We’ve all seen the insurance company’s television advert where the newbie boatie arrives at the busy boat ramp and is faced with backing his recent purchase into the water, watched on by his more experienced counterparts who seem almost willing him to fail! Story by Grant Dixon.
Fortunately, he nails it first go and with the pressure off, heads out with his mate on their fishing mission. It is a scenario many of us have experienced at one stage or another, with varying outcomes.
For the inexperienced trailer boater, or someone learning the ropes, among the biggest fears or hurdles they anticipate include dealing with a busy boat ramp, along with those docking procedures that are often part of the boat launching process.
The Boy Scouts motto is ‘Be Prepared’. Baden Powell, the founder of that movement, may not have had backing a boat trailer and launching a boat on his mind when he came up with it, but he nailed it.
Preparation begins well before you leave home, boat in tow, for a day on the water. My daughter Miah grew up around boats and while she quickly mastered the on-water skills and good practices from a young age, before I let her loose on an unsuspecting maritime public at the ramp, I had to be confident of her ability to launch and retrieve competently.
The last place you want to start your initial training is at the ramp itself. We lived at East-Auckland’s Half Moon Bay for many years, one of the city’s busiest trailerboat launching points. Not an ideal venue for a beginner. So, it was off to the local netball courts and associated parking lot during a quiet time for a bit of tuition and practice.
Armed with several road cones, an imaginary ramp was laid out and the lessons could begin. Away from critical eyes, it didn’t matter if Miah cocked it up several times over. In just a couple of visits to our ‘ramp’, Miah got the hang of it, including backing down a 40m driveway to park the boat at home. Practice makes perfect!
At the ramp
If you are not an early bird, you will most likely encounter a queue at the ramp. Some launching facilities have dedicated launch and retrieve lanes; it should be obvious which lane is which.
As you wait for your turn, this is the time the prop flag and tiedowns come off and any last items can be added to the boat.
At this point check that the safety chain shackle’s pin can be removed. Don’t take it right out, but leave it finger tight. If it has rusted tight, now is the time to get the tools out and unseize it. Attach any lines you need to control the boat during the launch and later docking, and deploy the fenders.
Now is also a good time to brief any inexperienced crew as to their role in the launching process. Explain what is expected of them – if you have regular crew this will be unnecessary.
When launching in darkness, have your backing guide use their phone light or a torch to show where they are. Most dedicated ramps are reasonably well-lit, which is a big plus. Before backing down, turn your vehicle lights to the ‘Park’ position so as not to blind other ramp users. Even on ‘Dip’, the angle of the ramp is enough to make life difficult for other ramp users in the immediate vicinity.
When it is your turn, get your rig aligned with the direction you want to take. Starting straight will minimise the difficulty when backing up. If you get it wrong, just pull forward until everything is straight again and give it another shot. Some drivers with limited vision to the rear find it difficult to see the trailer during the backing process. I have seen flags added to the righthand rear corner of the trailer – trailer guide poles really come into their own here – or if towing with an SUV or hatchback, try raising the hatch to improve the rear view.
With the trailer wheels just short of or in the water, release the safety chain. Back the rig back into the water and detach the winch hook. Depending on the efficiency of your trailer’s roller or slide system, and the angle of the ramp, you may need to slow the boat’s descent using the bow rope. A half-turn
around the winch post helps hold the boat while the you release the winch hook and gives you better control the vessel’s descent off the trailer.
With the boat now afloat the bow rope can be used to bring it alongside the finger (where present). I use a docking line, tied off at either end of the vessel. This allows a crew member to control both the bow and stern from the one position.
With the boat secured, move it as far along the finger or jetty as possible to allow space for the next crew to launch. Be considerate when parking your trailer – don’t block in any other users or residents. With the boat in the water, now is a good time to briefly look over your trailer to identify any future maintenance issues
Launching at a busy ramp can be daunting for the first few times, but practice makes perfect.
Off the beach
Not everyone has access to a concrete ramp with an adjacent pontoon or wharf. The alternative is to beach launch, which requires much more competent crew participation and skills, along with a bit more speed.
Launching into a harbour or estuary off the sand is an easy process. Your backing does not have to be so exact – there are no lanes painted in the sand – but you may have to back further into the water to get enough depth to float your boat.
You are going to get your feet wet getting onto the boat when it has been launched, and pushing it out to a depth where you can put the motor down.
One of the key factors when beach launching is speed. I am not talking about charging down towards the tide at full noise, but about having a good system for efficiently and quickly launching and retrieving the boat.
If the launch area is unfamiliar, do a recce to ensure there are no hidden sand bars, or areas of soft sand. The golden rule is keep the wheels rolling. Any wave action at all will pull sand away from around the trailer wheels, causing them to sink. The same applies to the tow vehicle. Your worst nightmare is to have both boat trailer and tow wagon stuck in the sand with the tide rising! The Toyota Hilux Hybrid has Sand as one of six Multi Terrain Select modes.
We have a Balex ABL system on our dual-axle multi-roller trailer and can pick the boat up even when it is high and dry, but this is the exception – most trailers don’t have this advantage. The higher the wave action, the more efficient you need to be, and this is where a well-trained/experienced crew helps.
For many years I launched and retrieved boats off the beach at Waipu Cove and the only times I had issues was when my crew and I were too slow and did not keep the rig moving.
When launching in the surf, as soon as the boat is free from the trailer get it turned around to point the bow into the waves and hold it there. I have been in the situation where with a bit of a swell running the crew lost control of a 7.5m boat, the waves forcing it side-on to the beach. It was one hell of a job to refloat it on an ebbing tide.
Before backing down for the retrieve, have the winch rope extended to where it reaches the attachment point on the hull. Line up the middle of the trailer with the bow, hook on the winch strop or cable and start winding the boat up the trailer, all the while slowly backing the trailer under the rig – keeping the wheels moving. When the stern is off the ground start pulling the trailer out until you are clear of the water.
In situations where you anticipate issues with soft sand at the retrieval point, angle the vehicle slightly as you reach the loading point. When the time comes to pull the boat out, the angle allows you to pull one wheel at a time out of the hole created by any wave action. This is especially important when launching and retrieving on a surf beach.
If you see things going pear-shaped, don’t be afraid to ask others for assistance – and do it sooner rather than later. On one occasion at Waipu Cove I was retrieving the boat with the tide almost fully in, leaving just a strip of soft sand to work on. I got the boat and tractor both bogged but saw a team of linesmen sitting on their truck watching the proceedings. While I contemplated my next move their foreman offered me a hand, backing his truck, fitted with a Hiab, to where he could extend the boom to hook up the tractor.
I questioned the ability of the Hiab to do the job, and the boss’s only comment was “I take no responsibility if I pull the tractor in half!” But he had that rig out of trouble in
a moment and he and the crew went home with some nice snapper for their trouble!
Having the right tools for the job also helps. How many times have you seen people sitting on the bonnet of a smaller front-wheel-drive tow vehicle, trying to get more grip as it struggles with the weight (and perhaps the angle) of what’s hitched on behind? Using the right vehicle is crucial. The Hilux Hybrid has a 3.5-tonne towing capacity and 700mm wading.
The most impressive launch and retrieve I have seen was a Wairarapa crayfisher and charter operator whose deckhand backed a 30-foot-plus, twin jet powered catamaran into the surf using a large D8 bulldozer. After launching, the skipper and crewman timed the swells perfectly to pluck the deckhand off the beach via a bow ladder, him coming aboard with not a single drop of water in his seaboots! As mentioned before, practice makes perfect.
If you do enough boating you will inevitably be faced with challenging boat launches and retrievals, but with good techniques and sound systems the outcomes should always be the right ones.
