had a few ?s
1) has any body heard of launching off a trailer with the sails raised and fully rigged.
2) i live in Jacksonville fl on the west side by the river where is the best place to launch would be willing to make a trip. has to be cheap (by nas jax)
hope you can help happy sailing

I am sure some have tried it, once. I think it would work under two condition. 1) It is dead calm, 2) Your car is pointed dead into the wind.

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Nacra 5.2
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yes it is possible, and has been done, but if you get a gust while rigging on the trailer.. you may have some issues.

Also since most people trail their boat with bows to the car.. you will be backing your rigged boat backwards off your trailer.. not the best method

I'm new to cat sailing and have only been out three times now with my own cat, but I catch on quick and have been reading quite a bit as well as watching every youtube video I can find(a lot to learn from watching others sail).

It's probably a really bad idea to launch a beach cat from a trailer with the mainsail up.

I launch my cat from my trailer every time. I step up the mast while on the trailer, then raise the jib and furl it(if you dont have a furler, I would probably just leave it uncleated) . I leave the mainsail rolled up on the trampoline, while I back the cat in to the water via boat ramp or beach. Then I either paddle out to open water or just push off a dock/beach. Once I'm on open water I raise the mainsail and sheet everything in and take off.

When docking I pretty much do the same process in reverse, but I try to sail as safely and as closely as possible to the dock, point in to the wind, furl the jib(or just uncleat it), lower and roll up the mainsail, and paddle the rest of the way back to the dock. If I'm docking on a beach I just point in to the wind and leave the mainsail up and pull the cat up on the beach while still pointed in to the wind. I only take the mainsail down when I'm done for the day really.

Hope some more experience cat sailers comment some more.

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1984 AMF Trac 16, First year of sailing, Central California
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I recently parted out a cat from craigs list.that sailed across the parkn lot by the boat dock,ground thru port hull snapped rudder out of transom, bent mast like a banana.

ideally you purchase beach wheels and not worry about it.

If you raise your jib / main (without a furler) on your trailer, it is harder to react to a gust or windchange.

it is recommended to rig your sail pointing directly into the wind. some people don't mind their jib off the wind, but it's almost impossible to raise a main off the wind.

I only know 1 person who raises his main on the water. the rest of all the cats i know do it on the beach, and 99% of them bite the bullet and get wheels.

Its been pretty much answered, but to reiterate, yes you could... But why take the risk? Would you drive the boat around fully rigged on the trailer, I'm sure its possible, but equally as silly. Accident waiting to happen.

If it is your best option just be careful and mindful of others around you. If there is place to beach nearby to raise the main great. Otherwise wait to raise the main until just before you launch and leave the main disconnected from the boom if your loose footed or from the sheets if not until your in the water and can make sure your into the wind.

I always raise the jib on the trailer and manually furl it till I get to the beach. If I'm heading straight out to sail then I can unfurl it and leave it loose at the last minute. I don't like this because my clew and blocks bang into the mast and make a racket that I don't like to hear.

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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The rudder club is right at the west end of the Buckman bridge. Very quick trip from NAS JAX (lots of fun watching P3 approaches). I was a member there, so I could use the ramp anytime. I don;t know how they handle non-members launching, though. If you are in the area for a long time, I would HIGHLY recommend a membership at the rudder club.

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Eric C

Force 5 project boat
Unnamed

Previous boat
1980 Nacra 5.2
"Double Vision"
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has any one sailed by big talbit island i was also looking at sailing from mayport r there any outhere suggestions

why would one want the jib flapping as you pull the boat off the trailer? I understand if you had it furled but uncleated and flappin?I thought the whole world put the mast up, pulled the boat off the trailer in to the water turned into the wind and put the main and jib up. Ajusted the outhaul. downhaul, inhaul and u haul and sailed.

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Nacra 5.2
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Quote

I thought the whole world put the mast up, pulled the boat off the trailer in to the water turned into the wind and put the main and jib up.

if u have beach wheels, you can stay dry rigging.

MN3

Quote

I thought the whole world put the mast up, pulled the boat off the trailer in to the water turned into the wind and put the main and jib up.

if u have beach wheels, you can stay dry rigging.

If you have beach wheels and a nice soft sandy beach, you can stay dry rigging. (FTFY)

I do it all the time from our club. We keep the boat on the trailer with the rig up. In 5-15 it's never been a problem.

I keep the boat strapped onto the trailer until the last minute if there's strong breeze.
I ease the main and jib all the way.
I back it down like any other trailer sailor.
I walk it off the trailer and then cleat the bow to the upwind dock. We have docks on both sides of the ramp.
I did it once with a medium onshore wind, and it was very difficult to turn the bow to wind. That's the only time I had any issues with this.

It is easier from the beach if you have wheels & good access.

I wanted to add that the A cat sailors all use the ramp and a dolly, just like a dingy. They rig the boat on the dolly, roll it to the ramp, and launch.

Also, I do the routine in the previous message by myself. If I had a helper, it would be easy even with a strong onshore breeze.

I did this type of launch at Lake Murray on the Irmo side of the dam. There were 3 ramps side by side and all shore around the dock is huge slippery rocks. Rigged it up with jib furled and main ready to be hoisted. Launched with little issues. Problem was pulling the boat out and getting out of the way of all the power boat guys. They don't understand sailboats very well. I would have to say, I will not plan to do that again. Shallow water launches give you better opportunity to lock in the main.

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Mike Jenkins
1989 H18
Lexington, SC
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I have launched my P16 on the river I sail on in Portland with both sails up. As long as I went slow and 'handled' the boat, I was fine. I just launched the boat from the trailer and then flipped it head to wind and tied off. But DO NOT try this when coming back to the dock: I will never make that mistake again. I had to ask for help as my boat was trying to power up and sail away. Learn from my mistake, don't make your own.

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Alex

Prindle 16 "Shake & Bake"
Portland, Oregon
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I have to launch from a trailer all the time, makes for an interesting day of sailing. To go sailing entails a lengthy drive so I try to make a day of it, 1st I check the weather and of course wind, strength and direction, predominant wind for me here in the Midwest is SE, I know my lakes very well having scouted them out on previous sailing trips, so I know I will head up to Mark Twain as it runs E-W and I know I will put in on the south bank, cat facing into wind and a small cove offers lee shelter, getting an early start also means little wind. I pull up onto the ramp area out of the way and setup, step the mast, raise the jib, a furled jib is so much more advantageous in this situation but before I converted I would tighten jib lines and cleat off to stop sail flap. If wind is already blowing, I rig mainsail and mainsheet with blocks but do not raise sail, put the cat in the water and use either jib lines or bungee cord to cleat cat to dock, there are narrow docks on either side of ramp and depending on wind, always cleat downwind of dock, fortunately docks have continuous rubber bumper around entire length. Have to drive almost 200 yards to park truck & trailer constantly keeping an eye on cat, things can get out of control very quickly with swirling wind.
Depending on strength of wind, I will either leave cat cleated to dock and raise sail standing on the tramp, or if wind is really blowing I will swim cat over to beach where I can stand in front of front beam and raise main with cat facing into wind, this is where the ring and hook method of attaching mainsail becomes a real bee_yach, you have to turn the mast to try hook into ring but you're standing in waist/chest deep water and struggle to reach mast rotator and the wind opposes your every attempt trying to twist the mast head-on to the wind, it can be tedious. I'm either standing on rocks used around ramps as wave break, or I'm standing in thick mud up to my ankles, so when I finally get the main rigged got to drag my feet for a while to try get most of the mud off.
Try to have as much as I need with me on the cat so that I don't have to come back for the rest of the day.....because that is a whole other situation. Have on occasion just sailed up to the down wind dock and stepped of, secured the cat, dropped the main, furled the jib and walked off to get the trailer, but most times you're heading back into the wind which has picked up in the PM, if the cove offers a lee shelter can drop main close in and paddle in, but most times have to pull up to rocky/muddy beach, drop main, furl jib, swim cat almost 100 yards to dock, secure, go get trailer, manhandle boat onto trailer, pull up onto ramp and drop the mast.
Every time I do this, I cannot help but notice the stares of all the people putting their power boats in at the ramp, like I'm some kind of weirdo, or a nut job. One person backs the truck down, the other person sitting in the boat activates the electric tilt on the motor, electric starter fires up the motor, backs off trailer, circles out and back to the dock as driver parks trailer and walks out on dock to boat, hops in and takes off without even getting their feet wet, takes all of 2 min, weirdos!

Turbo

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TurboHobo
H14T
H16
P18
G-Cat 5.0
P16
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Friggin' in the riggin'... takes me way longer than I ever want it to.

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The Bone
H16
Mass / NH
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