Sabine to Port Mansfield, member run
2016 Shoalwater 20 Cat on the original McClain aluminum trailer. the bunk carpet is finally gone, the hull sits on bare wood in two places, and i found out because the trailer left a stripe in the gelcoat this week.
two choices. recarpet, or the plastic bunk slides everybody at the ramp in Port Lavaca is talking about. the argument against the slicks i keep hearing is the boat slides off the trailer on the ramp if you unhook the winch too early. anybody run them on a cat hull for a few seasons?
slicks on my 21 cat since 2022, the black ones. the boat launches itself, which is great at Ingleside cove where the ramp is steep and awful at a shallow ramp where you have to back in to the tailgate. leave the winch strap on until the boat is floating, every time, no exceptions. i also added a bow stop with a keel roller because the boat rides an inch further back than it did on carpet.
if the wood under yours is soft, replace the boards while it is apart, the slicks screw down with stainless and you do not want to do it twice. would do it again.
recarpeted mine twice in ten years. the second time i used the 16 ounce marine grade stuff from a trailer shop in Corpus, not the outdoor carpet from the hardware store, and that one has lasted five years so far. staple it with monel or stainless staples, the galvanized ones rust out in one season down here.
the stripe in your gelcoat is probably a screw head or the edge of the board, not the bare wood itself. check that first before you buy anything.
the boat sliding off is a real thing, i see the gelcoat repairs from it. every trailer with slicks that rolls through the shop gets the same speech, the strap comes off in the water. other than that they are fine on a cat. what i would look hard at is the bunk boards. if the carpet is gone the treated wood has been wet and dry a few hundred times. cypress or composite boards if you are replacing them.
late, but one vote for carpet with a twist. i put the plastic slicks only on the back two feet of each bunk and left carpet on the rest. the boat still loads and holds on the ramp, but it breaks free easy once the back half floats. a guy at the Seadrift ramp showed me that and it has worked on my 22 for two seasons.
done. new 2x6 cypress boards from the lumber yard in Port Lavaca, 16 ounce marine carpet off westmarine.com, 88 bucks for the roll plus stainless staples. did the Seadrift trick and put a 24 inch slick on the back of each bunk. the stripe was the head of a lag screw the old carpet had worn down to, jack_plate called it. launched twice this week, no drama, the boat breaks free once the stern floats and not before.