My Skerry Trailer

I leave my little Skerry at a boat club and use a launching trolley to move it to the ramp and launch it.

The dolly is a work in progress. Some parts are ok, some have failed.

Many people have tried to make dollies and I photographed a few in-use and broken launch trailers from my club.

The wheels are from Canadian Tire and are used on warehouse box moving dollies, they work very well and I re-used them for the apple pie dinghy. They were not expensive, about 12 dollars each for a nice inner tube wheel with ball bearings.

I bought a threaded rod to fit in the axle and used aluminium tubing for the cross piece and long piece. I had some tubing from an old fence. Lovely 2 inch diameter pipe. I made little delrin plugs (I had a big chunk). The metal tubing is attached to a 2x4 frame. That worked very well and the wheels were solidly attached. This is the only part that really worked well!!

This dolly is made from found materials almost entirely.

The pulling handle is pvc and broke almost immediately, I spent the rest of the season just putting the boat on the strap and pulling the boat itself. The upright 2x4 from the wheels were not strong enough and bent almost the first time I used the launching dolly. They did not break so I was able to carefully use the dolly till I replaced it the next spring.

I managed to use the trailer by carefully floating the boat onto the trailer and essentially pushing the balanced boat. The front part just dragged since the handle was broken. I think it would be possible to easily move the boat just by using a small wheeled cart under the middle at the balance point.

There are several designs of kayak dollies that are also used by such boats as Sunfish. Since the Skerry is only about 150 pounds with rig and all the stuff I carry, that would work.

NOTE: The trailer died and the parts were cannibalized and re used to make my Apple Pie dinghy launching dolly. I eventually bought a steel tube launching dolly that is heavy but very strong to use with the Skerry. It's extra weight means that I don't have to struggle to place the boat on a high floating dolly.

Links to my Skerry Build

Links to the [hull part 1] [hull part 2] [mast] [rudder and daggerboard] [sail making experiments] [oars] [cleats] [daggerboard well and mast step ]

emails: Christine

This web site reflects my personal ideas and doesn't represent anyone else's point of view. I make mistakes, if you plan to build a boat do your homework and be safe.