Boat Trailer

[Mikeyboy18]

I have purchased a lovely Shetland Speedwell currently moored on old Father Thames in Oxfordshire and I need to buy a trailer to get her out of the water for some minor maintenance. May I ask forum members what sort of trailer should I be looking for in terms of a particular make and size etc. Any help and advice would be very much appreciated, Mike

[Merlin]

Hi Mikeyboy18,

I too have a Speedwell and needed to move it for winter repairs.
I managed to come across a trailer locally BUT, it's a single axle and the combination is not best to be honest.
(It should only be used as a yard trailer, to be fair!)
Luckily I only had to move it 3 miles, so took the chance and it worked out for me.

There are trailers available that would do the job, it really depends on your needs..
If towing any distance I'd suggest a twin axle trailer, with adequate capacity.

I believe one of our members (daveinglasgow) is in the trailer business and my pop in here to help at some point.

That being said there are reasonable new ones on eBay, made to order I think at quite good prices too.

A good Search of this forum will help considerably...!!

Hope that helps.

[Mikeyboy18]

Thank you for replying, very much appreciated. I need to know if there is a best fit trailer for the speedwell in terms of capacity and length or a particular make etc. Hopefully (DaveinGlasgow) might pitch in on the discussion ??. Cheers, Mike

[Bruce123]

Hi Mikeyboy
I too have just purchased a Speedwell and having talked to the experienced marina owner from whom i purchased the boat and rang round several boat manufactures i settled on Mersea trailers ( i would like to have used Dave in Glasgow but round trip distance was an issue) Essex
I have been told that two wheels ( thirteen inch) and a distance between the centre of the axle and the tow hitch should be around nineteen feet
The all up weight Boat engine(15hp) plus accessories should come in under around 2000 LBs
Hope some of the above helps I'll let you know how i get on
good luck with your boat

Cheers Bruce

[vreagh]

Remember also that all trailers with a gross weight (trailer and load) must have brakes. Many cheap trailers don't fit them. I recently bought an american made trailer for my inboard engined 535. It had no brakes as supplied and cost me over £1000 to uprate the trailer to make it legal.

[Mikeyboy18]

Thank you for the heads upon this, cheers, Mike

[Mikeyboy18]

Cheers Bruce, I’m on the case, Mike

[vreagh]

I should have said trailer and load over 750kgs need brakes

[paulturner64]

Vreagh, can you tell us more about your inboard 535?

[vreagh]

As requested, here are some details of my 535. Strickly speaking, it's really a Shetland 69 ( An earlier version of the 535 ). I bought her early in 1969 and fitted the inboard in the early 70s. The engine is a 70hp Wortham Blake marine unit based on the pre x flow 1500cc Ford 116e. It drives an Enfield 130 zdrive. Over the years the pairing has proved to be very reliable . Because she was a little stern heavy, I made a pair of electric trim tabs but as I rarely had to adjust them, I fixed them into a permanent position. She spends 11 months afloat and 1 ashore for maintainance. As my home harbour is on the north coast of the far west of Cornwall, reliability is paramount, and she's certainly that. The hatch was lost in the hurricane of 87, so made a new one of stainless and later fitted a 15w solar charger into it.

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