Part 2 of 3 Following in my Mentor's Footsteps . . . We're in it, NOW!!

[Charles Brennan]

It occurred to me, that Charlie Jones once went up north in the cold, cold, winter months and brought home a wreck, that he turned into Tehani.
Now I was braving the winter cold, to bring home a wreck, to turn into a fully finished SCAMP.
Following in my Mentor's Footsteps . . .

I had tools, hydraulic jacks, come-alongs, lots of ratchet and cam straps, big nylon towing straps, cribbing blocks and planks for getting the hull up onto the trailer, having brought along everything I could think of, that I might need.
But, what Mike had was a Big Honkin' Fork-lift.
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WAYYYY better idea!!
And very much in keeping with my own personal philosophy: Don't force it, get a Bigger Hammer.

Got the hull outside and measured the distance between the casters, so I could adjust the front kayak cross support to trap the cradle.
Also had to remove the front kayak pads and the rear kayak rollers.
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THAT certainly made it easy!!
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And just like that, my hull was coming home.
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Was not wild about the initial trailer tongue weight and I shoved and pushed and pulled and cajoled the hull forward.
I even put one of my humongous 8X8 cribbing blocks I had brought along, wrapped in carpet and secured with duct tape, down  into the nose to help with tongue weight.

I was not overly happy with the weather forecast and wanted to keep that untreated wood out of the rain and especially out of forecasted freezing rain.
Turned out, Short Rib's cover just barely fit on.
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Had another carpet covered plank at the rear to keep the hull from "hobby-horsing" and I made sure it was well strapped in place.
Did I use every single ratchet strap and kayak cam strap I owned, lashing her down?
Nah, I still had two straps left over, just didn't know where to use them.

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Another carpet-wrapped cribbing block (wrapped in Duct Tape!) to support the nose of the hull and lashed in place with several straps.

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Check that cracked taillight lens.  A carpet covered dolly came with the deal, and it was lashed to the trailer cross supports.

Getting close to dark and I wanted to be on my way, so I thanked Mike profusely once again and left his farm, whereupon the truck promptly gave me a low tire pressure indication.
(Happens every year around this time, as soon as it gets cold and it was indeed getting very cold.)
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ONWARD!!
Charles Brennan