Towing In Europe

Originally posted by Contender443 I have a lovely lighting board with arms in my garage if anyone wants to buy one. I suppose I may use it if I ever tow the trailer without the boat on it. Can't see that happening.   So I'm sticking to the transom mounted lighting board with mast support.   If I ever get pulled  over that will be unlucky so I am will ing to take the (minimal) risk. A bit like speeding really....once every 3 tro 4 years is my average...

I understand that by not using the light board arms that are supplied with the trailer you are contravening the terms of the type approval of the road base.
There have been a few incindents where boats have been hit from the back/side and insurance claims and insurance claims have been dismissed because the road base didn't conform to type.

If you have them you should use them!

Interesting point Seasickrick - as everyone says - the basic design of the trailers is bonkers and the metal fatigue etc will be really bad, I also agree that the police 'probably' are not that  interested as long as board has the correct number plate and the lights all work etc.  Insurance though puts a differant light on it, a new boat of any class that has to have a new trailer will have the same issues and I'll need to think carefully about the insurance aspect.  Some one smashing into a long carbon mast is pretty expensive - someone smahing into a long boat  - could be even more expense.  The lighting board is a good 2 feet short underneath the hull - so you can't see it anyway!!

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by seasickrick There have been a few incindents where boats have been hit from the back/side and insurance claims and insurance claims have been dismissed... Do you have a verifiable source for that or is it rumour?

A policeman friend of mine has been involved in a case involving a fireball that had its rear quater removed. All was well with the claim until it was pointed out that the lightboard was mounted to the transom (with mast support) and not on the arms supplied with the trailer that have the required reflectors on.

If the road base was not type approved it would have been a clear cut case with the driver who hit the boat at fault.

I wasn't using the arms supplied with my roadbase until I heard this.

I would like to make some comments.

The new Euro spec trailers have additional lights on the trailer itself, which is why the tailboard plugs into a socket at the mast support, to which the wires for the other lights are also fed into.

When using the new arms, I would expect that most people help to support the arms by tieing the arms up to the back of the boat. However, the natural tendency, for me anyway, is to slide the arms forward if I am towing the trailer empty. This leaves a very dangerous "spear" pointing forward. I don't have an answer to this as I consider leaving them unsupported at full length every bit as dangerous.

Be careful using an old trailer. I had what I thought was a well maintained (old ) trailer base, and one of the suspension units peeled open due to corrosion and the wheel, complete with hub and half the suspension unit went trundling down the street. Fortunately this incident occurred at very low speeds, but all the traffic behind stopped very abruptly!

Originally posted by seasickrick .... A policeman friend of mine has been involved in a case involving a fireball that had its rear quater removed. All was well with the claim until it was pointed out that the lightboard was mounted to the transom (with mast support) and not on the arms supplied with the trailer that have the required reflectors on. ..

Reflectors have long been required. There are lightboards around which don't have reflectors, these are only legal on e.g. a bike rack fixed to the car. I've seen a few of these on trailers!