Hi Mark, I left Victoria just before all this lockdown started again and now in Sydney waiting on doing a delivery trip on a 75 boat from Sydney to NZ. Any way just think about this, you have made the yacht a lot better now for the big trip and big sailing Adventure. All the very best for the very big trip and looking forward to seeing you at my sailing club again giving a talk about your trip.
I envy the trip to NewZealand but seeing some of those intense lows in the Tasman lately it could be exciting. The trip to the Kimberley is once again under threat from covid. with just over 2 weeks from our departure date and all 3 borders we have to cross locked to victorians its not looking great. I have very quickly been doing some recalculations and the next tide cycle in King Sound out of Derby is 14 days later. We could probably still make the distance to Darwin by cutting down the locations visited. So our only hope for the trip is leaving 2 weeks late. If the borders are still locked at that stage the trip will have to be cancelled again as time wise and aboriginal land permits wise it will become inviable leaving any later again. Enjoy your trip! Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES hi Mark, sorry for the long reply to your comment, I am doing all this from my iPhone and sometimes can not find the comment section to look up . Any way sorry to hear you are having trouble again, I know and appreciate what you are going though as it happen to me .
Thanks very much Mark, an excellent upgrade - and good design. I was pondering how best to add static support pins to mine. Really appreciate the video.
Thanks Richard, took a bit to find a supplier of the slotted angle. Its the ideal material for the job and saved drilling hundreds of holes in plain angle. Cheers Mark
Its a good upgrade. Ive joined the small band of melbourne men with 4 high lift jacks and I recently used a stripped down version of your system to lift a Tiny House up from near ground level to 700mm to get its trailer under it. Weighing in about 2.5 tonne (7500 x 2700) I found that over about 400mm high there was too much movement for safety. I got around this by using 190 x 90 x 380 solid (not hollow) blocks dry stacked under the edge rails so that the maximum drop was 90mm each time we raised the load. Now I have just purchased a Sunbird 25 that will need lifting so I can upgrade its trailer to 3.5 tonne road standards (Couldn't find a RL28 during lockdown in Melbourne and crossing borders is just too risky at the moment) The yachts expected parking space gives me an opportunity to concrete in channel uprights with my lifting bar 8mm thick 100 x100 RHS being 3.5 m wide allowing 500mm on either side of the yacht and the high lift jacks inside rather than outside. strategically placed holes in the side of the channel should give me the safety stops you describe in this video. Thanks for the inspiration.
Yes the jacks on there own become unstable, hence the stands I built that go with them that provide stability to their full height. Sunbirds are very seaworthy boats as long as you get one with a diesel inboard that still has good life left in it. I went for the perforated angle for the safety stops as I didn't look forward to drilling that many holes! Hope all goes well with you restoration! Cheers Mark
Hi Aaron, ready for our Kimberley trip, all we need now is for the 3 state borders that we need to cross to get there to open by hopefully 24th of June or no more than 10 days after that if the trip is to go ahead! Neringa is at her very best since buying her. Thanks for the comment. Cheers Mark
Hi Graham, yes this could be added as long as it didn't interfere with the trailer being removed. The design relies on the lifting beams not being able to slide outwards because of the angle on the beams that slides along their face. If a jack fails and the beam locks onto the safety bolt the stand will be stabilized by the opposite stand through the compression of the lifting beam. The stands were designed the way they are to leave a clear path out for the trailer. Each stand is very stable in the outwards direction and being connected by the lifting beam creates great stability for each pair. I tried placing all the boats weight (just above the trailer for safety) onto each safety pin shown in the video. The stands showed no instability and in fact pushing on the side of the boat with all my strength could not create any movement. The position of the safety pins means the weight is still transferred over the base of the main bottom angle of each stand so would create little kicking out effect. The main thing I would say is that the stands need to be used on a reasonably level site. My gravel driveway is not perfectly level but I level each stand and once the boat weight is on them they are rock solid and wont budge. I have had the boat up 1.2m off the ground in 40 knots of wind for 24 hours with no sign of any instability in the stands at all. When used as intended with the weight on the jacks, the weight of the boat is actually borne in the center of the base area of each stand and so makes them stable in all directions. Connecting the bases could be added for more piece of mind but in practice I have found it is probably not needed. Cheers Mark
Hi Mark, are you still doing the Kimberly trip this year, keen to catch up if your travelling through Port Hedland. Recently bought a Sonata 26 and setting her up for Pilbara sailing. Am new to sailing but have experience and support to help me. My plan is to learn my boat and sail the Kimberly in a few years from now. Kind regards Derek
Hi Derek, Sonata 26 are a nice boat and sail well. The Kimberley trip has been planned and re planned a dozen times in the last month with Victoria's covid outbreak and all the very complicated border restrictions. For a long time it looked like it might not happen again but things have changed in the last few days and we are hopeful that we can cross SA by the weekend and be on our way. We will be heading up through Katherine to Derby so sadly won't be going anywhere close to Port Hedland. Would have be happy to catch up otherwise. The other problem would be that we originally planned 11 weeks Derby to Darwin and now only have 9 as we will have to wait 2 weeks to cross into WA so the plans will be tightened and some locations cut off our intentions. You will love sailing, the Pilbara coast has a lot to offer. Enjoy! Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES Hi Mark Good luck with the trip into the Kimberly, i look forward to your videos on you tube. Pity your not coming south but all good.We completed the full day trip to the horizonal falls via Cockatoo island and travelled by speed boat to the horizonal falls last year. It is spectacular country and i look forward to following you in some sembleance in a few years time. This as well as various you tube videos sold me on purchasing my yacht. I have a question for you on electronics you have on board and some info if you dont mind. I have 2 through holes in my yacht, the one near the rear which has a paddle wheel similar to what Sailing Zingaro had causing a major leak a few months ago. My depth meter (navman) doesn't work so want to replace this, what do you have and suggest. I know your flat out getting ready but would like to know what you have. If you have covered this in a video can you please let me know and ill check it out. Appreciate your time, fair winds and calm waters. Kind regards Derek
@@rustyd4380 Hi Derek, just saw this in time, leaving in the morning for a whole lot of driving. I have had navman instruments in the past and they haven't lasted. What I use now are clipper marine instruments from the UK. They are very well priced, not overly complicated with nice large display and to date have lasted pretty well. I have a combined speed and depth and a windspeed and direction with a wireless mast unit. Navigation wise I have a lowrance elite Ti 7 chart plotter but it has an overheating problem as do all of this particular range. Its a good plotter but if in the sun it can get almost to hot to touch the touch screen. So as far as chartplotters go I couldn't recommend it and don't have experience with others to recommend an alternative. The videos, all going well and we get there will start going on youtube when we reach Darwin. Sat phone rates are too slow and too expensive to upload any before then. Cheers Mark
Hi Mark thankyou so much for taking the time to answer my reply. Please drive safe and have a fantastic trip. All the very best and ill catch up with on the other side of your trip. Regards Derek.
Another great vid Mark.. You say each stand is holding around 600 kilos.. Does your boat weigh 2400 now? I know the dry weight of 28s used to be 1400.. I get that things like radios, fridges etc all add up. But would you have added nearly a tonne?
I do empty water tanks before lifting but the 1400kg given by Rob Legg is generally considered by most as a large underestimate. Its never been clear exactly what that has included. The amount of internal ballast in them varied over time with some having up to 250kg of extra ballast added. The specs also claimed a 40% ballast ratio. This really only applied to the most heavily ballasted version that would have had an empty weight approaching 1600kg. So to be on the safe side with the stand I allowed at least a tonne over the 1400kg. And yes once you start adding up all the additions you would be surprized how quickly it adds up. 140kg of added permanent ballast, 14hp 4 stroke motor, fuel tank, 2 anchors and associated chains, tv, extra cabinetry, marine toilet and holding tank and associated plumbing, water pumps, safety gear, electronics, 2 x 130ah lead batteries, 150ah lithium battery, 100ah lithium battery, davits and solar panels, water maker, diesel heater and fuel tank, anchor winch, furler, various spares and repair kits, cooking utensils, basic long life food supplies and cutlery, fridge and compressor, rolled up inflatable tender, electric trolling motor and I am sure I have still missed some things. My boat is not a racing boat and is always stocked for cruising so I can just jump on and go with a minimum of stocking. I did do the maths for this list before the Kimberley trip and for memory it came to well over 800kg of extras. Sure I could take out quite a lot of the above but it would take a couple of days and be a real pita. So I just made sure the stands were up to the job with most of it still in the boat. So as you can see if the real empty weight of the RL28 is probably closer to 1500kg there isn't much change out of 2400kg. Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES Agreed, they always weight much more than the manufacturers dry weight. Especially decades after rolling off the production line.. A few of the guys on the RL Facebook site have been over weighbridges recently and report a total towing weight of 2.8 and 2.9. (trailer included) With your additions it makes sense the boat would be "up there" now. I owned one years ago when weights werent so important (urm , at least not legally). Im considering another one and selling my current sonata. Just trying to decide if my Trailblazer will be legal.. At three tons max, it will be close without having to do gvm upgrades or change the car to a 3.5t ute.
Nice upgrade, thank you for sharing!
Hi Mark, I left Victoria just before all this lockdown started again and now in Sydney waiting on doing a delivery trip on a 75 boat from Sydney to NZ. Any way just think about this, you have made the yacht a lot better now for the big trip and big sailing Adventure. All the very best for the very big trip and looking forward to seeing you at my sailing club again giving a talk about your trip.
I envy the trip to NewZealand but seeing some of those intense lows in the Tasman lately it could be exciting. The trip to the Kimberley is once again under threat from covid. with just over 2 weeks from our departure date and all 3 borders we have to cross locked to victorians its not looking great. I have very quickly been doing some recalculations and the next tide cycle in King Sound out of Derby is 14 days later. We could probably still make the distance to Darwin by cutting down the locations visited. So our only hope for the trip is leaving 2 weeks late. If the borders are still locked at that stage the trip will have to be cancelled again as time wise and aboriginal land permits wise it will become inviable leaving any later again. Enjoy your trip! Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES hi Mark, sorry for the long reply to your comment, I am doing all this from my iPhone and sometimes can not find the comment section to look up . Any way sorry to hear you are having trouble again, I know and appreciate what you are going though as it happen to me .
Thanks very much Mark, an excellent upgrade - and good design. I was pondering how best to add static support pins to mine. Really appreciate the video.
Thanks Richard, took a bit to find a supplier of the slotted angle. Its the ideal material for the job and saved drilling hundreds of holes in plain angle. Cheers Mark
Its a good upgrade. Ive joined the small band of melbourne men with 4 high lift jacks and I recently used a stripped down version of your system to lift a Tiny House up from near ground level to 700mm to get its trailer under it. Weighing in about 2.5 tonne (7500 x 2700) I found that over about 400mm high there was too much movement for safety. I got around this by using 190 x 90 x 380 solid (not hollow) blocks dry stacked under the edge rails so that the maximum drop was 90mm each time we raised the load. Now I have just purchased a Sunbird 25 that will need lifting so I can upgrade its trailer to 3.5 tonne road standards (Couldn't find a RL28 during lockdown in Melbourne and crossing borders is just too risky at the moment) The yachts expected parking space gives me an opportunity to concrete in channel uprights with my lifting bar 8mm thick 100 x100 RHS being 3.5 m wide allowing 500mm on either side of the yacht and the high lift jacks inside rather than outside. strategically placed holes in the side of the channel should give me the safety stops you describe in this video. Thanks for the inspiration.
Yes the jacks on there own become unstable, hence the stands I built that go with them that provide stability to their full height. Sunbirds are very seaworthy boats as long as you get one with a diesel inboard that still has good life left in it. I went for the perforated angle for the safety stops as I didn't look forward to drilling that many holes! Hope all goes well with you restoration! Cheers Mark
Well done Mark, boat's looking awesome too
Hi Aaron, ready for our Kimberley trip, all we need now is for the 3 state borders that we need to cross to get there to open by hopefully 24th of June or no more than 10 days after that if the trip is to go ahead! Neringa is at her very best since buying her. Thanks for the comment. Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES Fingers crossed for you Mark, looking forward to seeing your adventure!
Thanks for sharing this upgrade.
For exra saftey add a lenght of chain at the base to run across the ground to tie the legs together so they can't possibly kick out
Hi Graham, yes this could be added as long as it didn't interfere with the trailer being removed. The design relies on the lifting beams not being able to slide outwards because of the angle on the beams that slides along their face. If a jack fails and the beam locks onto the safety bolt the stand will be stabilized by the opposite stand through the compression of the lifting beam. The stands were designed the way they are to leave a clear path out for the trailer. Each stand is very stable in the outwards direction and being connected by the lifting beam creates great stability for each pair. I tried placing all the boats weight (just above the trailer for safety) onto each safety pin shown in the video. The stands showed no instability and in fact pushing on the side of the boat with all my strength could not create any movement. The position of the safety pins means the weight is still transferred over the base of the main bottom angle of each stand so would create little kicking out effect. The main thing I would say is that the stands need to be used on a reasonably level site. My gravel driveway is not perfectly level but I level each stand and once the boat weight is on them they are rock solid and wont budge. I have had the boat up 1.2m off the ground in 40 knots of wind for 24 hours with no sign of any instability in the stands at all.
When used as intended with the weight on the jacks, the weight of the boat is actually borne in the center of the base area of each stand and so makes them stable in all directions.
Connecting the bases could be added for more piece of mind but in practice I have found it is probably not needed. Cheers Mark
Nice video
Thanks
Hi Mark, are you still doing the Kimberly trip this year, keen to catch up if your travelling through Port Hedland. Recently bought a Sonata 26 and setting her up for Pilbara sailing. Am new to sailing but have experience and support to help me. My plan is to learn my boat and sail the Kimberly in a few years from now.
Kind regards Derek
Hi Derek,
Sonata 26 are a nice boat and sail well. The Kimberley trip has been planned and re planned a dozen times in the last month with Victoria's covid outbreak and all the very complicated border restrictions. For a long time it looked like it might not happen again but things have changed in the last few days and we are hopeful that we can cross SA by the weekend and be on our way.
We will be heading up through Katherine to Derby so sadly won't be going anywhere close to Port Hedland. Would have be happy to catch up otherwise. The other problem would be that we originally planned 11 weeks Derby to Darwin and now only have 9 as we will have to wait 2 weeks to cross into WA so the plans will be tightened and some locations cut off our intentions.
You will love sailing, the Pilbara coast has a lot to offer. Enjoy! Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES Hi Mark
Good luck with the trip into the Kimberly, i look forward to your videos on you tube. Pity your not coming south but all good.We completed the full day trip to the horizonal falls via Cockatoo island and travelled by speed boat to the horizonal falls last year. It is spectacular country and i look forward to following you in some sembleance in a few years time. This as well as various you tube videos sold me on purchasing my yacht.
I have a question for you on electronics you have on board and some info if you dont mind. I have 2 through holes in my yacht, the one near the rear which has a paddle wheel similar to what Sailing Zingaro had causing a major leak a few months ago. My depth meter (navman) doesn't work so want to replace this, what do you have and suggest. I know your flat out getting ready but would like to know what you have. If you have covered this in a video can you please let me know and ill check it out. Appreciate your time, fair winds and calm waters.
Kind regards
Derek
@@rustyd4380 Hi Derek, just saw this in time, leaving in the morning for a whole lot of driving. I have had navman instruments in the past and they haven't lasted. What I use now are clipper marine instruments from the UK. They are very well priced, not overly complicated with nice large display and to date have lasted pretty well. I have a combined speed and depth and a windspeed and direction with a wireless mast unit. Navigation wise I have a lowrance elite Ti 7 chart plotter but it has an overheating problem as do all of this particular range. Its a good plotter but if in the sun it can get almost to hot to touch the touch screen. So as far as chartplotters go I couldn't recommend it and don't have experience with others to recommend an alternative.
The videos, all going well and we get there will start going on youtube when we reach Darwin. Sat phone rates are too slow and too expensive to upload any before then. Cheers Mark
Hi Mark thankyou so much for taking the time to answer my reply. Please drive safe and have a fantastic trip. All the very best and ill catch up with on the other side of your trip.
Regards
Derek.
Another great vid Mark.. You say each stand is holding around 600 kilos.. Does your boat weigh 2400 now? I know the dry weight of 28s used to be 1400.. I get that things like radios, fridges etc all add up. But would you have added nearly a tonne?
I do empty water tanks before lifting but the 1400kg given by Rob Legg is generally considered by most as a large underestimate. Its never been clear exactly what that has included. The amount of internal ballast in them varied over time with some having up to 250kg of extra ballast added. The specs also claimed a 40% ballast ratio. This really only applied to the most heavily ballasted version that would have had an empty weight approaching 1600kg. So to be on the safe side with the stand I allowed at least a tonne over the 1400kg.
And yes once you start adding up all the additions you would be surprized how quickly it adds up. 140kg of added permanent ballast, 14hp 4 stroke motor, fuel tank, 2 anchors and associated chains, tv, extra cabinetry, marine toilet and holding tank and associated plumbing, water pumps, safety gear, electronics, 2 x 130ah lead batteries, 150ah lithium battery, 100ah lithium battery, davits and solar panels, water maker, diesel heater and fuel tank, anchor winch, furler, various spares and repair kits, cooking utensils, basic long life food supplies and cutlery, fridge and compressor, rolled up inflatable tender, electric trolling motor and I am sure I have still missed some things.
My boat is not a racing boat and is always stocked for cruising so I can just jump on and go with a minimum of stocking. I did do the maths for this list before the Kimberley trip and for memory it came to well over 800kg of extras. Sure I could take out quite a lot of the above but it would take a couple of days and be a real pita. So I just made sure the stands were up to the job with most of it still in the boat.
So as you can see if the real empty weight of the RL28 is probably closer to 1500kg there isn't much change out of 2400kg.
Cheers Mark
@@TRAILERYACHTADVENTURES Agreed, they always weight much more than the manufacturers dry weight. Especially decades after rolling off the production line..
A few of the guys on the RL Facebook site have been over weighbridges recently and report a total towing weight of 2.8 and 2.9. (trailer included) With your additions it makes sense the boat would be "up there" now.
I owned one years ago when weights werent so important (urm , at least not legally). Im considering another one and selling my current sonata. Just trying to decide if my Trailblazer will be legal.. At three tons max, it will be close without having to do gvm upgrades or change the car to a 3.5t ute.
Finger crossed crossed for the trip.......had my toes crossed as well but kept falling over🤡🍷🥃