Rear tie downs

How strong are the swim deck mounts? Can I use them to secure rear tie downs to?

My boat is older than yours and I do the same, so I think your covered on both sides.

SN206 wrote: It's not a bad idea, but I have seen both newer and old boats gels damaged or spidered from doing so. In fact I think I have some pics of a 99' damaged that way.

Ryan,
Are you sure the gel damage was from trailering? Could it be from just normal use?

How do you tie down the aft end? Strap over the gunnels? Hopefully you do. I wouldn't go for more than a couple miles without the aft end tied to the trailer and in fact, it's the law in most states.

my 94 sport does not have rear tie downs either. Is this normal for Nautiques? It only has a turn buckle on the bow of the boat to hold on trailer. I drove 4 hours from where I bought it with no problems though.

I second pete. I know a lot of people that tie the back of the boat down using the swim step mounts and no problems. The tie down is pulling straight down on the transom which is strong. Someone standing at the edge of the swim step jumping would cause more damage due to the extra leverage.

I had the ratcheting tie downs added to my new Boatmate trailer when I had it built. I hook them to the swim platform brackets. The only other option I could think of was to either remove the plastic covers around the lifting rings or cut a hole in the bottom of them and use the lifting rings. I think the swim brackets are plenty strong for this. Good to see others have done this without damage.

tie downs are for IO's ;) Nautiques are such great boats the hold themselves to the trailer. haha

Tie downs get hooked to the brackets on my boat also. That's where the dealer said to put them. The black cups under the lifting rings are there to keep the ehaust from coming up thru the holes in the platform.

   Mike

akabulla wrote: What if you have a removable platform? Do you just leave the platform on for towing to have a place for the straps and then take it off when storing it?

I leave the platform on all summer and take it off in the winter. I hang it in the basement during the winter and give it a coat of teak oil once and awhile.

They seem to be a good place to attach the straps.

My old 98 had thru hull "d" shaped tie down points. We used ratchets to secure to trailer.



P.O. must have installed them. There was some minor cracking to the gel around the bolts, but this never appeared to get any worse over the 3 or so years we owned it.

We never had a problem with them.

I currently use ratchets from the 89's swim deck to the trailer. I would like to install similar tie downs on the 89 instead of using the platform brackets.

05 210 wrote:    The black cups under the lifting rings are there to keep the ehaust from coming up thru the holes in the platform.

Thanks Mike! I have been wondering why they have the black cups.

OverMyHead wrote: Chopper wrote: I would like to install similar tie downs on the 89 instead of using the platform brackets. I think I would use 2 bow eyes if I went that direction.

OMH,
I think that's what they probably were. They were smaller than factory CC bow eye though.

OverMyHead,
If you have the factory trailer, you should have an eye that is welded to the main 'C' channel frame of the trailer, just to the stern of the fender. (or at least that is what is on my '87's trailer)

With the boat, a strap (like you'd find on a ratcheting tie-down strap) was included that hooked into each eye, wrapped over the gunwhales, and is then pulled tight to hold the back of the boat down.

This is the only thing I've used, and been satisfied with it.

I'd be worried about attaching tie downs to the swim platform brackets. With the trailer & boat bouncing down the road, quite a bit of stress would be applied to the brackets, and I'd hate to think of what might happen...

One thing I've noticed over the years is that my boat tends to walk towards the starboard side. I leave the house with the boat centered between the guideposts, and it always seems to end up snug against the guidepost. Perhaps this is due to the natural curvature of most roads to drain water????

I can see where my strap doesn't address the side-to-side movement of the boat, and the tie downs on the swim platform brackets would, but IMO, the risk is not worth the reward.

Anyway, my $0.02.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that my boat tends to walk towards the starboard side. .[/QUOTE]

So it tends to move to the right, maybe it is just a good conservative.