsion axles and haven't had the problem. With the new tires and soft axles perhaps I won't have a problem. Then I only trail about 1/2 mile to put in from storage each way.
Steve
cp27/2
Nashville, IN

[Craig Weis]

Spaul
In Europe where semitrucks typically weight much more than our 'whimpy' 72,000 lb gross max trucks, they use air bag suspensions... gross upwards around 130,000 lb. These things [bags] are adjustable, plus provide a softer ride that saves the road surface from destruction. No harsh BANG as typical in America.

I once was riding through downtown Detroit in my BMW and along side me was a double bottom Consolidated Freight [Corn Flake] semi. I watched in complete amazement as that thing's right front tractor wheel found a bottomless pothole and rebounded out and flew for serveral foot about 6 inches above the pavement prior to landing right next to my left ear. What a noise and what a after-landing-shake I saw. I just figured the whole truck would fall apart. But it did'nt. But the pothole got a little deeper. skip

[spaul]

Skip, I sure know. We had plants around the world and shipped CRT's (picture tubes) . My God the holes in Mexico are unbelievable. I'm sure we've lost whole trailers there to holes and not to bandits.
I wish we had that kind of suspensions here too. It would be nice on heavy boat trailers for sure.
Of course we are captive on our lake and we store at the marina so my time on the trailer is very short.
We do plan (the Admiral and I ) to take her up to the great lakes after she can retire and spend some time wasting time up there.
By the way, you have 27 also, right? If so, I have the 2GM20...original Yanmar and I think it's pretty loud. What do you have and how's that noise level? I'm considering changing the muffler/lift and adding sound insulation. Anyone out there done that with success or not?
Regards,

Steve
cp27/2
IM "PAUL" SIVE
Nashville, IN

[Craig Weis]

Sorry spaul, I have a 19 XL. So my numbers for the trailer apply to my boat/trailer. Not a 27. But the same appies, just thicker steel.

As it is said, "The bigger the boat, the less one goes sailing."  I sail solo, no crew. I did go up north of Death's Door.

If you wish to travel the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan, e~mail Mark on the USPS site attached with my sign-off message, Mark is well versed in the Great Lakes, as well as the "Great Circle" trip.

[spaul]

Hey that's ok. I single hand our 27 all the time. It's not too bad at all and I love it that way. It also has autohelm which is a big plus for singlehanding.
I am aware of Marcus and we'll touch bases before we head into those waters. The more friends and info the better. I've fished Michigan and Erie but that was in a 21' stinkpotter, a different story alltogether. It's amazing the maintenance and cost go up exponentially with each foot the boat grows. So I tell people to be careful when they get 2 foot-itus.
Steve

[Steve W.]

I have been thinking about this since reading sometime ago, as I trailer my 27  a lot and have never had a problem and do not want one. I see no reason why this is happening, then fri after looking at the design again, it hit me, what if the table becomes unhooked swing down with out the leg to stop it. This would do the damage that has been talked about. the hook on my table is very tight and may be the reason that it has not failied. I think I will add a backup to hold the table up.

[spaul]

Steve I think you're right with the dropped table thing. My latch is very tight also and may explain no damage on our boat. We pulled our 27 from Boston Harbor all the way to Southern Indiana with absolutely no damage. The trailer I commissioned from Triad Trailers in NJ was absolutely wonderful. We had no problem keeping up with "fast" truck traffic and she handled like a small boat trailer just following us all the way. I still believe the torsion axles are a big plus for smooth trailing also.
Steve
cp27/2
"IM PAUL SIVE"

[relamb]

Having read this and worried about my table also breaking on a 1200 mile haul, I removed the table by unscrewing all the piano hinge screws.
What a pain to remove and put back, takes two people.   On the return trip, I went with plan B, which was to take a ratcheting tie down strap and run it over the top of the table wall cabinet, down under the bottom of the table where it would be overhanging and break, and then the loop ratcheted tight.
This basically supports the bottom of the closed up table from above.  Seems to work fine.