Have been asked by a few to document my new trolley build with the cradles.
This is how i have chosen to do it, it might work for you it might not.
So, for my trolley i new it had to be a sovereign trolley to fit my box trailer.
I knew the cradles had to have big upright to allow me to roll the boat in the trolley
and handles would be nice, but not a necessity.
i started by looking round the dinghy park at draycote and found a soverign trolly (how, i dont know)
With the boat at home and on the lawn upside down (see picture 1) i placed the new trolley (gingerly) on to shiny (see picture 2), marked on where the axle sat and the the front cradle mount with a white board marker.
IT IS AT THIS POINT YOU WILL NEED TO MIX UP A TEST BATCH OF RESIN, POOR IT OVER AN EXCESS BIN BAG IN A SEPARATE CONTAINER, WALK OUTSIDE AND PLACE AWAY FROM ANYTHING!
i stress this very much so. i mixed up a test batch, the catalyst bottle read 66% resin to 33% catalyst.
This is what i mixed, 5 minuets later i looked to the end of the garden to see the bonfire i had just mixed.
i started to add a protective layer (bin bags) over the hull (see picture 3), i used brown parcel tape.
This was a protective layer to stop drippage on to the nice fair hull.
once that was done i then tapped in some carpet, this acts as a spacer as you will need a 'cushion' for the boat to sit on (probably the same carpet) see picture 4
After a coffee i put on the top layer of bin bags, this allows you to be able to change the carpet from the cradle once it goes mouldy (see picture 5)
i chose to use chop strand matt glass for this. i cut the sheets, placed it in the order i wanted to laminate them and mixed the resin.
5 layer later and (see picture 6)
Looking back so far:
im glad i mixed up a test of resin otherwise we could have had another aqua scandal.
if i did it again i would bin bag the whole of shiny, as there was some unwanted drippage on to the hull
i would make sure the carpet was really well tapped down, it probably isn't an issue when making cradles for new boats as they are round, but for the angular lady's out there, a floppy carpet isn't much use to you.
i would want to use a resin roller, i couldn't get one in time so settled for paint roller (probably explains why i used so much resin)
and on that note, make sure you have enough resin, i have a lot of unstuck matt around my cradles as i spotted resin was going to be tight so only did the essentials.
Still to do, trim unwanted matt off cradles, add reinforcements, find a way of attaching them to the trolly.
If that doesn't make sense and you want to know more on anything ive said. Please ask.
