Well, your idea for tie ups is better than using those electrical ties. I did see some ties in a photo supply store here that were reuseable, just not long enough. The velcro sounds better, like they use on snow skis. If those were too short you could couple two together.......I'm trying to make this complicated I guess. I can get the velcro at a fabric shop. Or I could go to West Marine and pay triple..........Thanks for idea. ---LH #189 -----Original Message----- From: chbenneck@juno.com [mailto:chbenneck@juno.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 2:26 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: M_Boats: San Juan Island trip report Hi Larry, If the pucker factor gets up to 9, I hope you had a change of underwear along! Loosing a trailer ball from the hitch , ...................Ouch! I think all of us have had "trailering" experiences, and learned the hard way what to do, or not do. In my case, when I bought a Bolger MICRO in Bay City, MI - sight unseen - and drove there to pick it up and then drive to Florida with the new toy I found, .............the trailer seems to have been made from a mobile home trailer. It must have weighed about1.5 times as much as the boat itself. The MICRO weighed about 1000 lbs; the trailer alone probably about 1500 lbs, for a total weight of 2500 lbs!! I was towing it with a 4 cylinder VW GOLF............ The next problem, discovered after 50 miles of driving on I-75 heading south, was that the keel of the MICRO was a long continual curve from bow to stern (rudder). It was sitting in a straight piece of channel which meant that the whole boat would rock on it's rocker (keel) as I hit bumps or braked. Temporary solution: Stop at the next truck tire tread I saw lying at the side of the road and cut pieces to jam under the keel to stop it from rocking. Next improvement: Stop at a Home Depot. Buy a saw and get a 2 x 4 that I could cut on a long diagonal to really jam it under the keel curve. It was held in place with a piece of heavy wire; also found on the roadside. We made it through the mountains of Tennessee - many times in 2nd gear - but we made it to Florida and then back to Connecticut. First chore then was to get a "proper sized; ....and weight" trailer for the MICRO. The heavy trailer was sold to a friend who uses it to haul a stock car from race to race............. Leigh Valley Tools in New York State sell a roll of Velcro tape to tie up plants for about $3.00. This is great stuff for tieing up halyards and shrouds on the mast while trailering. No fuss no muss: totally reusable. An indispensable trailering aid. I use it on my tiller extension to hold it in place while sailing. Connie _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats