Homemade Sailboat Dolly

Although all the parts have been sitting around the house, shed and yard for the past year or more, I finally managed to put together a dolly for my sailboat yesterday. It has been a long time coming!

If I had to do it over again, I would definitely change a few things in the design. This always happens though. I design something... build it... and then realize something is just not 'right'. I'm always trying to improve things. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that but it does get a bit tiring especially considering my health.

Right now this dolly has a flat tire. When the snow eventually melted a few weeks ago, I noticed that one of the tires is flat. I had already assembled the basic frame of this dolly... the long tongue and the axle... and had mounted two 10" tires on it. All last summer I just propped the sailboat on this makeshift dolly using scrap 2x4 blocking. Unfortunately, whenever I moved the dolly around the yard (ie, for cutting the lawn), the blocking would topple or the boat would slide off of it. I needed to assemble the rest of the dolly so I vowed that when the snow melted this spring, I would finally finish this project.

While cutting the cross-members which hold up the boat, I came across some natural splits in the lumber.  Unfortunately these splits were at the perfect wrong places and a couple of pieces broke. So, if I had to do it over again, I would use better lumber. I would probably design how it is assembled differently so as to avoid the potential for these splits. 

Lastly, I would have used different wheels.  Although these little 10" tires work fairly well, I am very disappointed in discovering the flat tire after our long winter. About an inch of the tube around the valve had completely disintegrated yet the wheels were probably only a little more than a year old. I may swap these tires out for tubeless tires. If I do replace them, I would also go with larger wheels so it will be easier to push and pull around the yard. Those 10" wheels can get a little stuck in just a small divot in the lawn nevermind trying to get up or down a small step. 

I think I just talked myself into buying larger, tubeless wheels. That project will have to wait until after we get back from the lake though.

Now the sailboat looks like it belongs on the dolly! I really do love that boat... it is one sleek sailboat!