Making a start with the bow or vee guide. This will help align the keel to the rollers when retrieving. I’m reusing some of the timber from the old keel guide to provide uprights as useful resource.
This upright from the old keel guide already has a slot cut in the base with bolt holes to fasten tight onto the 40×80 frame. The top has just been shaped to form a tenon that will slot into the vee section.
The idea will be to provide an angled timber that’s rigid, but with some give in it to absorb hard bumps. The compound angle will be such that when the bow comes into contact with it, any horizontal or vertical movement of the bow will tend to push the bow towards the central aft rollers.
Something like…
Drilling out the mortice
The top of vee should deliver the bow and thereafter the keel into a neat slot leading to the rear rollers.
I’m thinking that as the boat is hauled up onto the rollers, typically the weight of the boat means that the grinding on the winch becomes really hard work. So to make retrieval easier the usual thing to do is to lower the trailer down the ramp a bit more to refloat the boat.
Added channel to top of the removable support to receive the wedges.
It seems to have gone dark while turning these parts out in the shed. Two opposing wedges that fit snugly in the channel made earlier. A 2in pad between the wedges and the keel. Next step to drill through the flanges and wedges to allow for pins to secure. I’m considering simply lashing the pad to the cross member but might need to fabricate a bracket or something to tie off to. This is necessary in case during transit the boat is bounced the the pad could vacate its position unless there is something to hold it steady.
Small Boat Voyages 