Come on YBW - lets have a SMALL BOAT FORUM.

[Zagato]

Small boats can be a completely different kettle of fish as well as their sailing grounds. They are like camping not caravanning or even hoteling. A bucket or porta potti is a luxury not a head, peeing standing up is impossible so forget it if your prostrate is troublesome. Meths stoves or Trangias are the norm not gas hobs and ovens so stick to pasta, soup and sandwiches. Chart tables are your lap, water comes from a container and electrics are a luxury powered by the outboard.

BUT for the trailer sailor brigade you can sail everywhere the floating caravans cannot go, no deck hopping six deep in busy harbours. You can go to France to Scotland to Sweden by road. You can sail on the inland waterways and lakes, just think all those canals, lovely Lake District venues, Norfolk broads and all those quiet tributaries and rivers. It can be all very quiet, hassle free and flexible fun getting back to basics. Bloody cheap as well....

Shrimpers, Drascombes, Swallow boats, Darts etc and all those shallow keel classics are a joy to explore mud flats and drying estuaries. There is nothing nicer than waking up after a night drying out in the wilderness listening to oyster catchers at dawn and setting light to your BBQ which hooks over the side for an English brunch!

No boat hooks, sea cocks, pumps, anti foul, windlasses, fridges, fuses, bilge pumps, speed logs, heaters, in furling masts, showers, double beds and bars here! Let the campers argue over soiling teak decks and pull the string over hanging the side for a peaceful chilled glass of wine and a lovely view!

 

[LittleSister]

I agree that there is a world of difference between a simple 17 foot centre-boarder and a 50 footer better equipped and appointed than most people's homes. Such difference includes techniques, kit, cruising grounds and budgets.

But they aren't wholly different - we have much in common - and there is a continuum in all these factors between (and beyond) those two lengths.

Even where the experiences and problems discussed are so different, by virtue of boat size, they aren't of direct relevance to ourselves, they are often of more general interest. (Heavens, I even sometimes read about motorboats!).

What could be more fun than daydreaming one had a much bigger or smaller boat, confirming the wisdom of one's own choices, or taking wicked pleasure from hearing the problems that those at the other end of the LOA scale have to bear.

So, no, I don't agree.

 

[Sandy]

Having just upgraded from 20' to 36' I wholeheartedly disagree. I went from no heads to a hot running shower. I went from a single ring camping stove to 4 gas rings, grill and oven with a fridge. Sleeping bag to "emperor" sized bed for which I can't buy large enough bedding. Kneeling to plenty of headroom. Too small for a dinghy to dinghy and outboard stored permanently at the bottom of a locker.
These experiences are not alike in any way at all. I don't regret the 10 happy years I spent on board Live Magic, but my problems are different now and I'd agree a small boat forum is helpful even just to discuss single ring recipes using ingredients that don't go off! By the same token I never used to worry about provisioning for a two week trip aboard or how to sail for 24 hours in shifts. I can even make a cup of tea while sailing now, for the first time since owning a yacht!

I'd suggest the greatest change was the move from a six meter boat to an eight meter one.

From time to time I sail a lovely little Hunter Medina and the step up from that to my old boat is significant.

I find the move my own boat to the 30 meter on I crew on huge. Everything is much bigger including the size of the tea pot.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Good idea, RIBs and PWCs aren't particularly well catered for elsewhere on the forums.

We could have threads on ‘How to drive your PWC for maximum wake through moorings.’ Or ‘Is a feather an essential part of my PWC wake, and will it impress the girls more if it’s bigger’

Actually I think if there was real demand for a smaller boat forum we could look at it. I’m not convinced that there’s a real need though.

 

[RichardS]

We could have threads on ‘How to drive your PWC for maximum wake through moorings.’ Or ‘Is a feather an essential part of my PWC wake, and will it impress the girls more if it’s bigger’

What's a feather wake? I've heard of a "rooster tail" and a "tell tale" but not a "feather".

Richard

 

[ZBM2]

We could have threads on ‘How to drive your PWC for maximum wake through moorings.’ Or ‘Is a feather an essential part of my PWC wake, and will it impress the girls more if it’s bigger’

Actually I think if there was real demand for a smaller boat forum we could look at it. I’m not convinced that there’s a real need though.

That would indeed fit well alongside how to set racing courses for children across the main channel on a busy summer weekend and motoring cones and why they are superfluous.

 

[TernVI]

Having just upgraded from 20' to 36' I wholeheartedly disagree. I went from no heads to a hot running shower. I went from a single ring camping stove to 4 gas rings, grill and oven with a fridge. Sleeping bag to "emperor" sized bed for which I can't buy large enough bedding. Kneeling to plenty of headroom. Too small for a dinghy to dinghy and outboard stored permanently at the bottom of a locker.
These experiences are not alike in any way at all. I don't regret the 10 happy years I spent on board Live Magic, but my problems are different now and I'd agree a small boat forum is helpful even just to discuss single ring recipes using ingredients that don't go off! By the same token I never used to worry about provisioning for a two week trip aboard or how to sail for 24 hours in shifts. I can even make a cup of tea while sailing now, for the first time since owning a yacht!

I've sailed on a 21ft with a decent cooker, decent bunk and hot water.
I've sailed on a 60ft racing boat with comedy 1 ring stove, no fridge and no loo.
The first boat I cruised on was 22ft, we would probably never have got out of Portsmouth Harbour if it didn't have tea-making facilities.

I think a lot of members' boats would have issues in common with small boats, yet a lot in common with bigger boats.
Is 28ft small or big?
Will bilge keelers want to discuss the same things as fin keelers?

The big thing you didn't mention was outboard vs inboard power? Or even daring to go sailing without an engine?

 

[Bristolfashion]

Yes, the problem is that it is all incremental. My 28', 1966 yacht had a methylated spirit burner but an electric head. My (actually 3" longer) 29 footer has a gas oven & manual head. We've had various instruments, but only ever use the depth sounder. Is it pure length or complexity? PBO, as others have said, tends to cater to interests typical of the smaller/simpler boat but which can be illuminating for any yachtsman.

If we do need a separate forum, it's probably for anchoring ?

 

[ProDave]

As a small boat sailor I have never found an issue with the forums or felt the need to have a special place to talk to other small boat sailors.

 

[johnalison]

Yes, the problem is that it is all incremental. My 28', 1966 yacht had a methylated spirit burner but an electric head. My (actually 3" longer) 29 footer has a gas oven & manual head. We've had various instruments, but only ever use the depth sounder. Is it pure length or complexity? PBO, as others have said, tends to cater to interests typical of the smaller/simpler boat but which can be illuminating for any yachtsman.

If we do need a separate forum, it's probably for anchoring ?

No. We need a separate forum for middle-sized boats, so that we don't have to read about blokes charging around the oceans in their 50-footers. There's already one for wooden boats, since they seem to think they are all classics, but we need another one to hive off the steel/aluminium ones too. A separate catamaran forum would remove a lot of boring posts about how to boil a kettle at eighteen knots. The list can go on.

 

[Bristolfashion]

No. We need a separate forum for middle-sized boats, so that we don't have to read about blokes charging around the oceans in their 50-footers. There's already one for wooden boats, since they seem to think they are all classics, but we need another one to hive off the steel/aluminium ones too. A separate catamaran forum would remove a lot of boring posts about how to boil a kettle at eighteen knots. The list can go on.

You might end up with a forum called, "Just My Boat"!

 

[Poey50]

The OP has already demonstrated a solution for discussing an issue of relevance to small boats: start a thread.

 

[Zagato]

This is my idea of small boat sailing... lovely video, reminds of my Drascombe days. A rough passage to a small Harbour, pint in the pub, sleep under a boat tent in November, sing alongs and hauling out with the help from locals. Great stuff, worth viewing. By Roger Barnes...

 

[[163233]]

Is a 8 meter boat any different to my 10 meter one? Having owned both I shall answer the question. No.

It seems that 7m at the waterline is a cut-off for the RYA.

 

[Spuddy]

Nigel and others started the Small Boat Club which still limps along. Dunno if a separate section on here would be an improvement

 

[davidpbo]

I personally enjoy the PBO forum and the fact that people with a variety of boats, backgrounds, expertise and pockets contribute to it.

 

[Sandy]

Take a look at all the old unused sub forums and draw your own conclusions.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I personally enjoy the PBO forum and the fact that people with a variety of boats, backgrounds, expertise and pockets contribute to it.

Agree. The PBO magazine covers everything from dinghies, through daysailers and monos to ocean cruisers. The contributions in the various YBW fora are probably an accurate representation of numbers who get their kicks out of each class.

 

[johnalison]

Agree. The PBO magazine covers everything from dinghies, through daysailers and monos to ocean cruisers. The contributions in the various YBW fora are probably an accurate representation of numbers who get their kicks out of each class.

Not only that, but many of us with larger boats will have had experience in sailing dinghies and small cruisers, so the subject is not without interest to us, and just occasionally we may be able to contribute something useful.

 

[jamie N]

Isn't it quite simple really?
There are boats that are larger than a Folkboat, and there are those that are smaller, and neither of those categories are Folkboats.
Why further complicate it when that's all that anyone needs to know?