Image: Scott Wallingford during a relaxed stretch of the 2022 Race to Alaska. Photo Credit: Norris Comer.
In early December, Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood welcomed a new tenant in its bustling maritime community—Ballard Trailers, offering a wide variety of metal and composite boat trailers for all types of boaters.
Created through a collaboration with Scott Wallingford, owner of Beyond the Sail, and Nick Rudnick, founder of metal fabrication shop Rudnick Manufacturing, Ballard Trailers currently showcases trailers for 12 sizes of boats, including single-axle models for 15’ dinghies on up to three-axle carriers for vessels as large as 18,200 pounds, equipped with the latest road safety features such as all-wheel discs brakes and LED lighting.
“We see the business as filling a void in the Seattle market,” Wallingford said. “There’s really no other business in the area that focuses exclusively on making customized boat trailers.”
With the Rudnick Manufacturing partnership, Ballard Trailers will focus much of its attention on customizing aluminum trailers, although Wallingford plans to provide galvanized steel and composite material options. “We want the boat customers to reach out to us and tell us what they want,” he said.
Located at 4711 Shilshole Ave., Ballard Trailers currently has room for three trailers on the property, but Wallingford said he expects to expand the space to accommodate 10 trailers at a time.
Beyond the Sail is also looking to expand in the near future, Wallingford added. While it currently specializes in commissioning and maintaining import catamarans and trimarans, the company will soon move into the boat sales and brokerage business, he said.
Rudnick Manufacturing, also based in Ballard, has provided customized metal fabrication and CAD drafting for more than 25 years, specializing in the marine industry.
For more information on Ballard Trailers’ current inventory, check their website at ballardtrailers.com.
