Gelcoat repair

[Inkaporka]

To clarify, the braking was hard, i.e. 40-45km/hr to zero in a few seconds, enough for the trailer brakes to lay rubber. The individual (P plater) who ducked across in front of me then aborted was very lucky that my brakes, both on the ute and the trailer, functioned so well, otherwise he and his girlfriend may have has a close encounter with my bullbar, so a prang narrowly avoided.

The inertia of 3 tonnes of boat on a frictionless surface was unable to be checked by the aluminium winch post roller bracket, as I mentioned previously I believe it functioned like a crumple zone in a car. Had it not collapsed, I think the boat may have slewed off the bunks, clearly a major disaster scenario. I hear what you are saying about winch posts, but am grateful that this was the only real damage, apart from the scratch on the gelcoat. I think the post I have is plenty strong enough to withstand the loads placed on it by winching the boat up on to the trailer, I don't plan to reinforce it to withstand the extreme compression as experienced that day.

Would be interesting to see some crash testing of laden boat trailers, with different load scenarios, ie. tied down vs loose...

[cormorant]

I was sort of replying to Feds post and not your exact circumstance. That is one lucky p plater that I hope learnt something about a 5ton T-bone near miss- may his underwear be full and have a couple of nightmares and nagging from the girlfriend. Your end result is the best possible outcome and you were lucky / by design your winch post was beefy enough to do what it did and crushed as well to stop other boat damage and probably stopped yout transom lifting and who knows from there. As you say another 5km'/h or different angle or even harder later braking and who knows at what point something would have given way totally apart from your underwear. I'd nearly put your twisted winch post, winch cable on the bar wall as it has done a brilliant job far in excess of what it was probably designed for and be checking your towbar under teh insurance claim. We had our towbar , ball , hitch replaced after a 35km'h rearender by the insurer as a precaution as they knew we towed heavy loads and we didn't even ask for it. I though it was just writing up the claim value but when removed it was twisted slightly and every bolt had been marked where it had moved slightly. . . That trailer manufacturer deserves a good word in this case.

There is crash tests on utube with trailers and boats - not pretty and seen a few in the insurers yards - bloody ugly deformed and glad I wasn't involved in whatever they were with the forces involved.

I'd seen this before but for those who haven't solid wall hit - ouch



Average day at the boat ramp

[Inkaporka]

Happy ending - not the SE Asian kind, but a good result in any event, the ding is now invisibly repaired thanks to Michael Andersen, local (Belvista) boatbuilder and glass guru, top job and the price was right too. Michael also introduced me to one of his mates, a very competent auto sparky specialising in boats, sorted my trim tabs and the dicky indicator on the bike while he was there. Highly recommend both blokes, Michael's website is eponymous.

[Inkaporka]

Michael's website for reference, cheers and thanks to all of you for your help with this one.