JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
They have sold a metric shedload of them. They clearly meet a market need and give people fun.
What's the worst sailing boat?
- Thread starter PabloPicasso
- Start date
They have sold a metric shedload of them. They clearly meet a market need and give people fun.
Racecruiser
Well-Known Member
I was wondering when the MacGregor would come along - I've never sailed one so can't really say but if anyone was to offer I would have a full diary.
The Sunsail 36 was a bit of a pig as I recall from a corporate sailing day - kept spinning out and was slow for a 36 footer. Then I did another day a couple of years later on a 37 and that was better. I daresay the current 40s go pretty well.
The Sunsail 36 was a bit of a pig as I recall from a corporate sailing day - kept spinning out and was slow for a 36 footer. Then I did another day a couple of years later on a 37 and that was better. I daresay the current 40s go pretty well.
Puggy
Well-Known Member
A couple of winters ago we were moored up next to her on the infamous N pontoon at Port Solent. N pontoon is bandit country: no gate security and right underneath the restaurants and bars with all the "local colour" that entails. The popular sport in port Solent seems to be to take a handful of (large) pebbles out of the flower beds and then lob them at the boats whilst you are enjoying your pint of Stella/diamond white/whatever... I used to find large rocks all over my deck when I came down to the boat in the morning. I now make it a contractual obligation that I am not on N pontoon. I would imagine that lively lady couldn't take any more of this....
Puggy
muyuu
Well-Known Member
It's an old unsinkable dinghy made of wood and thick GRP. It's comfortable and can take 3-4 sailors easily. I sail a 49er too, different beast. Now, compare it with a yacht and very few will do 10+ knots on a breeze. It's relative to what you want to do.
At what it is, the Bosun is fine. A modern wayfarer is better, but the other comparisons you are making are simply pointless.
Iain C
Well-Known Member
Agreed, but you were saying a Bosun is a "very fast boat" and compares well on PY to other modern dinghy designs. It doesn't! You sent the link to the PY spreadsheet which confirms this. Of course it's going to compare well to some yachts...it's a dinghy, but you were comparing it to other dinghies, not yachts. We're going to have to agree to disagree, Bosuns are not fast and high sheet loads does not equal fast boat. 
southseaian
Well-Known Member
Agreed, but you were saying a Bosun is a "very fast boat" and compares well on PY to other modern dinghy designs. It doesn't! You sent the link to the PY spreadsheet which confirms this. Of course it's going to compare well to some yachts...it's a dinghy, but you were comparing it to other dinghies, not yachts. We're going to have to agree to disagree, Bosuns are not fast and high sheet loads does not equal fast boat.
I sailed Bosuns with Sea Cadets. Sturdy, stable, strong and slow.
I heard they were designed to be dropped off a war ship!
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
I used to go sailing at Castle Semple Loch with the sea scouts. The sea cadets used to sail there too. Rough lads, and we deliate flowers were all a bit scared of them, but we did admire what they called the "Govan Shipbuilders" launching technique ... throwing their boats, which may have been Bosuns, sideways off the landing stage.
Bobc
Well-Known Member
Have you not taken your pills yet today Iain?
Bobc
Well-Known Member
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
I doubt they were Bosuns - you'd need a quartet of weightlifters to throw a Bosun!
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
They used to have about ten or fifteen of them doing the launch, all tough creatures from the schemes. We soft south side sea scouts didn't dare go near them to check details.
Romeo
Well-Known Member
I know they bring great joy to many, but I did not enjoy my sail in a Drascombe Lugger. I was sailing a pretty tired example, and it was blowing pretty hard, but all the same, it was not a satisfying experience, despite my own penchant for sailing fairly innefficent boats in a variety of rigs, including Lune Whammels and Pilots which are no more efficent, but just much more satisfying to sail.
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
No! My first ever sail was in a Bosun dinghy - one of the most exciting and inspiring moments in my life.
Yep - racked up most of my early hours in Bosuns which I used to borrow from HMS Dolphin (my Dad was a submariner based there) - sailing single handed in Pompey Harbour as a 14 year old, you can't even imagine it these days...
+1 - c. 1976 thanks Gosport Sea Scouts
A Bosun is thrillingly fast if your previous experience is cutters and whalers under oars!
Sea Cadets, c1966, from Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport.
Seajet
...
I have a soft spot for the Bosun, I learned on them at Cobnor; that was in the early 1970's and they seem to be still using the same actual boats now, amazing for hard worked school boats out most days a week and most weeks of the year; wonder if this is a record ?
I always understood they were deliberately way over-specced, to put up with use by the Navy, and made hard to keep up - lots of hiking out required - to keep lots warship crews or sea cadets busy.
Sadly not a boat I'd consider as it's just so heavy on the trolley and slipway.
I always understood they were deliberately way over-specced, to put up with use by the Navy, and made hard to keep up - lots of hiking out required - to keep lots warship crews or sea cadets busy.
Sadly not a boat I'd consider as it's just so heavy on the trolley and slipway.
Habebty
Well-Known Member
A Bosun is thrillingly fast if your previous experience is cutters and whalers under oars!
Sea Cadets, c1966, from Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport.
Probably sailed the same Bosuns as you!
I went with the sea scouts and school out of Clarence Yard and you're right about seeming fast after a whaler!
armchairsailor
Well-Known Member
What about the Bez 2? Bloody dangerous little things...
Channel Sailor
Well-Known Member
My mk2 Iroquois was an excellent yacht. Cruised the English Channel for many years on it, with children. If you raced one then yes care needed, but sensible cruising was not a worry. The maintenance got to to be too much and wanted something bigger so sold it and bought a Maldives instead.
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
I was delighted a few years ago to be invited to sail with its owner a modern, 30-ish foot traditionally constructed copy of a traditional Irish gaff rigged fishing boat. It was all varnished and looked very handsome. Must have cost a tidy sum to build.
Boy was it hard work to sail, though. Every spar seemed heavy enough to kill you, it took all my (admittedly feeble) strength to haul the sheets, and two of us to haul the halyards. I could see why they'd invented Bermudan rigs and winches! (I've sailed small plastic gaffers - Crabbers, Shrimers and Cape Cutters - but they're not at all the same kettle of fish.)
The boat was open, with no decks. This meant if you slipped (as I did several times) you had about 10 feet to fall to the downhill side of the boat, and landed not on anything soft or flat, but thudding great lumps of structural timbers. As we heeled the thrill of the motion and the water rushing past was very much tempered by the thought if the rail went under, then so would the whole boat (capsize = sinking: several similar local boats had been sunk while racing).
I wouldn't say it was the worst boat I have sailed, and I'm glad to have had the experience, but it's probably one of the ones I'd least want to own myself.
Boy was it hard work to sail, though. Every spar seemed heavy enough to kill you, it took all my (admittedly feeble) strength to haul the sheets, and two of us to haul the halyards. I could see why they'd invented Bermudan rigs and winches! (I've sailed small plastic gaffers - Crabbers, Shrimers and Cape Cutters - but they're not at all the same kettle of fish.)
The boat was open, with no decks. This meant if you slipped (as I did several times) you had about 10 feet to fall to the downhill side of the boat, and landed not on anything soft or flat, but thudding great lumps of structural timbers. As we heeled the thrill of the motion and the water rushing past was very much tempered by the thought if the rail went under, then so would the whole boat (capsize = sinking: several similar local boats had been sunk while racing).
I wouldn't say it was the worst boat I have sailed, and I'm glad to have had the experience, but it's probably one of the ones I'd least want to own myself.
Javelin
Well-Known Member
Hmm, going to get a lot of stick for this but the worse boat I've sailed based against expectation was the Dragon. :ambivalence:
I've won a few races in the Edinburgh Cup so I've given them a good chance.
They look so gorgeous, sleek, powerful and graceful all at the same time but they handle like dogs.
The Sunfast 36 was a truly awful boat downwind and not hugely better upwind.
The fisher 37 was pretty gut wrenching to sail in anything of a seaway.
I remember racing Bosons on the river Weser in Germany years ago, one of the best roll tacking dinghies made, nearly as good as the Enterprise.
I've won a few races in the Edinburgh Cup so I've given them a good chance.
They look so gorgeous, sleek, powerful and graceful all at the same time but they handle like dogs.
The Sunfast 36 was a truly awful boat downwind and not hugely better upwind.
The fisher 37 was pretty gut wrenching to sail in anything of a seaway.
I remember racing Bosons on the river Weser in Germany years ago, one of the best roll tacking dinghies made, nearly as good as the Enterprise.
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geem
Well-Known Member
Well and I am going to stick my neck out. I grew up sailing on my Dads Macwester 26. This boat was great experience for me. It taught me what I didn't want in my own future boat. I didn't want an inboard two stroke petrol engine. I didn't want a boat with no spray hood. I didn't want gutless windward performance. I didn't want huge weather helm. I don't want wind around the boom reefing where you had to throw a sail bag in there to take out the baggy bits. It was a truly great experiences of lots of negatives. The only positive is the Macwester 26 has a loo bigger than a Boing 747 but it still had no wash hand basin. Come to think of it, we had no vhf or log. We did have a whizzy round depth sounder though. Still managed Anglesey to Southern Ireland and Isle of Mann a few times without all that electricery. The good old days........
