My first time towing anything more than 2 miles.

[neosoul]

After a one week delay, my CP-19 is home. We - my wife and two of our three children (The middle child decided to go to a sleep-over.) - left the North Fork of Long Island at 4:45AM and arrived at the Denny's in North East Maryland for breakfast at 9:30am. We were about an hour and half away from the closest place that has a U-Haul rental (Lanham, MD) from where my boat was being stored. After getting the rental truck we headed to Dunkirk MD, which is about a half-hour ride south of the U-Haul rental center. When we arrived I looked over the boat and trailer carefully. I checked the tire pressure on the trailer tires, greased the trailer and checked the trailer lights. We were ready to go. A few minutes after we got going, with my wife trailing behind, she realized I forgot one thing. The trailer did not have a tag on it. I told her not to worry and let's see what happens. We started home at 1:30PM on Saturday(6/7/2014) and got home close to 9:30PM. With all the pot-holes and construction we went through, I'm surprised that we made it one piece.

We did have some harrowing moments though - a few cars cutting in front of me, then braking suddenly on the NJ Turnpike, running out of enough cash to pay one toll in New York (I didn't know how expensive it was to tow a truck and trailer! I had budgeted $50 for tolls and the rest of our cash went for food.), the Goethals Bridge (the narrowest two-lane bridge I've ever been on) was intense towing this boat and spending 45 minutes in traffic on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway all added to the "fun".

In the end we were exhausted but happy the boat was home. I'm happy to report, no major mishaps and no damage to the boat. I am now an owner of a boat I've wanted for a while and rest assured I will have questions for you all.

Here are a few pics of the boat after I ripped off the shrink-wrap.

[Craig]

Congrats on the boat and making it to Southhold in one piece! I HATE the Brooklyn-Queens expressway! Got rear-ended while stopped in traffic on the way to Orient once. The B-Q looks like a junkyard with traffic going thru it! Boat looks great. Keep us posted!

PS: The Goethals bridge is a lot of fun too!

[CaptRon28]

If you REALLY want to have some fun, try going over the Potomic River on 301 in southern Maryland / Virginia. I've crossed that more than a dozen times pulling 8 1/2 foot wide trailers. I'd guess the 2 lanes (ONE EACH WAY, NO DIVIDER) are at best 8 1/2 feet wide. Very interesting when an 18 wheeler is coming the other way.

Trailering is no big deal - you just have to learn how to keep the equipment in GOOD shape. That includes the tow vehicle AND trailer. Coming north this year pulling an enclosed car hauler I had a trailer tire blow out north of Tampa. Lucky that the remaining D rated tire on that side had the capacity to get me the 5 miles to a tire shop. Wound up replacing all 4 to be safe.

[Salty19]

Sounds like quite a trip!  Other motorists really have no idea that a towed boat and vehicle really cannot stop too quickly!
I've had a few close calls myself, so decided to install trailer brakes.

No bridge matches the scary factor of the Mackinac bridge in northern Michigan which spans the cut between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. 250 ft up off the water, usually high winds, metal grated surface and several miles to get across.  The bridge sways quite a bit by design...you can literally see (and feel) the bridge moving underneath you. I would be hard pressed to get the nerve up to cross it with the CP19 in tow, especially if there is any wind that day.

No doubt that inner cities and tight bridges bring the pucker factor up a notch when towing a boat!!! 

Glad you made it.  Now the real adventure begins!

Enjoy the new boat...you picked a good one!

[kickingbug1]

my new boat is a catalina capri 18. (i kept my com-pac 16). i towed my catalina 510 miles from ludington michigan to southern illinois with a 13 year old s10. no spare on the trailer (owner neglected telling me that) and questionable tires. good news the wheel bearings were good (hubs stayed cool) bad news i was bucking a 35 mph head wind for about 300 miles and hit a major storm near bloomington Illinois. but like you happily i made it home. was it worth it? time will tell.  we sure do a lot to end up going 6 knots