another newbie question - winching

[MelbCatSailor]

Hi again,

I've got another newbie question to ask you guys. I've bought an electronic winch to help get the boat back onto the trailer when i'm out by myself.

I've been hooking the winch to the dolphin striker to pull the boat up - is this a bad idea? (the hook pulls from the bottom of the dolphin striker due to the boat angle as it's pulled up).

I can't hook around the crossbar because my tramp slides through a slot on the crossbar (so I can't hook around it without putting a hole in the tramp). The only other option I can think of is to pull from the "ball" (once the mast is off) rather than the dolphin striker

Cheers,

Mick

[tonyquoll]

there's obviously a risk of bending the dolphin striker forwards, which would be bad.

On some home-made strikers I've come across, the lateral V-strap has come away from the vertical pin. Although it's tensioned up, the strap keeps slipping off the pin, especially in chop /waves.

To avoid these sorts of issues, could you instead tie a loop of rope through your footstraps and hook the winch onto that?

[MelbCatSailor]

that's a good idea, i didn't think of the foot straps. I'll give that a try, thanks tony