Sailing is a sport for everyone. However, for a lot of people the act of launching or taking their boat off the water is a barrier to participation, for a variety of reasons; the weight of the boat, the age and physical condition of the person, and any number of environmental factors all come into play. The solution to this problem has been to ask those around you for help, and while sailing clubs are filled with friendly people that are happy to assist, this system is not acceptable for a modern and accessible sport.

I wanted to design a product that would allow one user to launch or take their boat off the water without needing any assistance from another person. It would need to fit into the context and conditions of club sailing: it must be suitable for all weather and year-round conditions, it must be simple to operate, in the cold and rain when people do not want to take off their gloves, and safe for everyone you’d expect to find at a sailing club.

I settled on a modular pulley system, which users can quickly assemble to different strength ratios to handle a wide range of boat weights. A wide variety of sailing blocks and shackles can be accomodated by the various connectors, taking advantage of the excellent quality components that are readily available. I have also worked on two mounting positions to provide a safe and secure foundation for the pulley system; a wall bracket that can be easily attached to a solid wall and is constructed with enough durability to withstand prolonged exposure to the elements, and a deployable ground screw mounting that can be used on sand or soil, adding options to where this product can be used. 

To enable use with just one user, it was also necessary to design a wheel mechanism to attach to a boat trolley and allow limited motion. I wanted to keep this as simple and intuitive as possible, as this would be a critical safety feature, ensuring the boat cannot roll when it is not meant to. To achieve this, I linked the attachment point to the pulleys with a brake system on the wheel, so that the wheel can only operate while there is tension on the connector. If that tension is removed, either deliberately once the boat trolley is detached from the system or if there is a fault, then the brake system will engage, and the boat will safely come to a stop.