Picked up new trailer

A couple months back I ordered a custom trailer from ABTrailers down in California.  I started out by emailing a PDF copy of the trailer plan sheet (sheet 60) to AB, then had multiple phone conversations from there to nail down various details.    Alex (owner of AB) has built multiple trailers of this type (including one for Rod Tharp - a local F32 builder; Rod gave me some good feedback and also had some useful pictures to look at).    Alex was very responsive, spent a lot of time on the phone with me, and answered every question I had.   

Some folks asked me why not just go with a local builder, answer is that I wanted to go with a stable company, familiar with boats of this type (trimarans), who produced a reputable product in aluminum (I wanted the corrosion resistance).   When considering how long I will have this trailer, a quick trip down to California is not a big deal. 

My wife and I left last Wednesday around noon-ish, and arrived in San Bernardino (yes the same one as the recent terror attack tragedy) around 7pm on Thursday.   People of southern California\LA:   I feel very sorry for you - you must have done something awful in a past life to have to live in such a place with such horrible, horrible traffic jams.   I think we spent 2+ hours in stop-and-go traffic on I210, which was aggravating since we had just spent another 2+ hours in stop-and-go in the hills north of Santa Clarita due to an accident.

Anyway, back to boat stuff.   After a good night's sleep, we got to AB at 8am on Friday.   Here's my truck with the trailer hooked up for the first time (the non-descript building to the left is the new world headquarters of AB):

This is Alex talking with my wife:

The trailer is almost entirely aluminum except for the axle cross-member and the tongue shaft.   It has electric-over-hydraulic (disc) brakes, which apparently is over-kill for a trailer of this size and weight, but oh well.    It has LED lights, and a full-sized spare too :).   In case you are wondering, the center support bunk is my responsibility and I have already started working on that (more details later).   The side hull supports and the float supports you see above will likely need some adjusting but that's no big deal.

This was the first time I've ever towed a trailer, so I was very nervous at first but things settled down pretty quickly.   The trailer tracks nice and straight and didn't bounce around as much I thought it would.  It would have been easy (almost) to forget it was back there.  We had a good trip and made it home safe and sound :).