Towable Sailboat "Trailer Sailing"

[Brian McVickers]

Vince, It sounds like you are well on your way to figuring this out!

Can you give us a better idea of
1- Where you plan to sail you boat (specific or types of bodies of water and Destinations.
2- How long you plan to stay on the boat at one time (will it be 3-4 days or 2-3 weeks)

You are right about the trade offs. If you want a stand up shower inside the boat you need a boat that you can stand up in but that will usually limit you to over 30' then it becomes more difficult to trailer and unload/load yourself.

So far it sounds like your looking for:
Easy trailerability, maybe even rugged for baja washboards!
Light weight to be towed
Comfortable living space
Easy to handle with one or two people
Beachable (low draft with a centerboard and reletively flat bottom)
Affordable

It also sounds like you want someting that will be comfortable and seaworthy for the Sea of Cortez, inland lakes and possibly the California coast.

Any other requirements?

 

[Brian McVickers]

Vince,

Another thought,
As you are looking around for used boats check with marinas and boat yards in your area. Some have auctions every few years to clear their facilities of delinquent or abandoned boats. If you have an idea of what your looking for and be careful of not getting something that beyond your refurbishing skills you can often get a great deal.

Also if you get close to purchasing a used boat let us know and we'll give you a list of common problem areas to inspect before the purchase, sort of like doing your own survey!

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

You guys are getting me all excited about sailboats again! We used to rent them for about $100 a day in Honolulu (32' to 34' footers). We would get about 8 friends together and split the cost.........then head out for a full day of sailing off Waikiki and Diamond Head! What wonderful memories! The maint. and slip fees have always kept me from getting a sailboat. But I never dreamed of getting a smaller boat that fits on a trailer and sits in my driveway or in storage, rather than at a slip, IN the water. HUM...........!

......If I keep signing up for off road exploration websites.........I'm going to have to get a REAL job!

 

[VikingVince]

Hey Brian!

Well...I think I have two incompatible sets of criteria going on here but this is what I was thinking. (You and others can no doubt tell me if this exists)

Situation:
1. I live in a cool little mountain communty (a world removed from la la land which I like but also a little isolated from the "scene") a little over an hour from all the marinas south of Los Angeles. I would like an "apartment" in L.A....meaning I'm thinking of buying a boat as my apartment that I could stay in a few days of the week ($400 slip fee more or less would be okay and cheaper than a regular apartment)...I'm aware that there are liveaboard requirements etc and that marinas only alot a small percent of their slips to liveaboards but I don't think I'd run into a problem just being there 40 percent of the time. Sooo...it would be nice if the boat cabin was more liveable than the MacGregor 26 I just looked at.
2. Now this is going forward into the future...but the thought occurred to me to rent out my house and live in the boat fulltime...might be fun for a a couple years or so....who knows?...maybe longer...I could always take off in the boat too once I learn to sail!!!! (minor detail) :ylsmoke: But I think this would require a more livable cabin than a parttime apartment.

Criteria:
1. Trailerability would be nice
2. Can be sailed by one or two people
3. Comfortable living space
4. Boat is able to handle....hmmmm...I don't know about this one yet but certainly the Sea of Cortez comes to mind, the CA coast...sail to Hawaii? Fiji? I dunno...that's beyond my frame of reference at this point.

So I guess the bottom line comes to: Is there a sailboat that is comfortable to live on, affordable, and still trailerable? From what I've learned so far, I surmise that if I gave up trailerability, the livablility factor goes up fairly easily and quickly.

And yes, there was one yachtbroker at the show...talked to him quite a while...looked at his listings etc. He had several used 33-36 foot Hunters in the $30-40K range. I briefly described what I was thinking of doing and he said I needed to go over 30 feet (of course that's all he was selling!!!) and give up trailering.

So that kinda sums up my latest tangest...hey, if you're alive, LIVE!!!

 

[Brian McVickers]

Cool!
That's good info and food for thought.

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

Vince, you're right: trailerability is going to trip you up. For the $20,000 of that MacGregor you could buy any number of used 27- to 30-foot full-keel (i.e. standing headroom) sailboats that would be suitable for compact living aboard and fully capable of ocean passages. But not trailerable except by a very big truck.

Anything under 27 feet or with shoal draft (centerboard) is unlikely to have full standing headroom. The 20-foot Flicka does, amazingly, but it's a deep full keel and heavy displacement.

What you really need is a longship! Shallow draft, easy sail handling - you just need another 20 or so Norsemen to handle the oars.

 

[Seeker]

I know the focus of this thread has been in the portability of the boats but I want to bring to the foreground a couple of safety issues.

You want to make sure your new boat is seakindly. For a smaller craft, this usually means a bit of weather helm built in to her to help ensure safety, and a bit more in her beam to add to her stability.

Make sure you get more than one set of sails. At least a mainsail with more than one reef point, a fore-sail, and a storm sail (potentially a set) - and a roller-furler is absolutely not a replacement for a storm Jib. A marine radio and a flare gun are also a must.

Take a coastal navigation course. Know how to use a Coast Pilot, familiarize yourself with Chart #1, and the "rules of the road". Learn what mean lower-low water is and why you should know it. Know, in no uncertain terms, how to read a nautical chart and go no where w/o the applicable ones.

Too many people get a boat, "just get out there", and have a bad experience that permanently turns them off from boating. The best way to avoid this situation is, much like we do with our trucks, learn everything we can about how to do things, and make sure we do them safely. The great thing about sail boats is that people have been sailing almost as long as they've been writing so there is a wealth of information out there.

That out of the way.

Don't rule out your twin-hulled friends. Catamarans can be very sea-kindly, sail quite well to weather, are light weight, can be exhilarating, and can have a very (very) shallow draft. They can be less expensive and, if you're willing to re-use your camping gear by lashing it to the deck, you can still camp just about anywhere you could in a mono-hull with a cabin. There are Catamarans (and tri-hulls) out there with cabins but I'm not sure how trailerable they are.

As to the seaworthiness of these crafts... There is a young Norwegian who recently sailed from his home country and round Cape Horn in a 27' Ketch appropriately named: Berserk. With a good skipper, much is possible.

And if anyone is looking for a crewmember to work a "coffee grinder" on the upcoming Newport to Ensenada race, I'd love to volunteer.

 

[bigreen505]

I'll toss in some thoughts, though be aware that I have very little experience and I'm a snob.

That out of the way, I would not buy a Macgregor (there is a reason they are called Kmart boats) and I would not expect it to hold together in big wind. A Cal 20 is a pretty small boat, very stable, can be built up to handle big breezes, and can be purchased reasonably inexpensively.

Stop thinking sailboats are inexpensive because you can buy one for $3k or build one yourself. Don't underestimate the amount of time or money required in either case. If you are looking for used boat prices, find the most expensive boat in the class you are looking. You can pretty much expect to pay that much by the time you are done fixing up your "bargain." That bit of wisdom holds whether you are looking for a cabin cruiser or a skiff. Take a few minutes to flip through Layline (www.layline.com), APS (www.apsltd.com) or similar sites to get an idea of what things cost. Synthetic which rope is just middle of the range sailing line.

For those of you who think that the light weight expedition concept sounds cool what about getting a Hobie or Nacra with a tramp tent and go island hopping? Your costs, both initial and long term are much lower than a keel boat. The down side is that if you turtle a cat your pretty screwed, though a mast float may prevent it.

If bringing a little boat like a Laser or double handed dinghy is an option for day sailing from a beach camp, you can build a trailer where the boat rests on a trampoline tied to supports with doubled up 5/16" or thicker shock cord (let me know if you actually want details). The boat will move up and down a couple feet when you combine the trampoline with the trailer suspension. The downside is the boat sits very high up in the air compared with a high end trailer that does not use a solid axel (Rapide, Pronto, Westmersea, etc.).

So now that I have given my unsolicited rant, what should you look for in a boat? We'll start with size, it has to be big enough not to sent you and your travel companions (wife, kids, dog, cat, sheep, friends) to Dr. Phil, however smaller is cheaper. A boat with a deep, heavy keel wil be more stable and probably point higher, but also requires deeper water and a taller trailer. A swing keel might be a compromise. If possible, consider a boat with a strong local racing fleet as that is a guaranty of people to help you with problems, repairs, etc.

How far down the rabbit hole would you like to go today?

 

[bigreen505]

Well, all this talk of sailing and the fact that Steph is gone for the weekend has left me researching towable sailboats. I focused on several that could actually sail the Gulf (though that depends on the season and the sailer)
Fun stuff!

Scott,

Catalinas are generally pretty solid and well thought out. I raced on both a Capri 22 and a Catalina 25, and while neither impressed me from a sailing view point, the Catalina seemed like a nice cruising boat.

Benateau makes some nice boats worth considering too. They used to make (perhaps still do) a small twin rudder keel boat that seemed pretty cool.

 

[Brian McVickers]

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Forest/2727/trailersubweb/trailer_home.html

Link to a page on trailer sailboats. Did not look through all of it but this guy essentially covers the process he went through in finding and chooising a boat.

 

[Scott Brady]

Wow, those Beneteau boats are very nice...

 

[calamaridog]

My thoughts on the larger sailboats is size and weight. You going to tow it with a fully loaded expedition Tacoma? I'm wondering what the tongue weight and total weight are...

I don't see the need for the larger boat but maybe I'm missing the point. You have all your portable cooking and camping apparatus in the truck. You don't need a galley, etc. on the boat and wouldn't leave your truck parked on a beach overnight without anyone around.

Those Potter 15' and 19' are very interesting however...

 

[durango_60]

When I start looking for my trailer sailor I will seriously consider a Corsair folding trimaran. I crewed on a F31 in college and they are very well constructed, fun to sail, lightweight, minimal draft, and plenty of storage space. Check out www.corsairmarine.com

 

[Scott Brady]

My thoughts on the larger sailboats is size and weight. You going to tow it with a fully loaded expedition Tacoma? I'm wondering what the tongue weight and total weight are...

I was thinking more as an adventure alternative to the Tacoma. I would pull the boat down to the gulf with a larger vehicle and then sail for a few weeks or months.

In the meantime, I am looking into renting a (very small) sailboat here in Prescott this summer, and then lease a bigger boat this fall for a run out to Catalina. Kind of check things out and see if we like it.

 

[calamaridog]

Scott,

What a wonderful idea. Leasing a boat and sailing to Catalina will be fun and a good way to see if it is really worth pursuing.

When I was a kid, I spent many trips sailing to Catalina with my friend and his dad. When we would stay at Catalina, my buddy and I would canoe around the island and camp overnight. Now that was fun!

I haven't sailed anything larger than a Hobie Cat in about 18 years though