Those of us that trailer our boats usually store them outside. Beside the garage, in the backyard or at the boatyard, they are often out in the weather. Hopefully, they will be covered and the covers won’t leak. However, often those covers do leak, allowing water into the boat.
This was the case with our 20-foot trailer boat. On a nice day during that first winter, I opened up the tarp to discover a cockpit full of ice and water. The problem was that the jack on the trailer tongue couldn’t raise the bow of the boat high enough to allow the water to drain out the cockpit drains. Luckily, the water hadn’t reached the level of the cockpit drain tubes. If the water had frozen in them, they could have been split.
There was also another problem with the trailer/boat arrangement. I discovered this the first time I climbed into the cockpit with the boat and trailer disconnected from the tow vehicle. As I walked to the rear of the cockpit, I had a sinking feeling as the bow rose in the air and the stern sank to ground level. My weight in the aft part of the cockpit was enough to lift the trailer tongue off the ground. Walking slowly forward allowed the bow to sink back to ground level.
The solution to these problems was a trailer stand. There was a commercially made trailer stand, available at a local marine store (see Photo #1). Unfortunately it’s very light and pretty wobbly. I wouldn’t seriously consider using it for long-term boat storage.
So I designed my own stand. I wanted the stand to be high enough to allow the cockpit to drain properly and heavy enough to allow a person to safely walk around in the cockpit. Built of leftover treated lumber materials from a household deck project, it was heavy enough and rot-proof. Construction was easily accomplished in less than a weekend.
The first thing I did was to determine the height that I needed to effectively drain the cockpit. After pouring a bucket of water into the cockpit, I raised the trailer tongue until the water drained out. This gave me the total height of the trailer stand required to completely drain the cockpit. If you can’t lift the trailer tongue by yourself, have some friends hang off the aft end of the boat as a counterbalance. Make sure they understand the gravity of the situation; you wouldn’t want the trailer tongue to come crashing down on you.
With the required height known, I laid out the design on a sheet of graph paper and scaled off the dimensions. Nothing is terribly critical in the design, although I did make the base pieces symmetrical.
I had a supply of short pieces of 4” x 6” treated deck lumber available. I used two pieces for the base, crossed as in the old style Christmas tree stands. One piece was laid flat while the other cross piece was placed upright. The cross pieces were notched to fit together.
A third piece of 4” x 6” lumber was used as a central upright. I drilled a half inch hole through the center of the cross pieces and the center of the upright. I then hammered a length of re-bar into the hole, acting like a huge nail to hold the three pieces together. I also nailed a couple of pieces of 1” x 6” stock to each side of the center post/cross piece as gussets to further strengthen the upright.
I used four pieces of 1” x 6” deck lumber as cross braces. These braces were simply nailed to the sides of the upright and the cross pieces with galvanized deck nails. I chamfered the top edges of the upright post to help shed water and then drilled a center hole to accept the threaded end of a standard trailer ball. The ball was epoxied in place and has survived six winters without a problem.
A one-inch hole drilled through one of the 1” x 6” braces proved to be a handy place to tie a pull rope. The pull rope made dragging the trailer stand around much easier.
Since the materials were all treated lumber, I didn’t bother painting the stand. If you want to get fancy, give it a coat or two of deck waterproofer. To use the stand, just raise the trailer tongue and place the hitch on the trailer ball. Again, have a couple of friends hang on the stern of the boat if the tongue is too heavy to lift.
The stand has several other advantages; it’s a great way to reserve your trailer parking space and it’s too heavy to steal!
Capt’n Pauley
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