Newbie seeks advice - buying a westerley Centaurer 26

[vertford]

Big up a Pageant

Like the OP, I was looking last winter for my first boat and the Centaur was on the list along with Snapdragons, Offshore 8m and Hurleys. I spent a good fews weekend going and clambering all over various boats at used boat shows. I settled on a Pageant, 23ft, as bizarrely I can fit comfortably in the forecabin and in the Centaur it was very difficult. I am 6ft 6". Obviously depends if kids are in the picture as part of the crew. Very happy with my pocket cruiser and came in a around £7k so have some £££ for those things that crop up. HAd a cracking sail today and no problems for the first timers in the crew.

 

[Ubergeekian]

A sailing boat which happens to have an engine on board for confined spaces and lack of wind is not a motorsailer.

Indeed. That's a gentlemanly auxiliary. But a sailing boat with a great big engine used whenever the wind is in the wrong direction - that's a motorsailer, in my book. All those 35 footers with 40hp engines ...

 

[roadsterfun]

So how big is an engine to be 'qualified' as a motorsailer.

A 24' Centaur with a 23hp engine can easily fall into this catagory right althoug I have the impression that it is more a sail yacht than motorsailer. Or it is more to do with the appearance e.g. wheelhouse?

 

[Lakesailor]

I would have put some form of wheelhouse as part of the definition of a motorsailer.
It's surely a cross between a motor boat and a yacht, or indeed a motorboat with auxiliarly sails.

 

[roadsterfun]

Arrh. I think it is clearer to me now ....

A sail yacht is a sailing boat with an auxilliary engine and a motorsailer is a motor boat (with a wheelhouse or some sort) with auxilliary sails?

So a purpose build small sailing boat (like the 24' Centaur) with a powerful 23hp engine may have the advantage of having the best of both world?

 

[prv]

Like many things to do with boats and sailing, it eludes precise definition.

One knows a motorsailer when one sees it.

Especially if one wants to be rude about it

Pete

 

[Lakesailor]

Especially if one wants to be rude about it

Pete

Why would you do that?

 

[prv]

Indeed. That's a gentlemanly auxiliary. But a sailing boat with a great big engine used whenever the wind is in the wrong direction - that's a motorsailer, in my book. All those 35 footers with 40hp engines ...

And here's me annoyed at having to fire up the donk to get out of Langstone harbour this morning. But there's a hell of a tide through there I wasn't expecting (not been there before, though I spose it should have been obvious from the geography) and I was standing still under sail. Closehauled; on the beam I might have managed to make some progress.

Still, after that I sailed all the way up to within pissing distance of my pontoon at the top of the Itchen, so it evens out. Sailing onto my marina berth might be slightly reckless, but maybe one day, when the tide's cooperating...

Pete

 

[Tranona]

So how big is an engine to be 'qualified' as a motorsailer.

A 24' Centaur with a 23hp engine can easily fall into this catagory right althoug I have the impression that it is more a sail yacht than motorsailer. Or it is more to do with the appearance e.g. wheelhouse?

The Centaur is 26ft, not 24. The reason later ones had 23hp was quite simple. The earlier 10 was rather marginal and Volvo did not make a size between that and the 23! Suspect also that Volvo were only too pleased to keep the price down because of the volume. Replacement engines are usually 18 (Yanmar) or 20 (Beta, Nanni).

As others have said, distinctions as to "types" are often blurred but once you have a bit of experience you will be able to make your own distinctions.

 

[Searush]

Definitions change over time & space (location) but Lakey's is one that people of our generation will recognise. The Centaur hull and keel config was tank tested to optimise what were then still a fairly new idea (Lord Ravenscroft's [?] Bluebird of Thorne seems to have been the first twin keeler.)

She was designed as a sailing boat with family accomodation, suitable for the cheaper drying moorings. Sales of ove 2,000 show just how successful she was. You don't get that level of sails without current owners praising them.