Beach handling NE Dory

What do you use when launching or moving the Northeaster Dory? I already have a car trailer for transporting via road, but that seems like overkill for singlehanded beach handling and anyway it's beastly heavy.

Would a heavier duty strap-on dolly work, more or less? Has anyone tried the Malone Clipper kayak cart with the Dory?

http://www.clcboats.com/shop/products/boat-gear/boat-transportation-storage-gear/clipper-kayak-canoe-and-small-boat-cart.html


6 replies:

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RE: Beach handling NE Dory

I have a kayak cart just like the one you cite, but I haven't used it for the dory. I use two chunks of 4" black corrugated drain pipe for beach rollers. With just one of these I can pull the boat well up onto the beach. Once the boat has rolled up past its mid-point (so that the nose tips down), I throw a rolled up beach towel under the bow to keep the boat from rolling back into the water. If you look at the photo in the link below, you'll see that two of these rollers can be cut so that they fit snugly between the thwarts. Works great.

https://goo.gl/photos/Qk5EbmfRFQdgzLs46

  

RE: Beach handling NE Dory

Birch2,

Once again I can't help thinking what a clever solution that is. Don't know if I mentioned it the first time you posted. It's one of those I-should-have-thought-of-that ideas.

Laszlo

 

RE: Beach handling NE Dory

For my Skerry, I've been using the Davis Wheel-a-Weigh Small Boat Dolly that CLC used to sell.  This particular dolly has apparently been discontinued by the manufacturer, but it still shows up on Amazon and a few other websites.   

(https://www.amazon.com/Davis-Wheel-A-Weigh-Small-Boat-Dolly/dp/B000KKB2S4?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0)  

Just be sure to get the Extra Capacity model, which is wider than the kayak/canoe cart.  Using the dolly, I avoid the queue at the boat ramp where I usually launch.  I can park the car, slide the Skerry from the trailer to the dolly, and position the boat so it is just slightly bow-heavy.  It works really well for launching, though the pneumatic wheels complicate hauling out because the dolly floats.  I believe I will have solved this by replacing the pneumatic wheels with a couple of much heavier flat-free wheelbarrow wheels from Home Depot (haven't tried it yet, though). 

The only other problem is that the dolly is not collapsible, so I either have to return it to the car, chain it to something, or stash it behind a tree.  All in all, though, I've been very happy with this system.  Note that there are a few photos in the Gallery on the CLC website Skerry page – see photos #53, 90, and 117.

The NE Dory is a bit larger and heavier than the Skerry, but I would think this particular dolly would still work well.  Someone at CLC could probably advise you on this, or maybe someone else on the forum can share their experience with one of these dollies..

If anyone else is interested in how I adapted the wheelbarrow wheels to the Davis dolly, let me know and I can post an explanation and some pictures

RE: Beach handling NE Dory

   I made a simple trolley from water pipe, a 20mm threaded rod and a couple of wheels. It's mainly to get the Skerry from the house to the slipway and back again once a year - I moor it in the bay for the summer. I made a slightly different one for the Chesapeake 17 LT and a 3rd, again somewhat different for a friend's Sunfish. They're cheap, surprisingly strong and easy to make.Here's a couple of picturesof the kayak version.. The long bent bit is tied up for moving (as in the 2nd picture) but sits on the ground when the trolley is unloaded and prevents the trolley from tipping over allowing a single handed loading of the kayak onto it.

[img]http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/Hugh_Jar/trolley3_zpsq8l5l8pg.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/Hugh_Jar/troll_zpshk7trw36.jpg[/img]

 

RE: Beach handling NE Dory

Ooops, try again

RE: Beach handling NE Dory

FWIW:   I ended up getting the Malone Clipper cart and it works well enough. The tricky part is getting the boat centered directly over it, but it works. 

It also requires a beach/bank steep enough to be able to dip the bow in the water while centering the boat, but not so steep that the wheels wont go up it.

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