Steve,
A couple of things to consider regarding the cradle.
First, you need a trailer cradle, launching dolly / storage cradle anyway.
I use mine for dock storage/launching, for launching off the beach, and for
storage and transport inside my van trailer. If I had an open road trailer, I
would use it on that as well. The strap system that comes with the Seitech
dolly is marginal and not too good for storage when the wind is up--even when
the boat is tied down. The extra weight can be mitigated with "beach tires"
which have about twice the contact area of regular tires. Always best to
store a boat on something that is molded to the hull shape or to suspend it by
the gunwales. It is important that the carpet be something that is very open
and dries-even with the boat on it. Also, you'll see that the one I built
doesn't require having an independent dolly.
Construction methods:
I don't really see much of a problem with running the strips straight other
than appearance (they don't show on the bottom of the boat anyway). I would
want for Christian to get some time on his boat before trying his bulkhead
method. I'm not entirely certain how Christian dealt with tying the hybrid
together under the bulkheads (Christian)?
We will be giving a talk a Fort DeSoto about the finding of the testing
we've done with Gougeon. We believe we've isolated the majority of the
problem
of hull stiffness degradation to bulkhead, mast step, and chain plate
compression where these items load the deck and hull (tee into the deck and
hull).
The integrity of the hybrid or cloth spanning these loaded areas may be
crucial but probably less on a wood cored skiff than on a foam or Nomex core.
Best regards,
Bram
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