Trailer Sailers, How do you do it

[jimbouy]

Having decided to look for a trailer sailer and get back on to the water after too many years i am interested to how the trailer sailers amongst you use your boats.

Do you actually trail it and sail it?

Or do you have year round moorings or perhaps summer moorings.

Where do you lay her up for the winter, on the drive, back yard or at a boat yard.

My problem is this.

I live in Buckinghamshire but have access to a fanily holiday home on the IOW.

I hope to buy a simple small trailer sailor and spend as many weekends as I can down there, together with some longer periods.

In reality I am probably talking a couple of weeks and 8 or so weekends.

Storing the boat in the back garden on the IOW could be done, but access would need improving.

Do I really want to be spending some of my valuable weekends towing, launching and rigging?

On the other hand would the cost of summer moorings and winter storage be silly given how much time i would actually spend there.

could I find someone to share the costs and time?

so many questions i know.

but thanks in advance

( sorry both shift keys are sticky?)

Jim

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[Col]

What about keeping it somewhere like Calshot activities centre. They have a trailor park, so you could keep it on the trailor fully rigged and simply launch it when you want to use it. Also saves a lot of towing.

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[mark_turner]

I have a Juno 560 that I keep on the trailer at Warsash. Sail on average every other weekend plus quite a few evening sails (Friday's after work normally).

The trick is to keep looking for shortcuts in the way you get from the trailer to the sailing - First time around it takes about 3 hours but then reduces and reduces until (For me) it takes 45 minutes from leaving home to being tied to the pontoon, trailer all parked and ready to go. Similar amount of time taken on the way back as well.

Things to watch are:
1 Don't take anything off unless you really need to - my boat goes to the water with fenders on, sheets on mooring lines, outboard motor on its bracket etc.
2 Make sure that you do things in the right order - climb onto the boat just once (don't keep getting on and off to put things into or get things from the car. Don't keep going in and out of the cabin to get shackle key then bottle screw then wind indicator for example)
Come up with some gadgets that help - eg a strops that you can fix from one side of the boat to the trailer saves throwing it over the boat and wandering round to the other side. A wooden support to fix onto the pushpit/pulpit with short lanyards and cleats is a quicker and more secure way of tying down the mast than bits of cloth and long lines.

Once all that is sorted out the advantages are:

* Cheap to run! – I find I spend about
£90 insurance,
£100 maintenance (varnish, paint and re-packing bearings, replacing brake cables)
£100 charts pilots and latest gadgets

* Its great to be able to work on the boat without having to take loads of stuff to the moorings/boat yard – I can pop out to the boat for five minutes work before tea and have all the power tools etc to hand

* The boat doesn’t deteriorate so fast away from the water.

* No worrying on stormy nights.

* Solent sailing is great for trailer sailers – especially with lifting keels as there are so many places to visit for an evening, day or weekend that are harder or impossible to get into with a deep keel – Chichester Harbour, Priory Bay, Newtown Creak, Wareham to name but a very few.

Good luck with your search!

[I also think you'd do well to join up the trail sail association as I think that they give a lot of good advice (I keep meaning to but have now lost the application form)]


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[jimbouy]

Mark

All sounds like excellent advice and food for thought.

Can anyone tell me more about the trail sail association?

Jim

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[Avocet]

We had a Leisure 17 which lived on a trialer in our garden and was sailed either on Windermere or the river Wyre estuary - depending on how the mood took us. It was great not having to antifoul or pay any mooring / storage charges. The boat was easy to tow and launch and rig but, of course, was a bit small. We then got an Evolution 22 which was too big for the garden so it lived at the yacht club on its trailer. (no more free storage but still cheaper than a berth or mooring!) It was a pig to tow and I ended up buying an old Landrover to pull (and more importantly, launch) it with. We towed it to North Wales and enjoyed some good sailing and then we towed it to Fort William and sailed the length of the Caledonian canal. That said, I think we could have chartered a bigger boat for a week for the same price as the fuel the "landie" used dragging it up there! We also sailed it on Windermere a bit in the winter. After a season of doing this, we missed the tide one day and left it overnight in Fleetwood marina. When we came back we were so overjoyed at the luxury of stepping off a nice (non-muddy) pontoon on to a boat that was all ready to go that we just left it there permanently! The Evolution had a more complex rig than the Leisure and it took much longer to set up. It also took longer to put the log impeller in and lower the keel etc. I think the moral of our story is that if you want a trailer sailer, KEEP IT SIMPLE or it ends up being a great deal of trouble for a few hours sailing!

Good luck!

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[mark_turner]

http://www.trail-sail.org.uk/

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[mark_turner]

http://www.trail-sail.org.uk/

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