TRAILER TROUBLES

Scratched topsides get stopgap repairs while a Bluetooth-compatible stereo turns up the fun for Hugo Andreae

- Hugo Andreae

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted that when my Karnic was being given the full Ceramic Pro treatment last season, one of its trailer’s wheels was looking a little wonky. I say ‘a little’ but in truth it looked like it had staggered out of an Edinburgh pub at 2am after a Scottish victory in the Calcutta Cup. It was touch and go whether I could tow it the 10 yards from its winter resting place to the slipway before the whole thing collapsed onto the concrete.

It survived long enough to refloat the boat but the prognosis didn’t look good. It’s a twin-axle SBS trailer that I bought from new in 2006 as part of the boat package and has led a pretty tough life. Because our slipway is relatively shallow, both axles have to be fully submerged to stand any chance of launching or recovering the boat, so even after a good hose down there’s bound to be some salt lurking in cracks and crevices. The galvanised steel frame has survived relatively unscathed but the painted soft steel suspension arms started to rust as soon as the protective layer of paint began to flake. However, it wasn’t until both axles were removed and turned over that I realised just how bad they had got. The two halves of the steel casings had rusted right through and split open like an overripe mango. With all torsional rigidity lost, they simply buckled and twisted as soon as any turning force was applied.

DIY PATCH-UP