Foldable keel support roller on the back of the trailer

Our boat is not a blue water cruiser so the hull is not as thick as one could expect. Since we keep the boat mainly on the trailer, she has to be sitting on the trailer comfortably without any stress, otherwise it could lead to some problems like we found out a very soon after delivery - for more details please check here in chapter 2.

So a dealer modified our trailer from a keel rollers to a bunks, which is much better now. However to spread the load on the aft of the hull, he had to add one keel support roller to the center.
Without that, the hull on the port side of the aft support pad seems to bend inwards too much.
One of our friends who has the same boat also found the same issue. It looks like the hull is thin there.

The keel support roller on a rusted cross member

Because this keel support is pretty high, we had once a problem with launching on a gradual slip. We had to detach the trailer from the hook and move it much more into water to load the boat on it.

To overcome this problem I've made this support roller foldable. So once we will have the same problem, just simply fold the roller and lower the side support pads.

It's made from the original cross member (60x40x3mm). I just cut the ends and welded two small tubes onto each side of the central section to create a pivoting part. Then just drilled the holes for a locking pin and a handle pin and had it hot-dip galvanized.

Working position

Locking pins on both ends

Folded down - holes on both sides for the handle and locking pin

Folded down

From the last picture you can see that folded L-profile has a sharp edge. Hopefully the hull will never touch it. If it does, I will sand it or insert some long screw to the L-profile near the roller against the trailer cross member so the roller holder will stay parallel with the trailer frame.

Finaly delivered!

Hurray! The boat is here.

Since the initial order it took a little over 3 months to build her, sometimes a little stressful to get everything in order, but this part of our dream has finished.
From the Craft Identification Number (CIN) it seems our hull is number 27.
The only problem was with my trailer. It turned out that the keel rollers are too low and the boat would hit the trailer fenders, so it needed some modification.
One last thing before the boat registration is to decide the boat name. Not final yet, but getting there.
Enjoy some photos of the final state.

mast transport "pillows"

younger daughter with her baby loves this boat :-)

boom with lazy-bag and main sail

genoa sail bag

head wall - spot for paddle and stuff

very nice wood work

Kitchen needs some cooktop, probably Origo A100.

Normally, under this shelve there is a flexible water tank. I think this is a good spot for a gas tank

battery locker

outboard motor bracked in the running possition

setting up my trailer

Journey begins

Welcome to our new blog about our adventures of trailer sailor Dalpol's Phobos 21.

It all begun two years ago we found out that we don't want to get stuck on the Labe river in Czech Republic forever so we decided to sell our pretty heavy keel sailboat Catalina 25 "High Anxiety" (hull #701, 1987) and buy something smaller.

We defined some priorities for a new boat:

• it must be lightweight with retractable keel so we can launch it from the trailer easily
• enough head room for my wife
• enclosed toilet room
• simple preparation before launch and low maintenance
• comfortably sleeps for two adults and two children
• cruiser rather than racer

From all that after long discussion and market research, we found our boat - it's Dalpol Phobos 21.

At the beginning, we thought that we will buy the used one, but I don't want to fix numerous issues anymore like I had to with my previous sailboat and I wanted to sail more than doing a maintenance. So we decided to rather buy a new one. Another fact is that Dalpol started the production of this boat in 2011 so there are no used one yet.


From this decision, it all begins to escalate pretty quickly.  I had to undertake the driver's lessons to upgrade my driver's license to B+E (trailer up to 3500kg), buy a trailer and a car capable of towing such boat with launching capability.

Part 1 - Trailer

I bought used trailer from year 2009 dual-axle trailer with 2600kg total weight. It's pretty overkill for this small boat (1300kg), but its a robust construction and I have an additional space for heavy baggage.

This trailer was already used for a sailboat so I hope it will be ok and there will be no need for massive adjustments.

Part 2 - Towing car

We had Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, but it's capable of towing only 1500kg. It was a great 7 seat car, but we had to sell it. I wanted some car that is suitable for boat launching, but also for a daily use. So we ended up with 4x4 Kia Sorento 2.5CRDi with automatic transmission from 2007, which is capable of towing 3500kg on the hook and pretty popular in the caravan world.
Another advantage of this 4x4 car is that it has a reduction transmission, so the launching from the beach or steep ramps will not be an issue (I hope).


Part 3 - Sailboat

It took us over two years going to boat shows and checking pros and cons, but when we decided for one particular type it was pretty straight forward.
When we wanted to buy the boat directly from the Poland shipyard they forwarded us to the local Czech dealer Lodní servis Linhart. They showed us demo boat several times and we finally signed the deal.

Proposed delivery is the end of December 2013. Great Christmas present, isn't it? ;-)