Dinghy, trailer sailer, yacht?

suffolklass said:
Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm actually a she :-P

Happy to send the kids off to dinghy sail, but I much prefer cruising (and husband is only really keen on bigger boats, he's not a dinghy fan). From my childhood the bit I looked forward to the most was going exploring in a boat (I basically wanted to be the swallows and amazons) and where we are it's reservoirs. Which are fine, and we do have a small dinghy so we can go sailing on them, but that's not really what we want to go sailing for.

Any suggestions on small boats with lids greatly appreciated. So far I have hunter 490 and leisure 17 on my possibles list (with something bigger when we can afford it).
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Bradwell 18, (I sailed mine 1200 miles from cumbria) tough wee boats, lesiure 20? seawych 19? foxcub, vivacity 20 , hurely 22, ?
 
steve yates said:
Bradwell 18, (I sailed mine 1200 miles from cumbria) tough wee boats, lesiure 20? seawych 19? foxcub, vivacity 20 , hurely 22, ?
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Thanks, some really interesting suggestions. I think we'll be limited by the towing capacity of the car we can afford when we replace our current one, so the lighter the better. I love the Vivacity 20, we had one when I was little, but with a whole load of tat and a road trailer as well I wonder if it would be a bit on the heavy side for any sort of car we can afford (ie not a Land Rover sadly!). Thinking the other 20 footers probably the same... The Bradwell 18 looks really good though and not too heavy, looks like you might be able to squeeze 2 teenies in there as well as 2 adults for an overnight or two! There don't seem to be many for sale though so the Leisure 17 is still looking more likely. Same question as I asked earlier about the keel I guess - is the lifting keel ok for drying out? I liked the bilge keels on the Leisure 17 for that reason (and I think they might be easier to get to for maintenance and spotting problems etc) but would be up for a lifting keel as long as I had the confidence it could sometimes take the ground without problems.
 
langstonelayabout said:
Then all of the knowledge you need is between the covers of 'The Art of Coarse Cruising'.

If you are entering/leaving Portsmouth Harbour please make all efforts to avoid my boat...
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Sounds like the book for me :-P

Seriously though, I wonder how many people end up buying the same type of boat they sailed in as a child? I am starting to feel like I've come full circle, it's weird...
 
My bradwell is fine for drying our on mud etc, it sits level on its stub keel. On hard sand/shingle it lists about 20-30 degrees to one side, which might be a pain if there are 4 in it, but easily manageable on my own.

I towed my bradwell from essex to cumbria and back in a 1.8l toyota with an unbraked trailer. I suspect it should have been braked once the weight of outboard,kit etc in the back of the car was included, but no one stopped me.
 
One thing to consider, trailer sailers, as such, should more often be considered trailerable boats. It would piis me off mightily to have to rig and unrig my bradwell everytime I went sailing. bEST TO THINK OF THE TRAILER AS A MEANS TO DELIVER THEM TO A CRUISING GROUND FOR A SEASON AND BRING THEM BACK AT THE END OF IT.
 
steve yates said:
bugger, excuse the caps, never noticed that!
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You're making a very forceful point there... :-)

I agree, it can even be a pain with a dinghy so I definitely wouldn't want to launch and retrieve a bigger boat every time! Current thought is that with v young kids (the youngest is only 1 atm) we'd be likely to keep a boat on one of the lakes to cut down on journey times and to get them used to sailing - but then maybe tow to Suffolk or elsewhere for a couple of weeks' holiday at a time. Which would be annoying but ok on occasion. If we moved over to West Cumbria we'd probably get a bigger boat for longer family adventures (yes, I'm on my way to being convinced about the merits of the Solway Firth :-P). Definitely not up for a permanently trailer sailing existence!

Good to know about the towing. I was wondering what it works out at in reality, once you've added on all the extra stuff and the weight of the trailer. Think we'd go for a braked trailer anyway but sounds as if a standard large car might be ok for towing!

If in a couple of years you find yourself wanting to sell your Bradwell do let me know :-P
 
suffolklass said:
Any suggestions on small boats with lids greatly appreciated. So far I have hunter 490 and leisure 17 on my possibles list (with something bigger when we can afford it).
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The Skipper Mariner / Skipper 17 / Eagle 525 (and maybe other names) could be worth a look. Small but airy cabin, four berths, nice big cockpit, appearance vaguely reminiscent of an amiable dolphin.
 
As a Micro 18 sailer I feel obliged to point out Swift 18, Beneteau 18 etc. All fine wee boats - if you wanted something a bit quicker a Gem like mine might suit or any other of the Micro 18s available.
 
A Leisure 17 weighs 670 kg. Almost any car will tow that. A well respected little boat. You can pick them up for peanuts, I mean several hundred pounds. Good to look on sailing club notice boards or by asking around as well as Internet sites, brokers won’t be interested in selling them at that price!
A trailer might cost you more! If you are lucky they will come with one. They sit on their trailer backwards.
 
Tam Lin said:
They sit on their trailer backwards.
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... which makes it awkward to recover them onto the trailer on a slipway. You can easily modify the trailer to take them bow-first, add a bow post and an outrigger to support the skeg. Add a couple of docking arms to centre the boat over the trailer and launching and recovery becomes easy. I used to routinely launch & recover my Leisure 17 from the slipway at Glasson S.C. (where there is a strong cross-tide) behind a 1400 cc car.
 
PeteCooper said:
As a Micro 18 sailer I feel obliged to point out Swift 18, Beneteau 18 etc. All fine wee boats - if you wanted something a bit quicker a Gem like mine might suit or any other of the Micro 18s available.
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Thanks, I'll check them out! Given our current car's towing capacity it'll be a while till we graduate from a 12' dinghy...
 
JimC said:
... which makes it awkward to recover them onto the trailer on a slipway. You can easily modify the trailer to take them bow-first, add a bow post and an outrigger to support the skeg. Add a couple of docking arms to centre the boat over the trailer and launching and recovery becomes easy. I used to routinely launch & recover my Leisure 17 from the slipway at Glasson S.C. (where there is a strong cross-tide) behind a 1400 cc car.
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That's good to know, thanks!
 
Thank you so much for all the advice and suggestions! After talking about replacing our car on here I thought I'd jinxed it when the gears seized up the other day, but it lives to fight another day... it'll be a while before we can afford a car that can tow a bigger boat but we've got a good list of possibles - will depend on what's available at the time but sounds like there are some really good options! Thanks all.
 
If you wanted a go on an 18 footer you are welcome to have a go on mine. It is towards the livelier end of the spectrum but would give you a feel for the reality of sailing a small boat.
 
PeteCooper said:
If you wanted a go on an 18 footer you are welcome to have a go on mine. It is towards the livelier end of the spectrum but would give you a feel for the reality of sailing a small boat.
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Likewise, if you want to spend a day playing with a Drascombe Longboat on freshwater in SW Scotland (an hour from the M6 at Gretna) please drop me a PM.
 
@PeteCooper and @JumbleDuck, thanks very much! We're quite a way from both of you so probably not at the moment but if we're ever up that way I'll pm you :-)
 
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