Trailer

Tra Bhui sits on an ex MOD trailer that was originally made for a Rigid Raider assault craft and which I bought second hand from a military surplus dealer. 

The trailer which is a superbly engineered "break back" trailer was manufactured by 

R M Trailers.

A Division of Tex Engineering Ltd.

Prospect Road.

New Alresford.

Hants,

SO24 9QF.

2013

I originally bought it for our Lugger "Braveheart" and as the trailer was too long I cut approx 3 feet off it before welding a new tow hitch on to it. 

On her original trailer - being delivered from Ireland

An unexpected surprise for Kathleen! - Braveheart can be seen under the car port

When I purchased Tra Bhui in 2013, it came on a modified 4 wheel car transporter trailer which I sold on to a fellow member of the Drascombe Association.

Lifting Tra Bhui off her original trailer 

And there she hangs ! 

As Tra Bhui is approx 8 feet longer than "Braveheart" I had 4 feet added back into the trailer's spine. As I was at the time working overseas in the Philippines, I asked a local fabricator to carry out the work as I did not have the time. 

Our own trailer with 4 feet added back in 

Still hanging there! 

Once the spine had been extended I moved the axle back to balance the trailer with Tra Bhui on it. At this point the trailer had no rollers on it apart from the 12 keel rollers. This ws due to the problems of setting the rollers up correctly in relation to the keel rollers with out the boat's hull being in place to act as a reference. 

Trailer with axle re positioned is fed back under Tra Bhui

Trailer winch being used to winch trailer back under boat.

With the spine  extended I moved the axle back to balance the trailer with Tra Bhui on it. 

Once I had the trailer back under Tra Bhui I was able to position the rollers correctly in relation to her hull. The Gig has fairly substantial bilge rubbers which protrude downwards from the hull on either side of the keel. The rollers had to take into account their position. 

I reused the swing arms that I had originally fitted to the rear of the trailer for our lugger as these had proven their worth guiding the boat on. I also reused two of the trailer's original side rollers which would balance the hull above the axle.

Trailer with cradle rollers, side rollers and guide rails 

This configuration worked pretty well, but I found that the keel had a tendency to run off the keel rollers when the boat was being recovered. This was mainly due to the slight rocker that Tra Bhui has along her keel line. When she is recovered any slight list to one side causes her to run on in very slightly curved line.

The solution to this was to add two pieces of steel tube to act as guide rails - one on each side of the keel rollers - (see picture above and below)

Rear rollers on their swing arms 

2015

In 2014 I bought new rollers to replace the ones which sit above the axle and which really just balance Tra Bhui when she is loaded on her trailer. Unfortunately time in 2014 did not allow these to be fitted so they sat in a box in the workshop until April 2015 when with the season about to start and Tra Bhui due to be towed over to France and then Spain for the summer, I managed to find some time to get them fitted. 

At the same time as changing the rollers I wanted to replace the guide rails on either side of the keel rollers with some box section rather than the 50 mm steel tube that I had originally used. The steel tube while very effective sat a shade to high above the rollers causing slight marking to Tra Bhui's gel coat during launching and recovery.

The first step was to get Tra Bhui off her trailer. the simplest way of doing this I have found is to secure her stern to the handy lamp post that the council installed in our garden - not I am sure for the purposes that I use it for. With Tra Bhui secured to the lamp post and with the winch strap slackened off and the trailer back released, it was just a matter of slowly driving the trailer forward which deposited Tra Bhui gently on to our front lawn.

Tra Bhui unloaded onto our front lawn - more entertainment for our neighbours!

With Tra Bhui off the trailer it was a fairly simple job to change the rollers for 2 new 4 sets on swing arms and to change the guide rails. 

Rollers set to avoid bilge rubbers

New mid rollers - note marks left on hull by old rubber rollers

New Guide rails for the keel rollers 

End rollers / swing arms

Trailer ready for Tra Bhui to be reloaded 

As usual time was against me and with a number of other jobs on Tra Bhui to be finished before taking her to France I had to put her back on her trailer without having time to paint the trailer. I did however have time to paint all the bare metal areas with a zinc paint which should discourage future rusting. 

Hopefully before next winter I will have time to get the trailer properly painted.

Winching Tra Bhui back on to her trailer 

Front of trailer 

Sitting back on her trailer 

Recovering Tra Bhui in Baltimore (Ireland) 2014 

Harness Anchor Points

As well as having full length jack stays inside each gunwale Tra Bhui has 3 dedicated anchor points for our safety lines (lines between our harnesses and the boat). These are mounted along the center line of the boat i.e. as far away from the edge of the boat as possible.

They are located:-

• on the rear bulkhead below the tiller that is used by the helm. 
• on the front of the instrument consul beside the jib sheet winch that is used by the crew
• on the front thwart beside the mast that is used by anyone working on the cargo deck or at the anchor.

All anchor points are  proprietary fittings and are clearly marked as to their purpose.

Harness line attachment point

Mast head instruments

When we sailed with Simon Farley and his Drascombe Drifter Damson on the "Viking Cruise" in 2014, I was impressed by his wind instruments which allowed him to see what the wind speed and direction was doing during any passage.

Having seen Simon's instruments I thought that I could fit something similar to Tra Bhui, not that we really needed them as I like to sail by watching the sails rather than by instruments, but knowing what the wind speed was I thought would be handy and if we sailed at night wind instruments are beneficial if you cannot see the sails clearly – OK I admit it they are really just a “toy”.

When choosing the instruments, I wanted to keep things a simple and cheap as possible. This being a winter project (winter at end of 2014) there were a lot of cut price offers as dealers cleared their shelves of year end stock.

I chose to install NASA Clipper 11 wind instruments as they had good reviews, but more importantly they were on sale at a very attractive price.

The system consists of a mast head unit which is hard wired to the display unit in the cockpit.
With the mast now mounted in a tabernacle mast wiring was now easier as any hard wiring could remain in place and did not need to be connected and disconnected each time the mast was raised or lowered.

Fitting the mast head instruments necessitated running another cable up the mast which meant that the track that I had previously cut in the mast for the aerial and lighting cables had to be re opened. This time as well as the cable for the wind instruments I ran a spare 2 core cable - just in case!

Adding additional masthead cables to the existing aerial and lighting cables

Cables fitted and mast insert replaced ready for varnish

With the cables run up the mast and the mast insert replaced, I re varnished the mast, something that I do each year anyway.

Fitting the masthead instruments was pretty straightforward as they come with mounting brackets.

Instrument mounting brackets

The top of the mast now has a VHF aerial, a Radar reflector (fitted on a separate halyard which also is used for courtesy flags), a NASA SuperNova Combi Tri Anchor LED Navigation Light and the NASA wind instruments head unit.  

Masthead Instrumentation

The cockpit display was accommodated in the upgraded centre consul - see separate post. The consul was upgraded to accept the NASA wind instrument display and a NASA repeater display which is linked to the GPS unit and which shows boat speed on a large format display.

Installing the base of the NASA instrument pod

Instrument consul - wind instrumentation and speed repeater

Instruments in use

NASA Display

A busy masthead with lights instruments and aerial

Time to change the propeller

Time to treat Tra Bhui to a new propeller!

The existing 4 blade prop which as far as I know is the original on the engine is now 8 years old and is showing significant signs of wear and tear. The plan - not a very cunning one - is to replace it with a new one and keep it as a spare just in case it is needed. Having seen how hard another owner found it to get a spare propeller in Norway last year when he lost his, carrying a spare on longer cruises may be a good idea.

Old

New

The new prop is a three bladed one - the diameter and pitch remain the same as the old. So far the performance of the new prop is as good as the old, but with a 10 hp motor on the back I would not expect to notice much difference.

Instrument Consul Mark 2

Learning from modifications already made and tried, the previous instrument consul which worked pretty well had room for improvement. The main items to be addressed included

1. The main sheets could (and did) become snagged on the top corners when going about - especially if the sale had been let out.
2. The angle that the radio was installed at meant that the display was impossible to see in sunlight
3. There was no capacity to install further instrumentation

Mark 1 Consul - cart plotter exposed to passing main sheets!

The solution was to discard the original consul and build a mark 2!

The new consul was again constructed from 18 mm Iroko which was treated in oil to give a weather resistant finish. The new layout apart from accommodating the VHF, chart plotter, compass and switch panel also houses the displays for a NASA log (connected to the chart plotter) and NASA wind instruments - connected to the masthead units

Consul being mocked up prior to fitting electronics

I installed two grade 316 stainless steel frames over the top of the consul to prevent the main sheets catching on the instruments. the frames were bent from stock lengths of 25 mm tube. They are held at the bottom by being sunk into recesses in the fixed floor boards and at the top of the consul by stainless steel bolts. This makes them pretty robust.

Completed Consul

The cup holders and holder for the hand bearing compass have been refitted to the sides of it.

Modifications to Cargo Deck

Tra Bhui's original "cargo deck" was installed before the 2014 season. While it worked well as with many projects,we identified scope for further improvement improvement. items to be addressed included, the size and direction of opening of the front hatch as it was too big. Being the full width of the cockpit it meant that the dinghy when stored on deck had to be moved every time we wanted to open it. It was also awkward to open when the tent was up. 

With the installation of a tabernacle at the bottom of the mast early in 2015 the front hatch had to be altered to allow for the tabernacle and the re positioned front thwart. Rather than try and alter it it was simpler to just make a new one and incorporate some further modifications at the same time.

As with the original deck the new bits and pieces were made from 20 mm marine plywood. Where possible the wood that I had used previously was re used. Painting consisted of a marine primer, 2 undercoats and two top coats. I confess to using exterior grade gloss paint as I am not convinced of the benefit of the ultra expensive marine paints where the painted surface is not going to be continually submerged (I hope!).

Original configuration

Paint drying

More paint drying

 Also included in this years modifications were two removable front hatches that cover compartment where we stow our main anchor chain and also our spare anchor. Hopefully this will make working on the fore deck a bit easier for the crew! These hatches are completely removable as they need to be taken out to let the mast swing when I am taking it down.

New hatches covering both anchor compartments in front of the mast 

Configuration for 2015

The addition of grip tape makes a difference when walking on the deck, especially when it is wet. This was bought via EBay and after two outings this season has proven to be a worthwhile addition