Trailering your Flicka Contents From the Editor Contents ......................................... 2 From The Editor ........................... 2 Tom Davison Trailer Recommendations ........... 3 Lee Crockett About Flicka Friends .................... 3 Flicka Towing Advice ................... 4 Mal Misuraca HOTSPUR’s Trail-Rite ................ 5 Trailer Eric Jungemann Tom’s New Triad Trailer ............. 6 Tom Davison Getting the Mast Down ................. 8 Tom Davison Tom Grimes and his Flicka BEN MAIN, Jr. aboard Delivery of a New Trailer .............10 his new Triad trailer on the road for the first time. Tom Davison Photo: Tom Davison © 2003 Building a Cradle for ....................18 By Tom Davison ter or to more northern cruising the Flicka grounds like the Great Lakes in the Rik Sandberg This issue of Flicka Friends has been summer. dedicated to trailering. There is an arti- cle relating to the purchase of a new There are a number of trailer manufac- trailer and setting the trailer up once it turers to consider for the Flicka. Some arrived. Another discusses the vehicle of the reasons for selecting one manu- used to tow your Flicka. An alternative facturer over another may have to do Next Issue... to a dedicated boat trailer is covered as with where you live. Purchasing a The files are nearly empty! well. Flicka trailer from the opposite coast increases the shipping costs. Seeking a If you have an article Owning a trailer for your Flicka offers trailer builder close to home may be the or images, please let me know. a number of advantages. The costs of most economical purchase. Thanks! launching and retrieving your sailboat each year drop considerably. Being There are many fine trailers out there to able to store your Flicka at your home consider. Possibly the most known to or close to it allows you to do mainte- Flicka owners is Trail-Rite. This may Cover Photo nance easily. be due to the fact they are located near Pacific Seacraft. Tom Grimes’s Flicka Maybe the best thing about owning a s/y BEN MAIN, Jr. trailer is the ability to move your Flicka The Triad may be the second most Photo by Tom Davison to various cruising areas. Past issues of popular trailer for the Flicka. Other Flicka Friends have include many sto- manufacturers include Manning, E-Z If you have a high quality photo of ries where Flicka owners have ventured Loader (they no longer build sailboat your Flicka and would like to see it on from home to enjoy distant cruising trailers). The list also includes trailers the cover, please let me know. grounds. Some of this to the southeast built from plans or using a cradle on coast or to the Sea of Cortez in the win- the flat trailer. [email protected] Trailer Recommendations About Flicka Friends Flicka Friends is a newsletter written for the people who own, crew aboard or are interested in the Flicka, a 20 foot sailing vessel designed by Bruce P. Bingham. Based on the Newport boats of Block Island Sound, this little ship has been built from various materials from the 1970’s until 2003. This includes Flickas constructed from plans obtained directly from Bruce’s California office. About 400 sets of plans were sold. According to Bruce Bingham, many Flickas can be found in New Zealand Australia and Sweden. Lee Crockett and his Flicka s/y PUNKER DOODLE in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico—2,300 miles from home! A number of hulls were built by Nor’star and some were completed by Westerly Marine. The manufacturer of By Lee Crockett automobile) tires on. As it turns out the bulk of the class is Pacific Seacraft they were an off brand and right at the Corporation who built 434 hulls in I purchased my trailer last year in Illinois/Indiana border, the right rear California. basically "junk yard" condition blew. then had it completely rebuilt. I paid Flicka Friends is published on a $800 for the trailer and In the process, the f e n d e r c u t a quarterly basis, with issues being spent around $1800 in repairs last groove in the right front tire. At the mailed in March, June, September and spring. Last fall I spent an Goodyear store the guy pointed out December. Articles, letters, comments additional $450 to have the supports that the left rear was splitting right and photos relating to the Flicka are repositioned. Last month I down the tread line. The point? Buy welcomed and encouraged. spent another $430 on new tires you name brand tires so if you have a haven't lived until you have a problem (in my case 2,500 miles from blowout at 60 MPH towing 7500 where I bought the original tires) you © Copyright 2001 pounds! So for those of you can get it fixed/replaced without Dennis Pratt/Flicka Friends considering a trailer my suggestions having to buy new ones. Goodyear, are: Firestone, whatever. The warranty Dennis Pratt - Publisher only works if you can get to a dealer. 685 Spring Street, #191 Buy a new one if you can afford it. Friday Harbor, WA 98250 Basically $6000 for a Trail-Rite or a Decide if you will ramp launch or use (360) 370-5133 Triad. a travel lift. That will make the [email protected] decision for you to surge versus Go for a 10,000 pound gross weight electric brakes and bunks versus pads. Tom Davison - Editor trailer instead of the 7000 pound. My P.O. Box 462 trailer has two 3500 pound axles and I I tow with a 1/2 ton pickup, 5.9 l i t e r Empire, MI 49630-0462 am pushing the limit with the boat and with, I guess what is called a tow (231) 326-6011 all of the stuff onboard, plus the package (transmission cooler, hitch, [email protected] weight of the trailer. If you find a used etc.) but it has the standard Dodge trailer, buy new tires anyway. one-half ton suspension. http:www.coslink/personal/ flickafriends/mainpage/index.html When I bought my trailer, I had the Good luck. repair shop put four new trailer (not Flicka Towing Advice By Mal Misuraca We tow our Flicka with a 1-ton Chevy, dual back wheel truck, with a huge en- gine (7.4 liters)---and, needless to say, we feel well-powered and stable. We used to tow it with a half-ton Chevy pickup, and that was a problem. We have known people to tow Flickas with less power and stability than that, and I guess you can say they muddle through. In Baja, the grades are in all but a cou- Pacific Seacraft Flicka s/y SAIL AWAY ready for another road trip. ple of places gentle and therefore not too challenging for a lighter vehicle--- prepare for it, expect it and, above all, in the north, as we usually do---at San in pulling power. Stability is another accept it as part of the charm of the Felipe, Bay of LA, or even Muleje--- consideration. The grade just north of place. Baja is a truly beautiful land- and you plan to bring the boat back to Santa Rosalia, and again the grades scape, stark and much of the time the trailer, as opposed to moving the south of Loreto on the way to La Paz, empty. We divide our trips down there trailer south, you may have in the win- are much more challenging. The Santa into "the truck part" and "the boat part," tertime heavy north winds and tough Rosalia grade almost defeated our and we enjoy each for its virtues. We going to make the passage back to the half-ton, and it did the truck no good, take plenty of "Books on Tape" offer- north. We carry a Nauta collapsible leading eventually to problems with the ings and have whiled away many an tank on deck, with as much as 12 gal- transmission. (We had problems as hour going down the road listening to lons of diesel in it, and have used it well in Southern California, going up Detective Maigret or some such. every time, it seems. The collapsible the Grapevine grade on I-5 from the tank is preferable to a solid tank in our San Joaquin Valley into the San Fer- Another rule: when you find gas, fill opinion, and with a fitting and hose to nando Valley.) With the one-ton, no up. It is getting rarer to find gas stations direct the fuel into the Flicka's bow problem. closed in Baja, but it happens, espe- filler point, we simply put pressure on cially around holidays. The station at the tank and force fuel into the Flicka's Stability is the other factor to consider. Highway 1 at the junction of the side main tank. Baja main roads, such as Highway 1, road to Bay of Los Angeles is one that contrary to rumor and myth, are not seems to be out of gas, or at least un- One more point about “the truck part.” unsafe, but they are two-lane, some- able to pump it, more than most. Gas The Mexican mechanics are marvels. times with limited shoulders, and by stations in Mexico are government- They remind me of Steinbeck's descrip- virtue of the terrain can sometimes me- owned and spaced about 80 miles apart. tion of the mechanic in "Cannery ander up, then down, then up and down With a trailer and a big engine, fill up, Row"---"the little mechanic of God, the again, and sometimes in fairly sharp every time.