Small Boat Voyages

This page covers the building a new bow or  vee guide.

The idea of the vee is to help get the bow aligned on the rear center roller during recovery. Here I’m putting a cardboard template onto the trailer to transfer the exact shape and size of everything, and extrapolate on that to get a picture of the metal needed.

Laying out on the template to see how it looks

I plan to put new drainage holes in the new support initially to spray the inside welds with linseed oil, but then also to allow drainage.

First side done. The vee support in place it is starting to look more complete and purposeful.  I can now start measuring up for the intended woodwork that will become the finished vee guide.

With practice even my welds are starting to look professional, er or should that be agricultural.

Pleased we’re nearly done

Removable cross member main components complete, some welds needs tidying up to make it fit properly but I’m pleased with progress today. As mentioned before I’m thinking this extra support may be unnecessary since the hull sitting on a heavy keel should be strong enough, but there’s no harm in adding an extra support if I can manage it.

Next job will be to drill holes to accommodate transport bolts, and make a suitable wedge to fit under the keel. I thinking it’ll be a 2part wedge with opposing surfaces and then some sort of locking mechanism such as a pin maybe and straps to secure in place in case the boat moves in transit everything can be held in place.

After that the wooden vee guide which will need to provide room enough for the removable cross member to be inserted or removed.