when we acquired nopantsdance it came with a trailer. i really liked that fact: normally the boat stays on land but every now and then we may need to move it and this is pretty much impossible without a trailer that is tailor-made for the boat.
one thing is that the boat is pretty long, wide and not really light but more importantly, the hulls are designed to live on a fairly malleable surface (water) and it gets damaged easily if it is in contact with another hard surface. the trailer also has two large sailboxes which store all the gear: center boards, rudders, sails, tiller extension and crossbar. there was only one thing the trailer didn’t have: a holder for the beach wheels.
apparently the previous owner stored the wheels on the boat when towing the boat and i didn’t think it was a great idea to have the heavy load bouncing on the hulls. i tried to buy a set of holders but couldn’t find any, so i decided to make them myself.
luckily i could buy a few pre-welded parts that were fairly easy to modify. nothing an angle grinder can’t cut to size. i then used a bit of 50 mm flat iron to weld up the u brackets.
i hadn’t welded hooked up to our off-grid system before and i can now attest to the fact that a normal mig welder happily works using solar & battery and the system didn’t even bat an eyelid. take that fossil fuel industry!
a bit of paint and some marine carpet make for a cosy and hopefully lasting part. that was easy.