Small Boat Voyages

We have an old wooden ladder that we use to climb aboard when Tarka is on its trailer. It’s pretty old but a couple of things going for it are the solid ash rungs which each have a wire strenthener to prevent breaks, that and the two leather protective patches that I added to help protect Tarka’s rubbing strake. However on occasion the ladder is not available e.g. at the bottom of a slipway as occurred recently at Dove Point slipway on Wirral. I was going to try launching by driving the boat off the trailer. For this I would ride down aboard Tarka lowering the whole rig in using the electric winch remote. Just before getting to the right depth I realised I had forgotten to unclip the safety chain. Unable to reach from the bow I was forced to winch back up the ramp and ask for help to climb down off the boat. The whole process had stalled which was both embarrassing and wasting time since we only had a limited time due to launch and retrieve being on the same tide.

In answer to the problem  “I need a way of embarking / disembarking half way down the slip” I came up with this small woodwork project.