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cat trax ideas for a SC20

Posted: March 9th, 2008, 3:02 pm
by george
I have a set of cat trax for a SC 20, they are custom build with hard plastic wheels and work fine with on hard sand where I currently have the boat. I do need to use my truck to get it up the beach slope and onto the flat where I store it.

I am looking at moving the boat closer to my house, and the beach is much wider and the sand is considerably softer. I was thinking that 4 dollies with soft wheels one for stern and bow of each hull would probably work, along with some kind of movable which I could stand on to move the boat up an slopes.

Anyone else have any solutions to this that won't cost $800 in beach wheels?

What is used for the RC 27 & 30? These are billed as beachable, and I am curious if anyone does store/launch these on a beach, and what you use to move the boat.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

cheers,

george

Posted: March 9th, 2008, 5:44 pm
by Matt Haberman
George,

On the RC27 & 30 we end up using two sets of beach wheels, one for each hull. Each beach wheel consists of a short axle that has two wheels and a cradle in the middle. Some people have done as you described and put a set of wheels at both the bow and stern.

I have attached a few pictures of an RC-30 on beach wheels & the wheels on a trailer.

Posted: March 9th, 2008, 8:59 pm
by efinley
That is pretty cool but I have always wondered how you get the boat up the beach? Seems tough to push a 800+ lb boat up the beach!

That being said I sure wish I had one so I could find out! :)

Eric
SC20 #113

Posted: March 9th, 2008, 9:47 pm
by Matt Haberman
Eric,
With two or three people it really isn't all that bad. You put the wheels close to the balance point so you don't need to do much lifting, then most of your effort goes into pushing.

Posted: March 15th, 2008, 2:50 pm
by george
Thanks for the pictures. I bet two people can move an SC20 without too much effort on a set of wheels like that. Getting the boat down the beach is always easy, it's after a good long sail, pushing that thing up is the challenge.

I have been pondering some ways to actually pull/push the boat with one person. I haven't sketched anything out, but probably some kind of frame/tripod that one person can stand on, with a 3:1 set of blocks would give plenty of purchase and leverage to move a SC20 with one person. Probably a triangle on the front with some feet to prevent the frame from digging in the sand, that are angled back, with a longer bar coming back that one person could stand on and also haul line from.

If I end up knocking something like this up, I'll post some pictures.

george