Practicality of owning a trailer sailer - is the extra effort worth it?

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frlrubett

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I have a 23 foot boat on a pontoon mooring, with +/-4hr at HW on the Crouch, Essex. Really like the nearly all tide mooring and the ease of the pontoon to load onto boat. April to November we go out, day saiing, long weekends etc mainly fair weather sailing but have got a bit bored of where you can get in 3 days.

Live on the outskirts of London and have space to store a 24 foot trailer sailer. To get to the crouch takes 1hr 45 but to get to the Solent takes the same. Can also get to Gillinham/Medway quicker. Own a 4x4 with a hitch, have hauled trailers before and launched small boats. The idea of a trailer sailer, like one of the 80s Benetau lift keels is very appealing in threory...

Does anyone have experience of owning a trailer sailer in these parts of the country?
In reality, how much hassle is the whole rig/unrig each time?
Do you find you get out more, choose areas with more suitable wind/tide combinations?
Are good slipways readily available with good "all tide" access?
Has anyone purcahsed a trailer sailer thinking it was a good idea and it sat on the drive after the first few outings!

Thanks
 
I have no experience with your part of the world but have a 20’ trailer sailor. Launch and recovery is a bit of a faff but not really enough to put me off going. The flip side is no marina fees, no anti fouling, freedom to choose your patch and to some extent therefore weather. The key is how well thought out the boat design is. If the designer has got it right and you have developed and practiced a rigging/transit plan it’s a breeze. So on my boat, a Bayraider Expedition with a carbon main and mizzenmast, standing rigging remains fast (except the forestay of course), jib remains furled and rigged, main remains on boom and mizzen on its mast, I can rig and launch in 20 - 30 mins. Recovery a bit longer but will be remedied when I get an electric winch and remote (I mostly singlehand)
 
Some boats are trailable and some are trailer sailers, ease of launching and rigging / mast raising are really key. Also a decent trailer is a must.

Cost wise yes it's cheaper, maintenance at home is great, access to power and tools, without having to fill the car up and then get there and realise you need something you left at home. Maintenance of trailer is the main cost I have, I strip and rebuild the hubs every year, including new bearings and springs for the brakes.

You ideally need a shallow draft and lifting keel to make launching easy,
 
boomerangben said:
I have no experience with your part of the world but have a 20’ trailer sailor. Launch and recovery is a bit of a faff but not really enough to put me off going. The flip side is no marina fees, no anti fouling, freedom to choose your patch and to some extent therefore weather. The key is how well thought out the boat design is. If the designer has got it right and you have developed and practiced a rigging/transit plan it’s a breeze. So on my boat, a Bayraider Expedition with a carbon main and mizzenmast, standing rigging remains fast (except the forestay of course), jib remains furled and rigged, main remains on boom and mizzen on its mast, I can rig and launch in 20 - 30 mins. Recovery a bit longer but will be remedied when I get an electric winch and remote (I mostly singlehand)
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Wow - they look lovely boats
 
You mention the 80s Beneteaus. I had a First 235. Brilliant little boat but very much a “trailable yacht” rather than a true trailer sailer. You want to be able to put the mast up quickly and easily as northwind says. The Hunter Minstrel or Liberty is a good one imo as it’s gunter rigged.
 
boomerangben said:
… The key is how well thought out the boat design is. If the designer has got it right and you have developed and practiced a rigging/transit plan it’s a breeze.
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Very good point this. I worked for a while at a boatbuilders where they made (and still make) the Kite trailer sailer. As in above post everything about that boat is designed to facilitate easy and fast rigging/de-rigging, and she weighs in at 750kg, so nice and easy to tow.
 
In my experience there are not as many launching sites as you think there may be and it is not always easy to find a place to park car and trailer.

If I were going back to trailer sailing (and I'm not) I'd start by making sure I have launching locations that fit the bill roughly where I want them.
 
We had an Etap 22i for 15 years. She was a superb little boat and highly regarded within the UK Trail Sail Association. But she took 4 hours to rig working flat-out so never became the weekender that we had originally thought. But for long weekends and holidays she was superb. We did four Channel crossings in her and towed and sailed all round the UK. Our final trip before we sold her was to the Baltic. Taking your little boat on a big ferry is something special. But the most memorable holiday and one that shows the versatility of a trailer sailor is a Scottish trip where we started by exploring the Clyde then went to Edinburgh on the Forth and Clyde Canal to spend a week at the Edinburgh festival. I miss that boat but get regular updates from the new owners.
 
OP has a 23ft boat .... which is about the same size as max for a good trailer sailer.

Easiest trailer sailers are generally smaller ....

There is a 'brand' boat at 26ft that advertises as THE trailer sailer ..... with water ballast and so on ... but having seen / sailed - I would stay well clear of.

Its a tall order to find a boat of 23ft + that is not a bind to rig / unrig ...

I had an bilge keel Alacrity 19 .... easy enough ... about 1hr to launch / rig and similar to unrig / recover.
I moved up to a triple keel Snapdragon 23 ..... similar 1hr ....

I used to 'work' both boats with wife or one / two young sons. Both boats had full tabernacle pivoting masts.

But they both needed good slipways - which are actually not as common as one thinks.
 
The ideal thing with trailer sailers is to take them somewhere at the start of the season and leave it there fully rigged for use. Then take it home for winter to save costs.

I have a 22 foot on a trailer and wil only move it two or three times a year due to the effort needed to get the mast up which needs not only time but various structures to the support the mast.

I have a friend with a 17 footer on a trailer and just this weekend gone we took it to the menai straits. From getting it out of the water to driving off with it took 2 hours. Strapping everything down, attaching number board etc all takes time and we discussed on the drive home leaving it in a nearby boatyard next season. It's a lot of effort for a weekend.

If you are considering taking it back home after every trip then get a boat that has a mast raising/lowering mechanism built in by the manufacturer. The bayraider mentioned above sounds like it fits this.

24 feet is the upper limit for this and if not carbon will have big heavy mast needing two enthusiastic people to handle it. At that size I would really think about leaving it somewhere for the summer, a different place each year maybe.
 
ridgy said:
The ideal thing with trailer sailers is to take them somewhere at the start of the season and leave it there fully rigged for use. Then take it home for winter to save costs.

I have a 22 foot on a trailer and wil only move it two or three times a year due to the effort needed to get the mast up which needs not only time but various structures to the support the mast.

I have a friend with a 17 footer on a trailer and just this weekend gone we took it to the menai straits. From getting it out of the water to driving off with it took 2 hours. Strapping everything down, attaching number board etc all takes time and we discussed on the drive home leaving it in a nearby boatyard next season. It's a lot of effort for a weekend.

If you are considering taking it back home after every trip then get a boat that has a mast raising/lowering mechanism built in by the manufacturer. The bayraider mentioned above sounds like it fits this.

24 feet is the upper limit for this and if not carbon will have big heavy mast needing two enthusiastic people to handle it. At that size I would really think about leaving it somewhere for the summer, a different place each year maybe.
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Its what I ended up doing .... on mooring for use ... at home for storage ...
 
Refueler said:
OP has a 23ft boat .... which is about the same size as max for a good trailer sailer.

Easiest trailer sailers are generally smaller ....

There is a 'brand' boat at 26ft that advertises as THE trailer sailer ..... with water ballast and so on ... but having seen / sailed - I would stay well clear of.

Its a tall order to find a boat of 23ft + that is not a bind to rig / unrig ...

I had an bilge keel Alacrity 19 .... easy enough ... about 1hr to launch / rig and similar to unrig / recover.
I moved up to a triple keel Snapdragon 23 ..... similar 1hr ....

I used to 'work' both boats with wife or one / two young sons. Both boats had full tabernacle pivoting masts.

But they both needed good slipways - which are actually not as common as one thinks.
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We had a Corsair F27. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll admit. But being a folding tri, she was light, needed little water to launch, and had a mast raising system that worked. 1800kg trailed weight, inc trailer. The factory claimed 20 mins to launch. We never managed that, probably more like 40, but then, we had 2 young kids to deal with too. We towed it with a Subaru Legacy. Bulky on the road, but once you’re rolling, not much hassle. Lots and lots of room compared to most trailer sailers, seaworthy, quick and practical.

Parking a car and trailer, you need to pre plan that for sure. We paid a fair bit in La Trinite once, but otherwise got off lightly, at clubs, or by parking in a public road after launch.
 
Being a trailer sailer owner of over 40 years I can highly recommend them. Firstly however I would consider my intended usage.
If sailing every week in the same location then I perhaps wouldn’t chose a TS as the effort of launching and retrieving can spoil a short day sail unless left fully rigged in a yacht club hard standing area then only requiring the launch and retrieve not the whole job.
Re comments above by Ridgy regarding mast raising on larger TS’s I feel that is not an issue if engineered correctly.
My own 28 foot (almost maximum regular trailable width/length) yacht is a quick one person mast raise due to clever manufacturer systems despite a 30 foot alloy mast. The entire rig, launch, sail away time is well under 60 minutes as is the retrieve but 1.5 to 2 hours is still far too long for several hours sailing in my view.
Unless stored for the sailing season mast up at your sailing destination then I recommend TS’s for those who love changing where they sail often, travelling to distant locations, working at home on their yachts, those without access to a good marina or storage location or those whose cruising grounds are very shallow.
Small trailer sailers can however match many sailing dingy’s set up and pack up times but generally are not as much fun to sail as the dingy’s. I started in Hartley 16’s which are barely more than an oversized planing dingy.
I also sailed a Jarcat 6 (20 foot) trailable catamaran for years and it was an exceptionally quick set up and launch and a very stable sailing/ mini cruising platform capable of taking a number of friends.
My current maximum trailable 28 foot yacht is setup for extended cruising of weeks to months yet remains fully trailable ( behind a 4x4) and capable of accessing unique cruising locations inaccessible to regular yachts. My partner and I have just comfortably completed a 5.5 week living onboard mid Australian Winter cruise.
78166307-0A79-4216-B752-AB36752AA7EC.jpeg
5546F888-58A7-4814-8273-A9A4CF9D0846.jpeg
 
ridgy said:
The ideal thing with trailer sailers is to take them somewhere at the start of the season and leave it there fully rigged for use. Then take it home for winter to save costs.

I have a 22 foot on a trailer and wil only move it two or three times a year due to the effort needed to get the mast up which needs not only time but various structures to the support the mast.

I have a friend with a 17 footer on a trailer and just this weekend gone we took it to the menai straits. From getting it out of the water to driving off with it took 2 hours. Strapping everything down, attaching number board etc all takes time and we discussed on the drive home leaving it in a nearby boatyard next season. It's a lot of effort for a weekend.

If you are considering taking it back home after every trip then get a boat that has a mast raising/lowering mechanism built in by the manufacturer. The bayraider mentioned above sounds like it fits this.

24 feet is the upper limit for this and if not carbon will have big heavy mast needing two enthusiastic people to handle it. At that size I would really think about leaving it somewhere for the summer, a different place each year maybe.
Click to expand...
You could even say the same about a big dinghy like a Wayfarer. Yes, you could trailer to a different locale every week-end, but you might get more sailing in if you left her somewhere rigged and ready and didn't have to faff about getting the mast up and down every time you wanted to go out.
 
My first boat was a Leisure 17. I thought I would be able to trail and launch for each sailing session, but quickly found that even with its minimal draught, the local slipway , at Malahide, was impractical, requiring quite a high tide to launch, and by the time it was rigged it was Low Water and the bar was impassable. I had to resort to launching and leaving it on a mooring. To launch, I parked the trailer on a little beach beside the slipway( contrary to bye-laws), and await the rising tide to float the boat off the trailer, whereupon I retrieved it using a line previously laid out, with the boat tied temporarily to the side of the slipway. Consequently, the search for a parking place for van and trailer was frantic.
Recovery was the reverse procedure, but getting the keels lined up with the channels on the trailer required going into the water. Cold water does not appeal to me, so needless to say the second season's recovery was done by crane at Howth Yacht Club?.
 
Maybe take a look into polish boats. Not many on the second hand market but very easy to rig. Those have A frame as sailing on polish lake district require lowering mast quite often. If you are interested I can send some videos.
Also you can fit A frame to any boat.
 
My favourite for UK would be Maxus 22. Plenty of space inside and its fin keel version circumnavigated the world twice - in 2018 non-stop.
 
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