Classic live-aboard able to dry out.
- Thread starter grahambaines1987@outlook.
- Start date
DownWest
Well-Known Member
Re: going astern, if one goes for GRP or metal, fitting a bow-thruster would be within the DIY skills of the OP. Not so easy if wood, unless cold moulded or strip/sheathed.
grahambaines1987@outlook.
New Member
Thanks again for all of the insight. I must say that I'm thinking I should scrap the bilge keel and wooden hull ideas. They were what the heart wanted but there are loads of great looking classic GRP yachts out there with less to worry about in terms of maintenance.
Might look into a cradle for the home port. Legs are interesting but to leave for work for 10 weeks at a time would be a worry if she were sitting on legs twice a day.
Might look into a cradle for the home port. Legs are interesting but to leave for work for 10 weeks at a time would be a worry if she were sitting on legs twice a day.
Kukri
Well-Known Member
Drying out on a hard bottom reverses the stresses in the structure twice a day, even if the water is always perfectly calm.
I don't know your home port, but, as a working rule if the bottom is sandy, not muddy, it is often because the shelter is less than perfect. Given your work pattern, would it be worth looking at a different home port?
I don't know your home port, but, as a working rule if the bottom is sandy, not muddy, it is often because the shelter is less than perfect. Given your work pattern, would it be worth looking at a different home port?
grahambaines1987@outlook.
New Member
You might be right
Kukri
Well-Known Member
I have a friend who does what you do and owns the twin of my boat.
Aquaboy
Well-Known Member
As you have moved away from wood, never a good idea on a drying mooring and even less so with the additional weight of live aboard gear. How about a Southerly and a 110 if you are in a position to do it?
grahambaines1987@outlook.
New Member
The Southerlys are nice but a little out of my price range.
I think a drying mooring is a fantasy. One being quashed with all the rest.
I think a drying mooring is a fantasy. One being quashed with all the rest.
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Southerlies certainly are costly, though the older ones are becoming reasonable. I've sometimes thought the 115, with its roomy aft-cabin, fully-retracting centreplate and inside wheel, is a pleasing, subtly different approach, benefiting from unconventional design.
Whether the drying mooring is practical or fantasy, depends largely on what boat you pick, and where you keep her...
...although plenty of boats (in fact the majority, being fin-keelers) will decide for you, where they need to be moored.
If you really want a boat that can safely dry out upright (I wouldn't consider one that couldn't), then the choice of boats is limited, but not fantasy. If you let yourself be persuaded that you must have one of the fashionable fin keelers that dominate mass-production lines, you will enjoy capable offshore sailing characteristics, but won't be free to properly explore our shallow coastline...
...nor to creek-crawl and wait for the tide in a remote natural harbour, alive with wildfowl and peaceful desolation. I think it's significant that those who say nobody wants to do that, are generally the ones whose boats cannot take them to such places. Perhaps they really wouldn't like it. They're certainly unlikely to find out.
It has been claimed that nobody who can afford a new boat wants an inexpensive drying mooring, they'd rather be at a marina. It may be true - it's rather a relief - there are still plenty of drying moorings for those on limited budgets.
But it all depends on what you want. Marina-to-marina sailing seems to be the most popular kind today, so most new yachts don't need to anchor or stop overnight in a drying harbour, and the designs owe more to Parisian show-homes than to conventional practicality.
Designers and builders have done very well, appealing to the cheque-writers' wives rather than concentrating on the rewarding fun of sailing, navigating, and making landfall in natural places. So, conventionally admired designs and the versatility of twin, triple, or lifting keels, aren't much in vogue today. It may all be just as well, actually - I'd hate it if the beauty-spots were full of other boats.
Whether the drying mooring is practical or fantasy, depends largely on what boat you pick, and where you keep her...
...although plenty of boats (in fact the majority, being fin-keelers) will decide for you, where they need to be moored.
If you really want a boat that can safely dry out upright (I wouldn't consider one that couldn't), then the choice of boats is limited, but not fantasy. If you let yourself be persuaded that you must have one of the fashionable fin keelers that dominate mass-production lines, you will enjoy capable offshore sailing characteristics, but won't be free to properly explore our shallow coastline...
...nor to creek-crawl and wait for the tide in a remote natural harbour, alive with wildfowl and peaceful desolation. I think it's significant that those who say nobody wants to do that, are generally the ones whose boats cannot take them to such places. Perhaps they really wouldn't like it. They're certainly unlikely to find out.
It has been claimed that nobody who can afford a new boat wants an inexpensive drying mooring, they'd rather be at a marina. It may be true - it's rather a relief - there are still plenty of drying moorings for those on limited budgets.
But it all depends on what you want. Marina-to-marina sailing seems to be the most popular kind today, so most new yachts don't need to anchor or stop overnight in a drying harbour, and the designs owe more to Parisian show-homes than to conventional practicality.
Designers and builders have done very well, appealing to the cheque-writers' wives rather than concentrating on the rewarding fun of sailing, navigating, and making landfall in natural places. So, conventionally admired designs and the versatility of twin, triple, or lifting keels, aren't much in vogue today. It may all be just as well, actually - I'd hate it if the beauty-spots were full of other boats.
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Aquaboy
Well-Known Member
A small Dutch sailing barge https://www.botenbank.com/zeiljachten/lemsteraak-de-boer-/545c84d7-67c6-49ee-93d2-45bb22453c1e
should tick all the boxes, not wood but the fitout will be nice
should tick all the boxes, not wood but the fitout will be nice
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Interesting pricing too...49,950 Euros, but also 49,950 Dutch Krone (about £6,000). 
She's certainly got the bottom for drying out.
She's certainly got the bottom for drying out.
grahambaines1987@outlook.
New Member
What kind of seas can a hull like that handle?
Greenheart
Well-Known Member
They do look a bit 'bluff'. Certainly not a speed machine. Reminds me of the line in We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, when the yacht approaches the Dutch coast and big sailing barges are coming out against the wind, sending great up blasts of spray.
I don't suppose they were designed primarily with offshore sea-work, nor going to windward, in mind - more like canal work.
I don't suppose they were designed primarily with offshore sea-work, nor going to windward, in mind - more like canal work.
Aquaboy
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't do an Atlantic crossing but fine in the North Sea. Its not a fin keel yacht but they go well. Several over here. They race them in Holland, well slightly larger ones like dinghies........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqneuY-hVMk
Choosing a boat is always about your own priority so some things will have to be a compromise.
I want one of these https://www.nazeeuw.nl/north-cape-28c/ but the price is my compromise, so no.....
Choosing a boat is always about your own priority so some things will have to be a compromise.
I want one of these https://www.nazeeuw.nl/north-cape-28c/ but the price is my compromise, so no.....