Westerly Centaur - To buy or not to buy?

I towed my Westerly 25 with a Range Rover quite easily. From Wales to home 100 miles & the following seson, home to Dumbarton (300 miles) but the W25 is only about 1/2 the weight of a Centaur.

We still saw an accident on the opposite carriageway of the M6 as some idiot watched me & failed to notice that the car in front had stopped! :rolleyes:
 
Towing

Couple of thoughts
I had a discovery towing a twin axle caravan at half that weight wasn't much fun..if you break down ? Will any of the recovery services pick up the trailer with that length and weight ?
Launching it ..three half foot keel plus hight of trailer plus 6 to twelve inches water depth. What depth water is your vehicle going to be in..
Stepping the mast each time you launch .. Not to mention issues your insurance companies may have.
Chris
 
wjmarks said:
Yes I know how heavy it is and I also know that I will be using a trailer along with my land rover discovery (which is plated up to around 4 tons) to tow it down the road..

Westerly Centaur Displacement (lb): 6,700
Land Rover Discovery II Towing capacity up to (lb) 7,700 and a built-in Class III hitch

Leaving (lb) 1000 for weight of trailer (Which is just under)

Maths lesson over...
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Thanks for the maths lesson! Now for a reality lesson. As Aquaplane has said, Centaurs tend to be heavier than their design weight. And the 6700 lbs displacement excludes any additional kit fitted. It leaves very little leeway for the trailer/boat combination to be within the 3500kg limit (and if your trailer's only 1000 lbs, it sounds a bit lightweight). In addition, you need to be very careful about the max nose weight limit. And, of course, you'll be very close to exceeding the max gross train weight - this is the crucial bit, because if the police decide to stop you they'll just escort you to a weighbridge and check. If you're over, you could be facing dangerous driving charges.
 
Chris.mcc240 said:
Couple of thoughts
I had a discovery towing a twin axle caravan at half that weight wasn't much fun..if you break down ? Will any of the recovery services pick up the trailer with that length and weight ?
Launching it ..three half foot keel plus hight of trailer plus 6 to twelve inches water depth. What depth water is your vehicle going to be in..
Stepping the mast each time you launch .. Not to mention issues your insurance companies may have.
Chris
Click to expand...

I will just be moving it about 80 miles and then launching it and puting it onto a swinging mooring from April to September, I will then lift it out again and tow it 300m approx to the boat park.

If yous look on youtube there is a video of 2 guys putting one onto a modified car transporter and towing it with a pickup truck - did it end in disaster or not? have a look!! As for breaking down - cross that bridge when I come 2 it - me da's a Land rover mechanic...:)
 
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I have seen all sorts of stories of folks towing boats on car trailers in the USA, it doesn't mean it's legal here.

A Landrover will easily tow a Centaur on a good trailer, but it won't be legal and insurance won't be valid.

The TSA folk had a good discussion late last year about which recovery firm would cover a boat/trailer combo, I can't remember which ones would do it but not all will and it was about £80 extra.

Edit, Assuming that a yard trolley is OK for the 300yds to the compound, use a transport company to do the 80 mile trip using the cash you save by only buying a yard trolley insted of a road legal trailer.
 
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Stop the banter

Thanks for all the Positive posts but I dont want to turn this thread into a slanging match, and need to keep on topic, just looking for info on dimensions to modify a trailer, does anyone have these to hand?
 
aquaplane said:
A Landrover will easily tow a Centaur on a good trailer, but it won't be legal and insurance won't be valid.
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Let's not be too pessimistic here. RM Trailers explicitly mention the Centaur on their trailers-for-bilge-keelers page, so it is presumably possible to tow them. Mind you, 1,000lb is not much for a decent trailer and that's all you have when the boat's empty.
 
Ubergeekian said:
Let's not be too pessimistic here. RM Trailers explicitly mention the Centaur on their trailers-for-bilge-keelers page, so it is presumably possible to tow them. Mind you, 1,000lb is not much for a decent trailer and that's all you have when the boat's empty.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link - I will check that out.
 
Distance between keels, on the outside, is 2.210m, or 7' 3" in old money. Well it is on mine.

Sorry I couldn't get it earlier, yesterday was a write off because of the heavy rain.
 
pvb said:
Wouldn't the beam of a Centaur exceed the max legal trailer width?
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I believe that the maximum width allowed for a trailer towed by a conentional privete vehicle, such as a Range Rover or non-commercial Discovery, is 2.3m (i.e. 7' 6"). However the load can overhang the trailer by up to 305mm (12") each side. So a boat of up to 9' 6" beam could be towed, The Centaur is said to have a beam of 8' 5".

Some good info here.

I doubt that the weight of a standard Centaur in cruising trim but empty of water and fuel is much less than 4 tons. The stated displacement of a Centaur is 2.94 tons but this figure seems unlikely to have ever been accurate. For example our own Westerly (built in 1984), without mast or stores or fuel or water, was 27% over its stated displacement.

I agree with the opinions above regarding legality of towing but of course many people ignore motoring law and are seldom caught.
 
Coaster said:
I believe that the maximum width allowed for a trailer towed by a conentional privete vehicle, such as a Range Rover or non-commercial Discovery, is 2.3m (i.e. 7' 6"). However the load can overhang the trailer by up to 305mm (12") each side. So a boat of up to 9' 6" beam could be towed, The Centaur is said to have a beam of 8' 5".
Click to expand...

I did a wee bit of digging into this a while back. As far as I can remember, the maximum permissible width, like the maximum permissible length, may be exceeded for trailers specially constructed to carry a single indivisible load. Thus glider trailers are normally over 7m long and a Centaur trailer could be more than 2.3m wide.

There are some width restrictions hinted at on the website you cite: again as I recall there is a limit above which you must tell the police in advance and another above which you must have (and pay for?) an escort.

Most trailer and towing websites ignore these possibilities - I presume because they are mainly selling general purpose trailers to carry collections of things and therefore the special load rules don't apply.
 
Ubergeekian said:
There are some width restrictions hinted at on the website you cite: again as I recall there is a limit above which you must tell the police in advance and another above which you must have (and pay for?) an escort.
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There are some rules here. I haven't read them in detail but was fascinated to see the references to loads over 147 tons in weight and more than 20' wide. I don't think that even the heaviest Westerly would fall into those categories.

Incidentally, when we had our boat (beam 12' 3") moved by road 2 years ago the contractor had to give notice to the police and required an escort vehicle for the single carriageway roads but not the motorways and dual crriageways.
 
Centaur weight

When mine was lifted over my bungalow and into my back garden the banksmen recorded a reading of 1.82 tonnes and that was just the hull and deck moulding nothing in it no keels rudder nothing no engine tanks just the grp so all up it has to be 4ton at least
 
I have just bought a Centaur on a trailer. Wouldn't even think of pulling it with a 4x4. If anyone is interested in the trailer it is for sale. Ex lorry bed with heavy duty locating brackets for the Centaur and ring hitch for a tractor. This will not be an expensive trailer.

If I still have it in Summer 2022 I will build a fabulous shepherd's hut on it to pull around my farm.
 
Howard1952 said:
I have just bought a Centaur on a trailer. Wouldn't even think of pulling it with a 4x4. If anyone is interested in the trailer it is for sale. Ex lorry bed with heavy duty locating brackets for the Centaur and ring hitch for a tractor. This will not be an expensive trailer.

If I still have it in Summer 2022 I will build a fabulous shepherd's hut on it to pull around my farm.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum

Firstly it is better to start a new thread than one that has been dead for 10 years.

Secondly your post is breaching the forum rules by offering for sale an item. You can place an advert for up to £400 on this site for free.

Thirdly you would find joining the Westerly Owners Association (https://westerly-owners.co.uk/) worth the £17.50 anual fee.
 
Concerto said:
Welcome to the forum

Firstly it is better to start a new thread than one that has been dead for 10 years.

Secondly your post is breaching the forum rules by offering for sale an item. You can place an advert for up to £400 on this site for free.

Thirdly you would find joining the Westerly Owners Association (https://westerly-owners.co.uk/) worth the £17.50 anual fee.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the useful advice. I would be happy with £400 for the trailer once I have the Centaur launched next season. I know that I could get more for it as a farmer's trailer for silage bales but it has been customized for a Centaur and it would be a pity to waste that work.

I will definitely join the owners club. I am also a co owner of a very smart Windrush that was initially owned by a director of Westerly. That sails in Cardigan Bay and the Centaur will sail from the Towy estuary.
 
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