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Ok, keep in mind this excursion was meant to be a learning experience. And i took pics to remind me it actually happened. Here's 3 pics of the boat leaving the trailer, resulting in the boat floating on the water. (clicking on these gets you an 800x600 pic in a new window.)
Here is the first pic of the trailer without a boat on it. You may have noticed, i put the boat on the bare trailer, then added boat-specific parts to it, like the rollers, winch, etc.. In fact, the boat was on the bare trailer frame before the trailer axle was under it.
Then i go back to the boat, and it's sitting like this. The only reason it's not deeper in the water is it's sitting on the bottom, and the waves are digging it into the mud. While i did want to eventually test righting the boat, i didn't want to do it while blocking access to a well used boat ramp. Lucky for me, it was used only twice today, and one of those was me. In this configuration, the boat's features include drawing over 7feet of draft.
To make an otherwise way too long story longer, i did not have the mast with me, but was able to order and have delivered a 10ft length of water pipe, courtesy of the local Fastenal store. I used that pipe and a come-along to pull the deck up into it's flat mode, which pushed the pontoons outwards, and mostly lifted the blue mast supports up out of the mud. If i'd had the 20ft mast, i'd have used it as a centerboard, and immeadiately righted the boat the way one normally does with a centerboard. Just then, the sole other ramp user came back with his power boat, and pulled my boat clear of the ramp and over to where i wasn't in any trouble had the marine police come by. I (i mean an acquaintance) then pulled it from dock to dock with 200ft of rope as i was nose deep in the lake pushing the boat to stay in deeper water. Once at the minilot, collapsing the boat back up, and keeping it broadside to the shore, the winch on the trailer pulled the boat back upright. The boat works so much better as a boat when upright.
And here is it is, upright.
And a round-about quartet of pics. (clicking on these gets you an 800x600 pic in a new window.)
Other than the inopportune flipping, and me being up to my nose in the lake in April for most of the afternoon and evening, i was quite pleased. The trailer handled wonderfully being towed on the back roads and at 65mph on the interstate. The boat was steady on the water, and sits level when i was where the somewhat heavy steel mast (it's a sailboat) assembly is to go. Pushing off from the dock, the boat glides quickly and far with very lttle effort. It does sit at 8 inches deep with me centered on it, and i had expected 6 to 8 inches, altho i wanted only 4. If i goto a rear corner, the boat does squat low, but no deeper than i have seen other pontoon boats. And keep in mind, this has 16 inch dia tubes, not 20 inch. But it handles so well, i don't see a problem,, yet. I also set it off one dock end slightly angled away from shore, then towed parallel to shore with 100ft of rope, and it tracked at the angle i set it off at, turning towards me only when i made an effort to steer it. So i am pleased.
I'll be making adjustments so it cannot possibly flip while being launched.