Trailer Updates – Part 2

Trailer Updates 2

If you were to list the all the things that take up valuable fishing time when you want to get your boat afloat, boat strapping would probably be quite low on the list, certainly time- wise. However I find having to ratchet strap my boat on to the trailer a pain in the bum, especially with cold hands, add to that straps that jam, or have salted up, and it becomes a chore.
I have two ratchet straps on my boat, one goes right over the boat and ratchets down to the trailer, and the other goes over the motor leg and again goes “lightly” to the trailer, to prevent engine bounce.

With the fitting of submersible trailer lights I was still looking at ways to make my boat more “user friendly” to launch – (not that it was un-user friendly anyway, but I am lazy!) So when I saw some boat buckles at a trade show I was instantly drawn to them, and got myself a pair.

Boat buckles are basically a retractable ratchet strap which is mounted to your trailer, they are fully submersible, and with a click of a button they loosen and retract like a seatbelt. So taking them off takes seconds, as does putting them back on.

The pair I got were designed to grip gunwale rather than the aft of the boat, and so needed to be fitted on the side of the trailer. This wasn’t a problem but I didn’t want to drill holes in my trailer so I got some square section 5mm aluminium and mounted them on this, and then held these to the trailer frame with standard U-bolts.

As you would expect with something that is designed to hold a boat on, they are quite substantial things, and have a rating of holding up to 1500 kg – which should be enough for most trailered boats in the UK. On the down side they are not cheap things. I got mine for £150 for the pair. They do however make launching and recovering the boat a bit less of a hassle, and, accompanied by the submersible trailer lights I simply winch in and go!