Silhouette or Skipper 17

ImSteve

ImSteve

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Hi all... Me and the mrs have been dinghy sailing on the Crouch/Blackwater and have decided to get some thing a bit bigger with a keel, so I have been looking at small yachts for a couple of months now and I have whittled it down to a choice of two, The Skipper 17 and the Silhouette..Whilst there is plenty to read on the Skipper there is not much on the Silhouette, and that includes the Hurley owners website..The mrs likes the Silhouette because she says its looks pretty, But I'm not buying a boat just on its looks..So Is there anyone that could tell me about the pros and cons of the Silhouette please, I sure would appreciate it... Thanks Steve
 
No-ones chipped in yet so I'll start. I haven't actually sailed either so this is not very useful but I have seen them sailing one owned by a chum once and the Silhouette looked the better sailor to me. That might just have be because of who was sailing them. The Skipper will be gliberfast and the Silhouette - are they not all plywood? In which case condition will be important.
 
My mate has a leisure 17. Have you looked at these? Cracking little thing in all respects, he clocks up many hundreds of miles a year up and down the Blackwater.

I like the skipper and it's later version whose name I forget but avoid plywood if you just want to sail it and forget it!!
 
I was also going to suggest a Leisure 17. An often under-rated little boat, but can be excellent performers.
Try and scrounge a sail on all three and let the boat tell you which is best, don't listen to the owners, they lie.:D
 
DanTribe said:
I was also going to suggest a Leisure 17. An often under-rated little boat, but can be excellent performers.
Try and scrounge a sail on all three and let the boat tell you which is best, don't listen to the owners, they lie.:D
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Wot he says is all true.

Do look at the Leisure 17.

I have some other options if you don't find one of those that you are looking for. Like a Hunter Europa.
 
Both great boats but the Robert Tucker designed Silhouette is a proper seagoing little yacht. Not all were built in ply. Try and find a GRP Mk 3. iirc it has rounded bilges rather than the hard chine of the ply examples. A couple of Silhouettes have crossed the Atlantic. Plus the looks, I've always thought were wonderful and well proportioned. Leisure 17s are also tough little boats so another vote for that from this corner too. If a good example of either came up I'm sure it would suit your needs.

There is a Silhouette site at http://www.soia.org.uk/ if you haven't seen it yet

These boats would have cost over £2k secondhand twenty years ago but decent examples can now be found for half that and there are a lot of bilge keel, 20ft, 1 ton boats selling for around £1k. If one crops up nearby, something like a Seawych may be larger to tow but gives more space below. Similarly Alacrity, Hurley 18 & 20, although if you envisage launching and recovering very frequently then the extra hassle may not be worth it. Two of us launched a Leisure 17 in a few minutes from slipway to jetty this summer; Silhouettes and Skippers should launch and recover as easily. Anything bigger and you start needing deeper water, greater pull from a bigger vehicle, more load on the winch and control lines etc etc.

In a way, the Skipper and Silhouette are designed to different briefs. Skipper offers lots of accommodation, shallow draft lifting keels for inshore pottering, creek crawling and easy launch. The Silhouette is a cramped yacht with fixed bilge keels. Skipper generally gets towed to new sailing grounds whereas the Silhouette would be quite capable of some serious UK / European sailing given the right helmsman.

Whatever you get, I'm sure you'll enjoy the extra sailing options that the keel(s) and cabin offer.
 
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There is a very nice Sailfish 18 (lifting keel) for sail sitting on the hard just over the water from us at the Orwell Yacht Club. Everything has been done to her (new mast, sails, keel, trailer, hull respray, interior refit, etc) so she's like brand new but £10k less than the new ones. PM me and I'll send you a link. Not mine but know the owner.
 
Ok, I'm going to put my tin hat on now and duck :cool: .. After watching the local squibs racing I started looking at Oliver Lee designs, and have discovered the Hunter 19/Europa, (was it ever lost ?) So the wife and I are on a mission to have a look at one in the flesh. One thing I wont be doing is just walking up to a Hunter and checking it out without the owners permission, My friend and I was asked by another friend to have a look at his boat in Rochford whilst he was away, we did as we was asked and then spent 15 minutes explaining to two police officers what we was doing there as someone had spotted us and did not know us.. We still don't know who called the police but well done that person, it's nice to know that someone is watching, even if it did cause us a uncomfortable few mins at the hands of the law ....

We are 99% sure that the Hunter Europa is the boat for us as it seems to meet all our requirements, We have choosen the Tri keel out of the two because knowing us we are bound to run aground, Though I am lead to understand that they don't settle to level on soft mud.. Also we will be transporting it on trailer and having retrieved bilge keelers before I'm quite happy with this setup.

Many thanks for the reply's guys, we totally appreciate you took the time to aid our quest ..
 
ImSteve said:
Ok, I'm going to put my tin hat on now and duck :cool: .. After watching the local squibs racing I started looking at Oliver Lee designs, and have discovered the Hunter 19/Europa, (was it ever lost ?) So the wife and I are on a mission to have a look at one in the flesh. One thing I wont be doing is just walking up to a Hunter and checking it out without the owners permission, My friend and I was asked by another friend to have a look at his boat in Rochford whilst he was away, we did as we was asked and then spent 15 minutes explaining to two police officers what we was doing there as someone had spotted us and did not know us.. We still don't know who called the police but well done that person, it's nice to know that someone is watching, even if it did cause us a uncomfortable few mins at the hands of the law ....

We are 99% sure that the Hunter Europa is the boat for us as it seems to meet all our requirements, We have choosen the Tri keel out of the two because knowing us we are bound to run aground, Though I am lead to understand that they don't settle to level on soft mud.. Also we will be transporting it on trailer and having retrieved bilge keelers before I'm quite happy with this setup.

Many thanks for the reply's guys, we totally appreciate you took the time to aid our quest ..
Click to expand...

See, told you so.:cool:


And I winter at Rochford, and could probably tell you who called the Rozzers.....
 
Burnham lifeboat station did a refurb of a Hunter 19 [Barangoola?], then raised money by raffling it at London Boat Show.
Good choice, have fun.
 
And another one to throw into the Pot.

Express Pirate . I had one, my first proper boat (ie one that does not capsize and stick its mast in the bottom the Blackwater!!!!).

Nice and lively (Dinghy with a lid as I was often told) and as much room as you would need for an overnight.

I think that that my old one may be for sale at near Millbeach. (Pugwash was its name)
 
UncleAlbert said:
And another one to throw into the Pot.

Express Pirate . I had one, my first proper boat (ie one that does not capsize and stick its mast in the bottom the Blackwater!!!!).

Nice and lively (Dinghy with a lid as I was often told) and as much room as you would need for an overnight.

I think that that my old one may be for sale at near Millbeach. (Pugwash was its name)
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I had a Silhouette 11 as my first real yacht, nxt was a Prelude, well recommended, 4 berths too. I just had hull & deck mouldings the interior was trad fit-out
 
Also recommend the Manta 19, lifting keel, one has done the trip to Belgium. Nice open plan layout and jolly quick.
 
ImSteve said:
... I have whittled it down to a choice of two, The Skipper 17 and the Silhouette..
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Hello, Eastcoasters. Just passing through, being nosey.

We (my family) had a Skipper 17. In fact, we had the very first one - the prototype built for the London Boat Show. The great thing about it was the enormous cockpit - great for family sailing. The cabin was OK as small cabins go; quite light, not a great deal of room because of the huge cockpit. Ours didn't have a forehatch but every other one I have seen has, which must improve foredeck access a lot.

The bad thing was the sailing. Pernicious lee helm, thoroughly unpleasant. I hope they got that sorted and in fact presume they did, because I can't believe it would have stayed around for so long (can you still buy an Eagle 525?) without improvement. We had a single lifting keel; perhaps the twin lifting keels are better.

As an alternative, can I suggest another Oliver Lee design - a Hunter 490? It's the Hunter 19's wee sister, but has a lifting keel with a big cast iron bulb, just like the Anderson 22. The cabin is small and the sailing performance is delightful. Quite the nicest handling boat I have ever sailed. And no, sorry, my 490 is most emphatically not for sale!
 
Hi Steve,

Good choice! I own a Hunter Europa and our main sailing area is the East Coast. (I had a 490 previously) The Europa is a beautiful sailer, fast for its size, very confidence inspiring and beautifully balanced. I would recommend the Europa over the 19 for it's greater headroom and the smaller, safer self-draining cockpit. Let us know how you get on.

Jon


Eh up Jumbleduck, been a while :-)
 
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JumbleDuck said:
Hello, Eastcoasters. Just passing through, being nosey.

As an alternative, can I suggest another Oliver Lee design - a Hunter 490? It's the Hunter 19's wee sister, but has a lifting keel with a big cast iron bulb, just like the Anderson 22. The cabin is small and the sailing performance is delightful. Quite the nicest handling boat I have ever sailed. And no, sorry, my 490 is most emphatically not for sale!
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Thanks for that JumbleDuck, Now I want one of those as well !! :D .. And not only the 490, I also like the look of the Hunter Tracer, and the Sandhopper....Perhaps I should open a museum in Burnham dedicated to Oliver Lee boats :rolleyes:
 
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