TOPIC: Last weekend's boat projects

I managed two updates to the Chaparral last weekend. The major project was adding front bunks to my trailer. The boat was sitting on just the 5" rubber keel rollers up front, which kept splitting from the weight. It also made it hard to get the boat centered coming on the trailer. After much thought I added a couple 4' bunk boards that cradle the V of the hull up front. I put a nice radius on the rear of the boards to hopefully guide the boat on when loading. The hardest part was figuring out how to do this with the boat still on the trailer.

Test fitting with scrap boards. Notice the jack.


Bunks made and covered:


Final install. Note the keel just touches the roller.



My other project was to change the angle of the steering wheel. The steering system was replaced just before I bought the boat. The steering wheel came straight out of the dash which was nearly vertical to begin with. This meant the bottom of the wheel was really low. When I got the boat I had to move the captain's seat back about 6" to even think about getting my leg under the wheel, and that was only on a 7" pedestal mount. After finding the Uflex name and part number on the back of the steering rotary, a quick google search came up with an alternative 20 degree mount kit for $23 on Amazon. Install was dead simple. Unbolt one, bolt the other on.

From this:


To this:


My long legs now fit much more comfortably. Unfortunately, now I'll have to move the seat forward a little to make the reach to the wheel right. Tweak, tweak, tweak, until it's just so....

Your thread and pictures just solved 2 of my restoration issues. Mind if I "borrow" your ideas? ...thanks for the post, pictures and solutions to make everything better! Also thanks for the "how to do" information as well!

Glad I could help! That's the whole reason I post stuff. Many times I've been thinking about some repair and seen a photo on someone else's thread that solved my problem or given me a completely different approach. Usually they've solved it by doing it dead simple when I was trying to make it as complicated as possible.

I will note that I haven't actually tested launching and recovering on those bunks yet...but they look good!

Excellent wheel fix! Been in many boats with vertical wheels and a real PITA!