One of the powerful therapeutic qualities of boat building, at least the completely amateur variety I'm pursuing, is shopping and buying. Nautical retail therapy: bad for the wallet but good for the soul, if only temporarily.
I have to make two more major acquisitions as part of this project: the sailing-related portions of the dinghy kit -- spars, sails, rudder, daggerboard, and rigging -- and a trailer. It's true that the PMD is light enough to cartop, if there are two reasonably strong people to get it up atop the car. In my case, though, there are zero strong people, and I have a sketchy back that I don't like to annoy with extraneous, weight-bearing twists and turns.
So a trailer I will acquire. And, since this entire endeavor is really just a giant replacement for the model-building days of my youth, the trailer will be a kit, too. There are three kinds to choose from (that I know about):
Chesapeake Light Craft, the supplier of the boat kit and all the supplies and tools they can convince me to buy, offers a premium trailer from Trailex. What's premium about this trailer is that it's designed for light loads -- so it doesn't bounce all over the road at highway speeds -- and that it's made from anodized aluminum, which will rust, eventually, but not in my lifetime. It's also quite light, so it can double as a hand-guided dolly for beach launches.
Trailex actually makes several models which could work with the PMD. CLC recommends the $1,023 variety. There's also an $870 variety that caught my eye -- it looked simpler, it looked like it might support the boat a little better, and it seemed a lot more affordable. The savings would, in fact, pay for an "upgrade" to those spiffy tanbark sails I've been lusting after (more on those later). But the Trailex people say the more costly model is the right one for the PMD. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, our old friends at Harbor Freight, supplier of suspiciously low-priced tools and miscellaneous hardware, sell Haul-Master trailer kits. These are designed for heavier boats -- weighing six times the PMD's poundage -- with traditional leaf springs. And they're made of painted steel, which will rust as soon as the paint becomes chipped. Trailers on highways see their share of rocks and gravel and pebbles and the occasional dropped M&M, so the paint would definitely chip.
But the price, oh the price -- only $329 and sometimes less (Harbor Freight has occasional sales). Because of its painted steel construction, it's not practical to back this trailer into the water -- which means finding someone to help lift the boat off the trailer and carry it into the drink.
Now, other PMD builder/owners have opted for #1 and #3 above. None of them are unhappy with their choices. I personally prefer the Trailex trailer -- a gentler ride for the PMD, solo launch capability, less maintenance. All at only, uh, three times the price. Is it three times the value? I dunno.
I don't need the trailer yet. Soon, but not yet. Therapy ... I need plenty of that.
