How big a dinghy for solo launching?

[Old Thady]

I want to get a sailing dinghy for pottering and small excursions in West Cork. The plan is to keep it on a launching trolley and launch from a slip. The problem is that I'll be on my own most of the time. I'd prefer not to need a car and trailer for each launch although this would allow me to cope with more weight. I'm 58 and my strength and fitness is about average for my age. The slip I plan to use is of normal steepness.
I need to strike a compromise between comfort/seaworthiness and manageability. Something like a Wayfarer would be ideal once in the water but might be too heavy to launch or retrieve solo. What do you think is a sensible weight limit for a boat in these circumstances?

 

[Bodach na mara]

When I was (a lot) younger I used to sail 14ft dinghies like GP14s and YW Dayboats and could manage to launch and recover them on my own. These days I would be pushed to manage a Mirror. I am 30 years older than you however.

 

[northwind]

Wanderer is 14ft, and is just about manageable to launch single handed, it's the wayfarers smaller sister.

 

[duncan99210]

Look at fitting a third wheel to the launch trolly: that’d enable you to move something like Wayfarer up an down the slipway without having to support the weight of the boat. Also look at the balance of the trolly, so as to minimise the lifting involved. The I reckon you should be able to cope with a reasonably heavy boat. Wouldn’t want to go much bigger or heavier than a Wayfarer though.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Something like a Heron should be manageable. Although designed for two-up, it's easy to single-hand. Part decked, so it's a capable sea-boat; you sit in them, not on them!

 

[davidpbo]

Pulley on the front of the trailer. Rope tied to fixed point at top of slip. Down through pulley and back ? It doesn't necessarily need to be 2x slip length, would increase the ease of pulling up the slip at the expense of a bit more to rig.

It would effectively nearly half the force needed to pull up which might make the difference if marginal.

 

[dancrane]

This question is one I've considered so many times, including on the forum, that I almost detect I'm being led in to a trap!

I bought a Mk2 Osprey eight years ago. The boat is 20 inches longer than a Wayfarer, similar in appearance, and weighs 140kg+.

I launch and land from a broad, fairly steep concrete slipway, sometimes covered by shingle. If you take nothing else from this post, remember that the smoothness and solidity or softness of the surface the wheels must cross, will be your limit - much more than the boat's weight.

I mostly single-hand the boat, often when nobody from the club is around. It was always my intention to cope without assistance and I tend to politely decline offers to help haul up, because I believe I get better at managing, with practice.

It's a pleasing comparison that the best way to drag a heavy sailing boat up a steep rise, is by diagonal 'beating', turning a tough one-in-six gradient into perhaps a one-in-twenty, on each 'tack'. For that you need a reasonable breadth of slipway. I'm lucky, there.

I did sink a steel tube in the hard ground at the top of the slipway, into which I could drop a heavy pin as an anchor-point; and I have a nice 1:5 tackle to attach, which I'm sure would make it easy to drag up the one-in-six. But I've always managed without.

The following are my reflections:

• Don't be tempted by solid rubber tyres. They seem clever because you'll never have a flat. But solid rubber doesn't deform, so every little unevenness in the path requires the mass of the boat to be pulled over it. I know because I tried them.
• If there are stones on your slipway, keep a shovel at your boat. I shovel a clear path through the gravel on the slipway, and in calm weather it stays clear for several weeks. Even shallow gravel is a very effective brake to progress of a heavy trolley.
• It's worth considering that the best footwear for dinghy-sailing, is not best for hauling out. I wear trapeze-boots for sailing, but they provide zero support for hauling-out, and the effort of attempting to do so led to an ingrowing toenail operation. So I keep a scruffy pair of trainers for landing...the relative ease they bring is remarkable.
• The biggest wheels and tyres you can fit, will make moving the laden trolley much easier. Small trolley wheels are cheap and widely available, because heavy dinghies don't constitute a large market. I'm using standard wheels at the moment, but if bigger, fatter ones (like catamarans use) could be fitted to my trolley, I'd be very tempted. Especially if they were cheaper.

• Wheel-chocks are very handy for when you need a break on a slope, or for parking on the slipway.
• Make sure the trolley's axle is very close to the longitudinal midpoint of the boat's weight, ideally leaving just a couple of kilos of bias towards the nose, so she always rests nose-down. It should be virtually no effort to get the nose off the ground and ready to pull - the effort should be all horizontal.

For that last reason, a jockey-wheel is a fine plan, because all your effort can be concentrated on pushing or pulling the laden trolley. The only reason I haven't yet fitted one, is that the design of my trolley makes it very difficult. I'm going to use an angled piece of large-diameter guttering that will slide over the gravel like a sledge-skid.

I'm not much younger than you, Old Thady, not very tall and deplorably unfit. The Osprey doesn't daunt me because I know I can move her, with forethought. Many people who sail alone are frightened into tiny boats by the question of mobility ashore, but it needn't limit you.

Let us know what design you'd like, launching issues aside. Very likely the business of moving her ashore isn't an obstacle.

 

[westernman]

Pulley on the front of the trailer. Rope tied to fixed point at top of slip. Down through pulley and back ? It doesn't necessarily need to be 2x slip length, would increase the ease of pulling up the slip at the expense of a bit more to rig.

It would effectively nearly half the force needed to pull up which might make the difference if marginal.

It sounds like that a portable electric winch is called for.
May be something like:-

Presumably with some rope you can attach it to a suitable immovable object such as a tree.

I certainly would not want to be trying to get a Wayfarer up an average slip without some kind of assistance. Certainly not after a long hard sail..

 

[Chae_73]

I wouldn't contemplate a Wayfarer; just too heavy.

I recently acquired Hartley 12. It does not confer the same degree of confidence as a Wayfarer does, as it's a lot closer to the water and has an open transom, but it goes well and is really light. It's easier to get up the slip than our GRP tender.

Worth considering. It's quick to get in the water and get going.

 

[DownWest]

The Wanderer mentioned above was for Margaret Dye, who wanted a single handed cruising dinghy.
Lot of fun to be had in a Mirror or Heron. Going bigger, one wants to careful of boats that were designed to be sailed by two, sort of agile, crew. I sail a 15ft faering. Glued ply clinker construction and weighs 70kg without the rig. Launching and recovery is a doddle and I am a 'bit' older than you.

To add: The Keyhaven scow is quite a nice little practical boat. There were a couple in our flotilla in the sail & oar group in a Brittony festival. Seemed to handle the adverse conditions quite well. I expect launching etc is one handed.

 

[richardabeattie]

Docking arms are a real help.

 

[Plum]

Docking arms are a real help.

+1 absolutely!

 

[Plum]

I want to get a sailing dinghy for pottering and small excursions in West Cork. The plan is to keep it on a launching trolley and launch from a slip. The problem is that I'll be on my own most of the time. I'd prefer not to need a car and trailer for each launch although this would allow me to cope with more weight. I'm 58 and my strength and fitness is about average for my age. The slip I plan to use is of normal steepness.
I need to strike a compromise between comfort/seaworthiness and manageability. Something like a Wayfarer would be ideal once in the water but might be too heavy to launch or retrieve solo. What do you think is a sensible weight limit for a boat in these circumstances?

Depends more on the weight of dinghy/trolley, the incline of the slipway and the resistance to rolling(small wheels on shingle versus large wheels on concrete). Also, of course, your strength. 150kg can be a struggle without assistance but using a rope tackle to a post or vehicle and a three wheel trolley makes a huge difference.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[westernman]

What about something more modern and a lot lighter than a Wayfarer.
How about one of these:-


First 14 SE - Sailing yachts For Sale | BENETEAU

 

[ridgy]

The Miracle is quite light, 60kg ish. I have one in my collection and can launch it and sail it single handed with ease even though it is designed for two.
Has a small sheltered cuddy behind the mast as well which is great for keeping things dry. Cheap as well.

Launching and sailing a Wayfarer on your own sounds like a misery and a good reason not to go sailing. Are you sure you could right one singlehanded in a breeze?

 

[dancrane]

The First 14 appears to start at £8,500 secondhand. Just thought I'd mention it. ?

The Keyhaven scow is quite a nice little practical boat. I expect launching etc is one handed.

Interesting idea, and a pretty little boat. I've only encountered one once, on a gusty September club cruise when I had to reef massively, rather than risk a swim...after which, I was overtaken by most participants except the Scow. Cute, though.

I always thought an Albacore would be a good cruiser - with a Firefly mainsail (which is smaller) for windy upwind work. I was warned against many designs because they aren't intended to be raced singlehanded...but if you have no intention of racing, lots of imaginative modification is possible, and a bigger boat, with better comfort and performance, space and seaworthiness, is attractive...

...the 15ft Albacore looks like heavyweight conventional design, but it's far lighter than my 17ft Osprey. As soon as you realise that not all bigger boats are as leaden as Wayfarers, you free yourself to speculate on how much more fun a detuned race-boat can be.

 

[westernman]

...the 15ft Albacore looks like heavyweight conventional design, but it's far lighter than my 17ft Osprey. As soon as you realise that not all bigger boats are as leaden as Wayfarers, you free yourself to speculate on how much more fun a detuned race-boat can be.

The Albacore is 110kg.
The First 14 SE is 70kg.

That is a lot of difference to pull up a slip way on your own.

 

[dancrane]

Yeah, The First 14 is £8,500...that's not new, that's secondhand...

...my Osprey weighs 140kg and cost £350. I heave her out singlehanded, and she makes me and my wallet grin a lot.

 

[alan_d]

A lot of good advice here, particularly with regard to pneumatic tyres and the merits of a jockey wheel. I used to have a GP14 and found it a trial pulling it up the stoney beach near my cottage on the Scottish west coast, so I didn't get as much use out of it as I had hoped. When I retired 15 years ago I acquired a keelboat (Westerly Konsort) which I keep on a swinging mooring off the same stoney beach, but of course the problem has transferred itself to the small rib I use as a boarding-boat. Initially I could pull it up the beach fairly readily on my own, but as the years passed I began to pick my tidal conditions more carefully and was happy on the odd occasion when there was someone around to help. These days, as I approach my 75th birthday, I am grateful for my trolley with a jockey wheel and the portable electric winch. Rigging and unrigging the winch means the process takes longer than if I had a strong assistant, but I can manage it all without difficulty, and without feeling afterwards as if I had just spent half an hour in the gym.

 

[William_H]

Just a bit intrigued by this advice re pneumatic tires. I watch many friends launching dinghies with pneumatic tires and the problem is that the trolley floats. Thus it is difficult to get the dinghy on to the trolley. Surely hard rubber would have no floatation so be easier to get dingy on. Granted if you had a long way to pull your dinghy on trolley pneumatic would be easier. Am I missing something? ol'will