What is the difference between . . . .

sailorman said:
motor sailer + big engine

Aux ketch has a small Auxiliary engine to enter & leave Hbr
Click to expand...
Strictly true but in reality there is a much bigger difference.

A 'motor sailer' generally has an enclosed wheelhouse and is heavy and a relatively poor performer under sail.

It doesn't have to be so but that is what people expect.
 
As far as I am concerned any engine fitted to a sailing yacht is an auxiliary. Thus an auxiliary ketch is simply a ketch fitted with an engine. A motor sailer is by definition intended to motor as much as it sails, and will generally have bigger engine and a smaller rig than an equally sized normal yacht. The term "auxilliary ketch" implies nothing about the relative utility of engine and sails, in my opinion.
 
The meaning of these terms change over time and depend on who is using them and what they want to convey.

For example, 30 years ago a 36 ft "motorsailer" such as a Barbary or a Halbedier would have typically a 42 hp Perkins or Mercedes and be considered more a motor boat. A contemporary 36 ft sailing yacht would probably have a 23 hp Volvo "auxiliary" - which traditionalists at the time might have said was much too powerful. Previous generation 30+ footers often had puny ST 8hp! Now slippery 36 ft AWBs will commonly have a 40hp Volvo or Yanmar and motor just as well as a "motor sailer" of the old type. A Nauticat 35 has a Yanmar 55 and a HR 37 a Volvo 55.

The differentiation to me is more about the sailing ability of the boat than the motor.
 
snowleopard said:
Strictly true but in reality there is a much bigger difference.

A 'motor sailer' )generally has an enclosed wheelhouse and is heavy and a relatively poor performer under sail.

It doesn't have to be so but that is what people expect.
Click to expand...

It is probably what the unenlightened expects.
How do you judge relative poor performance under sail ? Is there a set standard to go by ?
I only ask because I live on and own such a long keeled steel heavy old girl ketch and even single handed, can in the right winds, show a heel to many of today's go-faster plastic fully crewed wizz-kids.

And we do it without the compulsory correct make of sunglasses they wear in dense fog in mid January.
 
The difference to you, as the crew, might be more apparent in say January or 2 crappy weeks of August weather in the Western Isles..
The old Westerly Renown was an auxiliary ketch - a sailing boat but with a bit more oomph under power..
Whereas an old Salar 40 has enough weight, diesel and hp under motor to lump it into pretty much anything in motorboat comfort from within a stout half wheelhouse -and has the long keel/Laurent Giles pedigree to sail off across the seas very respectably too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top