Installation & FAQs

The device comes in two sizes of the same design. The small size may be fitted to aluminium boats and light duty fibreglass boats up to 5.9 metres. The large unit will accommodate a vessel as small as 5.9 metres and a boat any length and having a maximum weight of 8 tonne.

All boat bows and trailer bow posts vary in size and angle, so a universal mounting bracket comes with the device. The bracket has an adjustable head that can be set to match many angled trailer bow post.

The special polished eye that bolts simply to you boat bow, is made for a boat bow with a angle that measures between 32 degrees and 48 degrees from vertical, to be fitted with a Boatcatch. If you have a common design boat then your bow will easily be in that angle range.

Most handymen or women who own a drill and some basic spanners can fit the Boatcatch. The device is clamped simply and directly to the trailer bow post with bolts and nuts. The most technical job is cutting the metal universal mounting kit “tube” to length with a hand saw or similar tool.

The drill is needed for only two things: To make 2 holes to locate the bolts in the mount tube, and to drill the 2 holes in the boat bow for our special eye.

Aluminium boats will need our special aluminium adaptor welded onto the bow. It is a very fast simple welding job for your local boat shop or local welder or yourself if you have that skill. See pictures of the finished result in our aluminium boat gallery pictures.

As boats come in many shapes and sizes, exact locating instructions can not not given. A small amount of your own judgment may be needed with deciding exactly where you fit the Boatcatch. Our gallery has one hundred fitting examples, one of which is sure to help you.

Some combinations of boat and trailer are extremely simple and ready for Boatcatch fit up. In the perfect case like this where you only have to add the Boatcatch in above or below your existing bow stop and winch, expect to take an hour or two to fit the Boatcatch.

Occasionally the job is not that simple. If so feel free to send us a picture of yopuir existing bow and winch area so we may offer guidance on how to proceed.

Remember extra thought and planning before you start will pay dividends.

Because every boat and trailer combination is different, Boatcatch supplies bolts and brackets that can be adjusted or inserted or shortened to adapt to most people’s needs. It would be wasteful and uneconomical and not possible to provide every combination of parts for every boat in existence. We do however do our best. (Refer this video or both sketch gallery and photo gallery for more detail.)

What components come with the Boatcatch video click here..

Boatcatch has been rigorously tested both in real life situations and with state of the art design and destroy software. Wear or breakage without gross abuse or due to an accident is not normal.

We do give a lifetime warranty to the first owner of the boatcatch.

This includes free replacement of any moving part. So if a breakage occurs, email or phone us. We will work out just what components you need and send them to you asap. We do want to hear from you should something wear or break. Our goal is to provide the ultimate launch and retrieve device and so we need feedback to assist in improvement if ever needed.

All trailer beds are suitable for drive off and so the Boatcatch will be a wonderful addition to your boating experience with the launch feature alone. Most boat trailers, especially modern designs are excellent for drive on boats. The thing to remember is; your boat has a “V” shape underneath. This matches the “V” shape in your trailer bed.

Your boat will try to settle into the “V” and therefore automatically centre you on your trailer, providing that you do not have the trailer too deep in the water, and, if you drive on slowly to let the boat settle centrally by itself.

As an extra assistance, some Boatcatch users add a final pair of rollers or Teflon skids in a sharp “V” shape, towards the front of the trailer, in the location where the lower boat bow shape becomes the keel. This “V” guide addition can be very inexpensive and assures a central entry onto the trailer even in rough weather. See our trailer bed gallery for images.

Ski boats often have very shallow bow angles as high as 60 degrees. They can also have a more blunt bow width. While the Boatcatch is often fitted to these boats, these two things could make the job a little more complicated and a more highly skilled handy man would be needed to adapt the supplied stainless bow eye to the front of the vessel. You would need to make or adapt a spacer to take up the gap because a standard bow eye is for a 45 to 55 degree bow. Jet skis owners do fit the small sized Boatcatch vertically up off the trailer chassis with our standard mount kit. You just need to check you have internal bow access to tighten up the two bolts that hold our special eye in place. Pictures are in our gallery.

Multi hull boats have three small differances to work with when fitting a Boatcatch. Because of these, it is not as simple and as fast to fit up. Some of the mounting components supplied may not suit or could need to be adapted, buts it no big deal. We have hundreds of Cats fitted with boatcatch, so check our gallery and see examples of the various methods of mounting.

The first differance is adapting the bow eye to the front shape of a cat (ask us for extra free wedges and this usually solves the problem). The second is adapting or attaching the coupling to the trailer (refer our gallery to choose how you want to mount). The third is relevant if you mount the device in the centre of the bow, and that is, that the release lever pulls through a different angle, so remember to tell us it is for a cat, and we will supply the correct release handle free of charge.

All this is clearly explained in our 6 minute video located in our video gallery. It is named “Boatcatch Multihull Information”.