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The boat with fresh blue trim, unfolded. The mast is laying on the deck frame (the deck is painted light grey (to dull reflected sunlight) but not installed). The silver-looking pipe on the right on the mast is to be the rotating and sliding support mounted at the top of the fore blue mast A frame. When mast is down, it will be suspended under the two A frames. The boat is 10ft wide, the pontoons are 16ft long, the deck is 12ft bow to stern, the A frames are 5ft tall above the deck.

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I put the hand trucks under one pontoon, and used a come-along / manual cable puller to lift the center of the deck frame. Almost folded up, about 6ft wide at this point. There will be a 12v winch to do this at the push of a remote button, so i need not be on the boat as it's folding up.

Note the chains under the deck slacken. Had i made rigid under-deck supports there, the folding up would be more complex.

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Completely folded, 4.5ft wide. It can go narrower, but as i'll be putting it on a 5ft wide trailer deck, 4.5ft wide is fine. It can fold to under 4ft, so i could legally carry two 10ft wide pontoon boats on one 8ft wide trailer. But i believe i'll pass on that. Note the little "platforms" on the center of each A frame hinge, how they tend to stay level. These are the mounting points for the mast attachments, altho the mast will swing up *under* the A frames, not above them. There's 2ft between the underside of the A frame hinge and the folded deck below. This is prolly too much, and it does make the height overall of the boat be 7ft when folded, and even taller when on the road on the trailer. I could engineer shortening devices, but the unfolded height must remain at 5ft minimum. The fore A frame will hold the center of the mast and sails, there will be a separate support post at the end of the trailer, making a secure three point support system.

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By Kat , 2008