www.iFourWinns.com

This weekend was our first tow with the new trailer! We towed a total of 460 miles round trip from our marina to White Lake Michigan. I was nervous as heck when we first hit the road but after about a half hour my nerves calmed and everything went smoothly! I stopped 2 times on the way up and checked hub temps. Both times all 4 hubs were between 115-120 deg. I felt the slightest little bit of trailer wag so before we relaunched to head home yesterday I moved the bow stop 4 inches forward...the trip home she towed like a dream!!

We are so excited with the options this trailer has opened up for us that we spent the whole trip home deciding on places to go next. Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Glad the "fix" made it a better tow home with no issues. It was a fun weekend. See ya in August

_________________
One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Had to move out bow stop up a little when we started to tow our cruiser years back also. Was nice to meet you and sorry we did not stick around longer.

Nice meeting you too! Hopefully your little ones warmed up once you got to Bear Lake! I'm starting to wonder if a tongue weight scale would be a good investment? It feels like the truck and trailer is balanced but how would I know since I'm so inexperienced at towing. Anyone here use a tongue weight scale or have any tricks to know if a trailer is balanced?

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Get her loaded up like you normally would have it and hit a truck stop. Weigh them together, and then disconnect them. Don't recall off hand but there is a way you can figure your tongue weight from that. It's good to have an idea how much they all weigh as well...

_________________
2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

They did warm up...but are not "off the boat" swimmers yet so they prefer the beach right now. I never used a tongue weight scale. If it feels balanced it probably is. Back when I did mine I just played around with where the axles were and the bow stop until the boat towed nice.

White Lake? Thats not too far from my house.

When are you going back to Charlevoix?

_________________
2004 248 Vista "Amante"
MC 5.0MPI/B3

We would love to visit Charlevoix again but this year we are using the majority of our vacation time in the North Channel. It took us 4 hours to get to White lake (3hrs on the way back), so I'm wondering how much longer it would take us to get up to Charlevoix...2.5-3 hrs? I almost wish we wouldn't of spent the money on a slip this year and just used the money for gas on weekend trips. We have a ridiculous list of places we want to visit, and every weekend is a long weekend since I work 4-10 hours shift Mon-Thurs!

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Lake Charlevoix is a little less than 3 hour two from where we live just north of Grand Rapids. That is they way you would go from Indiana and it is nice as it is all highway until the last hour. Figure 3 - 3 1/2 hours from your house to Grand Rapids so about 6 hours total.

Ahhhh...the North Channel. My wife and I still say it was the best vacation we ever took. Spent two weeks up there.

Darn I wish I would have had a little more time to talk to you about the North Channel! This trip is the whole reason we bought the trailer. We were originally planning on buying a small trailerable sailboat to do the North Channel in, but decided we already had one boat setup just how we liked it so why not make it mobile. Any favorite anchorages you could recommend? I've been getting a lot of great advise from MaryannII about this trip and believe he is planning a return to the Channel this year!

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Well...as far as anchorages we spent most nights at marinas. We are not "campers" really so a nice clean shower for us was a must . We did spend a few nights on the hook at Baie Finn...that place is awesome. Our favorite places were Killarney and then Gore Bay. We also ran up the Bad River which is past Killarney and into Georgian Bay. PM me and happy to share anything I have and than I can remember. That was 10 years ago now

Your braver than I am with the trailering. I hauled mine up to Charlevoix two weeks ago (200 miles) and it took me about 5 hours. But I was nervous and stopped at every rest area to check on things. I have no desire to ever trailer long distance again. I'm leaving it up there about 2 miles from the boat launch.

I want to do the north channel someday as well. I'm waiting on your blog posts about the trip for more information.

_________________
2004 248 Vista "Amante"
MC 5.0MPI/B3

Congrats on joining the trailer boat gang... although you are on the large end of the scale....

Maybe you have seen this already, but there are a group of Boston Whaler enthusiasts, several from Michigan, who frequent the North Channel. The owner of the website keeps many sail logs about the area....

http://www.continuouswave.com/sail-logs/

Excellent nairatives for cruising the area. It is also on my list of places to visit, once the day comes that we can upgrade to a cuddy or a cruiser.

_________________
2009 H180 w/3.0 Merc
Homebuilt Minimax Hydro
2011 Zodiac Cadet 310

Chrisvs,
That is a great website and resource for the North Channel.I love reading about people who complete big trips in smaller boats like the Whaler group...seems like it would feel like more of a sense of accomplishment. Below is a link to a cool story of a guy who sailed a 14ft West Wight potter sailboat from Mexico to Hawaii A little off topic I know, but I think we can all appreciate an accomplishment like that. Thanks for the great link!
http://potter-yachters.org/stories/vanruth.html

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

A link to some Canadian cruising DVD's including the North Cannel

http://store.lifestyleintegrated.com/

This is the website for the Canadian Powerboat Television show.

http://www.powerboattv.com/

_________________
2008 210SS 6.2L DTS Bravo 1 Now featuring MercMonitor w/SmartTow