J/Boats J/111, Owner'S Manual

Page: 59 / 65

J/111 OWNER MANUAL 59
According to Triad Trailers, one should first load a trailer by placing most of the weight (80-90%)
on the keel as it sits in the trailer’s keel tray. Then screw each individual hull support up to the
hull just until light contact is made. Do this for each of the six individual hull support stands (on
the Triad Trailer). After all six stands are touching the hull release the lifting straps so the boat is
now mostly on the keel with the hull support stands preventing the boat from tipping side to
side. Adjust each hull support stand upwards towards the hull to a point where you are only able
to spin the carpeted top on the hull with a good amount of force. After each hull support stand is
properly adjusted tighten the set screw on each of the 6 hull supports. This set screw prevents
the wing nut handle from vibrating down during travel.
Be particularly careful when strapping a boat down to the trailer. It’s not uncommon at regatta
venues to see boats quickly hauled and lowered onto their trailers, with little time to get the boat
aligned and sitting properly on the poppets, then strapped down hard onto the trailer with
powerful ratcheting webbing straps and then driven off. In short, the hull is being pulled down
hard on top of the keel/sump and in a very short period of time is potentially subjected to
excessive stresses and strains on the entire hull/keel/sump structure.
If you have a bow-stop
on the trailer, use shorter strap runs (running nearly vertical) over the boat rather than
long diagonal straps through the bow and stern rails. This reduces the possibility of
trailer flex contributing to any excess strain.
3) Docking & mooring - care should be taken to avoid mooring or docking your boat in locations
that can result in the keel being occasionally imbedded in the mud/sand/silt when at low tide or
low water. A combination of the keel bulb imbedded with any sort of wave action against the
hull can cause undue stress to the hull and structure. The same is true for boats that use special
dockside hoisting systems to hoist the hull out of the water, while the keel remains underwater
and unsupported.
Maintenance Considerations:
1) Care should be taken to avoid having standing water in the bilge. Not only does standing water
accelerate corrosion of wiring, fasteners and keel bolts over time, it ruins floor boards and interior
woodwork. As the gelcoat/ paint ages in the bilge area, bilge water can eventually seep into the
fiberglass laminate by way of pin holes in the gelcoat and weaken the fiberglass laminate
structure. The
process of hydrolysis can be initiated in the fiberglass laminate anytime there is
ingress through cracks in the paint/gelcoat in the bilge. The process of hydrolysis is persistent
and invisible- it's water that chemically degrades the quality and strength of the laminate over
time.
Bilges (all areas under the floorboards, not just the centerline bilge) should be cleaned
thoroughly once per year and then every five years recoated with fresh gelcoat or epoxy paint to
ensure proper protection. In northern climates, water turns to ice in the winter. If moisture gets
into the laminate and freezes, this can rapidly accelerate deterioration in the laminate. The New
Hampshire Materials Testing Labs website (
www.nhml.com ) has an informative article on
hydrolysis, see Newsletter of May 1, 2006.
2) In any cored hull, take special care to avoid having any fasteners penetrate the inner hull
laminate. Water in the bilge area can easily weep through the fastener into the laminate and
cause core damage. If you need to secure a fitting or wire tie to the hull, the best fastening
method is to glue a piece of epoxy coated marine ply to the hull and then fasten into the ply.