I'm about to purchase a Dart 15 catamaran and hope to keep it at a nearby sailing club.  I've got a couple of concerns though.  The boat has a launching trolley plus trailer and ideally I'd store the road trailer at home and just keep the trolley at the club site, but I can't as I've nowhere to put it.  So, I've got to leave the trailer/trolley/boat all together at the club, and this is what worries me; firstly I can't help thinking that it'll make a convenient little easy-to-nick package should theives target the club (i think it has a locked gate but I'd rather not rely on that alone) and secondly I can't help worrying that if we had any serious wind there might be a risk of the whole lot blowing over or into someone elses boat. 

So, does anyone have any  suggestions on how to make things secure and safe?  I was wondering about getting some heavy duty stakes to tie things down to and maybe a wheel-clamp.  Alternatively, someone suggested I remove the road wheels/electrics from the trailer and keep them in the boot of the car or my back yard. 

Any advice gratefully received. 

Cheers.

1, tie the boat down to at least two secure tiedown points.   

2, what do other owners do?  I’ve a lock on my trailer that makes it impossible to take away.

3, As for the trolley, if you are really worried about it.  Get some old rigging wire with a look in each end (chandler can do this) and then thread the wire thru the tie down eye, around / thru the trolley and then padlock together.

Dog tethers make good tie down points if your boat is parked on earth/grass.

They are a steel corkscrew about 18" long with an eye at the top. Designed to be screwed into the ground to tie the mutts lead to when camping/picnicking etc. One either side of the boat with a rope over the top of the boat is really very secure.

You can get them for a few pounds in most high st pet shops.

Make sure you can tie it down, If the club doesn't have a wire and you can't use dog tethers then a piece of pipe, bit of old shroud, brick and concrete in a bucket works well, you need 3 one for the bow and one on each side.  You can then tie the boat to the weights you've made.

Remove the trailer wheels - this stops them perishing because of UV & static weight, and also harder to steal.

Finally padlock the lot to something solid  with a decent bike chain to make it difficult to move.

Araldite all shackles that are removed infrequently to stop them being borrowed without pliers and hide the others either under the cover or for halyards hoist to the top of the mast (tie the end of the halyard to them so you can get them down again). 

I used a pair of caravan awning  tie down stake successfully (Angled piece of metal about 18 inchs long.

Dog stake should be fine as long as its one for a large dog

Hi Jaycb, coming over to the dark side with us?

I've used those dog tie downs (for want of a better phrase!) for tying down gliders at the club. My glider (25m wing span, 500kg) was held down by 6, it was fine while the one next to it was picked up and thrown into a tree during a storm. The one that was wrecked was held by 5 gallon barrells of water over each wing and 2 on the tail so it gives you an idea of the strain they'll take. Dinghies don't seem to go walk about too much. Everyone at my club keeps them on the road bases. We all tie down to steel cables securley anchered and then lock to the same cable. In all fairness if someone want's to half inch your boat, they can. There is nothing you can do to stop them. Make it more difficult by locking it to something or disabling the wheels, make it more difficult to steal then the one it's parked next too....

Wes

Hi Wes,

Not really going down the dark path yet... windsurfing's still my first love but the catamaran is for light-wind summer days and for GF (that's girlfriend by the way, not GraemeF  ) to potter about on and build her confidence. 

The glider example makes a very strong case for those dog tethers.  If I see any at the Boat Show I'll certainly get a few. 

Since starting the thread I've identified a site to keep the boat temporarily - they have two concrete posts on each berth, one each side.  I'll probably use rope to tie down one end to these, plus a locked chain around the trailer, and a couple of dog tethers at the other end. 

Thanks everyone for your advice