Leisure 17 mast height...and other details (all informed comments welcome)

Greenheart

Greenheart

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 Dec 2010
Messages
10,384
Visit site
Just glancing out of interest, at the very old Leisure 17 brochures, viewable online.

I notice that the standard mast is 20ft, but an 'optional mast' was available at 22ft.

I wonder what most buyers went for? And how far out of their minds today's buyers of these now ancient little yachts would have to be, to start searching round for the racier of the rigs available.

I was surprised that the boat's sails include a 100sq ft genoa, presumably enough to make her shift upwind with another 80sq ft of mainsail.

I've ignored these rather nondescript little boats for thirty years, but they're suddenly starting to look like a nice affordable combination of versatile, compact and competent. Any comments?
 
My father bought a brand new one in 1971, having scrimped and saved to afford it. People did that then, not take out a mortgage to buy a 40 footer as a first boat, like nowadays.

£640 rings a bell, and that was without a rudder. He bought a big piece of mahogany, and spent many hours planing it down to be the same as a factory fitted one ! The engine was a Seagull40 on the transom, with no clutch so was a bit of a handful - that was the first thing to be upgraded to a Century, long shaft with clutch.

I'm afraid I don't recall anything about mast height or sail area, I suspect it was a standard version, being on bilge keels.

Dad, big brother and I as a skinny teenager day sailed, but not enough room to sleep on board despite being called a 4-berth. It was marketed as able to cross the Atlantic, though !

Happy days.
 
I had a Leisure 17SL with the taller rig, they called it the "lake rig". I sailed the boat on the Irish Sea and never found it to be over-canvassed - there were two reefs in the mainsail and I don't remember ever having to use the second. The boat also had a v. big overlapping genoa which I thought would have been better if it was a bit smaller.

I think the Leisure 17, whether the original or the SL version, is a excellent small cruiser. At least one has crossed the Atlantic. It was designed by Arthur Howard who had a talent for designing tubby, roomy little yachts that slipped through the water very easily in spite of their rotund proportions.

Some more info' here: http://www.leisureowners.org.uk/main/content/index.php/leisure17
 
Great, tough little craft. I had some hairy moments, but she always dug in in a blow. I had great fun with mine, and even a few overnighters. Easy to sail solo, cheap to buy and look after. Takes the mud well, so popular in the East. Very good owners website, lots of advice, spareparts and social.
 
Considered a classic on the East Coast.

You see them everywhere.

I had the next one up - a Leisure 20 . Like the leisure 17, great in many ways.

Poor to windward but who cares when everything else works.
 
I know of two L17's up here. Very well respected little boats and very capable. One races regularly, and although it is always last over the line, racing against bigger boats, the handicap system means it wins a few of the races.

The thing that strikes me about them is they are the only boat I have ever seen that sits backwards on it's road trailer (i.e stern towards the tow hitch) both the boats I know have the same trailer so I guess it was the standard design for them at the time.
 
Mine came with the trailer it had been sold with which, as ProDave says, carried the boat stern first. There is a strong tidal flow across our slipway at Glasson with no discernible slack water and recovering the boat onto its trailer was a nightmare. I modified the trailer to carry the boat bow first and added a bow post and a pair of substantial docking arms after which launching and recovery was easy. As has been said: brilliant little boat.
 
Gentlemen, thank you for your input. I'm busy this week but I'll go through all you've said at greater length. as soon as I have time.

The roofline of the 'SL' looks much slicker than the early boats...is it different underwater too? And is there a performance advantage?

Screen_shot_2014_07_14_at_08.32.46.png


I love the fact that this example has oars. Are they for the yacht or the tender, I wonder? :rolleyes:
 
ProDave said:
The thing that strikes me about them is they are the only boat I have ever seen that sits backwards on it's road trailer (i.e stern towards the tow hitch) both the boats I know have the same trailer so I guess it was the standard design for them at the time.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the builder could load them on to the trailer without a crane. Tip the bow of the boat down, and push the hitch of the trailer up, and push the trailer against the keels. Tie it on and pull the trailer back to horizontal.

Grounding the skeg first when the trailer was on the slope of a slip always caused me grief when trying to line up the keels. I only slipped mine once a year so didn't get much practice, and my trailer didn't have docking arms.

Ash
 
ashonavega said:
Grounding the skeg first when the trailer was on the slope of a slip always caused me grief when trying to line up the keels. I only slipped mine once a year so didn't get much practice, and my trailer didn't have docking arms.

Ash
Click to expand...
The Denis Rayner Westerlies went on their trailer backwards too.

We gave hours of entertainment trying to get our Windrush on it's trailer once a year, no docking arms.

3' draught (it may have been 2'6") meant you couldn't see the keels or trailer very well as we were trying to float it on.
This was when they had a winch and no tractor @ Ferry Nab.
 
aquaplane said:
The Denis Rayner Westerlies went on their trailer backwards too.

We gave hours of entertainment trying to get our Windrush on it's trailer once a year, no docking arms.

3' draught (it may have been 2'6") meant you couldn't see the keels or trailer very well as we were trying to float it on.
This was when they had a winch and no tractor @ Ferry Nab.
Click to expand...
aquaplane said:
The Denis Rayner Westerlies went on their trailer backwards too.

We gave hours of entertainment trying to get our Windrush on it's trailer once a year,
Click to expand...
Ditto
"Solitude", our Leisure 17 was our first venture into boating, and I was very inexperienced.
Black trailer, no docking arms, no trailer winch, no trailer location buoy, no wetsuit, no chest high waders.
Not sure why I never thought of leaving someone sitting right up at the bow to get the boat to float at an angle nearer the angle of the trailer.
The slip at Ardlui was too short so I used the beach. The bottom steepened suddenly just about the point where I needed to place the trailer to float on the boat. One year I lost control of the rope and the trailer ran further out into a deep hole and I had to use a drag line to find it again.
Another year someone helped me by using their 4x4 to pull the trailer out of the water, rather than waiting for the yard tractor. They were a bit severe with the clutch and the boat slid back off the trailer.
Happy days!

Ash
 
ashonavega said:
They were a bit severe with the clutch and the boat slid back off the trailer.
Click to expand...

We had a similar experience in the 60s with a Friends Silhouette. We were pushing it down a fairly gentle slipway in Dunbar and when we stopped the trailer the boat slid off the back coming to a rest on her bilge keels. Fortunately no damage was done, and even more fortunately the owner wasn't there to see it.
 
I was kindly given my Leisure 17 by an ex RN shipmate of my dad. They were both on a flower class corvette in WWII - HMS Begamot. Her rescue from 17 years on the hard is told in the August edition of Practical Boat Owner. She is an amazing stable pocket cruiser for her size and we have had great experiences in her sailing out of Newhaven. She coped admirably with an unexpected force 6 (better than we did!). Bringing her back home during the winter to tinker with and modify means she is ready ship-shape for the spring relaunch and keeps me out of mischief. She has the more modest 20' mast which is more than adequate for her 17' length. The large genoa provides her with plenty of canvas. She is quite happy in most conditions with a working jib. A forgiving little boat that has provided me with a great introduction to sea sailing with a lid on and a couple of bits of iron below the water line instead of just a centre-board.
 
Bergamot,

what a great story, I'll try to track that August issue down !

I agree, great boats, way more capable than one might think on paper, and good rewarding sailers too.

A late chum at our club had one - Peter was also a Chief Flying Instructor ( biplanes a speciality ) and I could see his boat ' Tina ' gave him the same pleasure as a Stampe or Tiger Moth, the grin was visible for miles as they tacked around Chichester Harbour - she was a twin keeler but went well to windward.

I always preferred the look of the original rather than SL and the latter would seem to have less headroom forward ?

The grab handle on the forward coachroof was a good idea, as I found out when aboard one in a spot of bother one time.

A genuine classic design.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top