Which day sailer should I buy (Drascombe Dabber)?

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markstirling

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I'm considering buying a small day sailer. Having no experience of these I've been looking around the net, reading magazines etc and now I've decided to consult the experts /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif What does the panel think?

My criteria are:
1. Small enough to be single handed.
2. Small enough to be easily stored out of the water.
3. Big enough to cope with two adults plus child.
3. Stiff and dry enough not to frighten the more timid family members (Unsinkability would be a big bonus on this front).
4. Easy maintenance (= GRP)
5. Pleasing to the eye

Performance is not really an issue, I just want to potter around and the list above probably rules-out anything big enough to have a cabin.

My best-bet so far is something like the Drascombe dabber.
Any comments?
 
Westerly Nimrod? Bit bigger than a dabber (about the same as a Drascombe lugger) Big cockpit, less string (no Mizzen) better sailing boat and a small cabin to keep your stuff dry and the kids warm when it starts to get cold at the end of the day. Oh and cheaper than the Drascombe range.
 
We looked at a Rustler 24 before we decided we were not ready for day sailing.

Lovely boat

http://www.rustleryachts.co.uk/rustler/r24.htm

R2412.jpg


Picture shows one with road trolley and launching trolley.

They do a version with an inboard diesel
 
What is your budget, two boats that sail well to consider are Hawk 20 expensive but very competent, or the Wayfarer lots avaliable from cheap to expensive for the latest unsinkable version, dinghy saling experience would help particularly in the wayfarer
 
Agree Nimrod is a good boat - I used to trail-cruise mine. Some might find the cockpit rather exposed as it has no coamings and one sits on the side decks.
 
There ar so many to choose from its hard to know where to start. I would suggest 16ft would be a top limit for handling ashore although with the right facilities you could go up to 18ft. From a sailing point of view it all depends on your skills and agility. I find a Mirror much harder to sail singlehanded than a Wayfarer but then I'm 6ft 2in, 17 stone and 62 years stiff.

You don't say how much money you've got but without going for absolute broke I would suggest the following out of a huge range of regular and trad dinghies.

The Wanderer (14ft). Arguably the gold standard for smaller cruising dinghies
The Wayfarer, its big sister (16ft)
Devon Yawl (18ft and perhaps a bit cumbersome for one ashore)
Any of Ian Outred's pretty little traditional designs in GRP (eg my Loch Lune Post boat)
YW Dayboat (12ft) an excellent balance of safety, comfort and performance
The Topper Topaz if you might want to do some family club races on a Sunday afternoon as well as cruise.
The Laser remains a very good fun boat which doesn't have to be sailed to Olympic standards. The Radial rig makes it less of a handful but its really only for one or one and a child.
 
I have a little dinghy sailing experience and had thought about a Wayfarer, but cant imagine persuading SWMBO into one.
Budget is flexible (e.g. if good chance of re-sale without loss) but tends towards Wayfarer rather than Hawk.
 
I'm considering buying a small day sailer. Having no experience of these I've been looking around the net, reading magazines etc and now I've decided to consult the experts What does the panel think?

My criteria are:
1. Small enough to be single handed.
2. Small enough to be easily stored out of the water.
3. Big enough to cope with two adults plus child.
3. Stiff and dry enough not to frighten the more timid family members (Unsinkability would be a big bonus on this front).
4. Easy maintenance (= GRP)
5. Pleasing to the eye

Performance is not really an issue, I just want to potter around and the list above probably rules-out anything big enough to have a cabin.

My best-bet so far is something like the Drascombe dabber.
Any comments?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Onto your list, you could add following :-

Easy to row,
Easy to beach,
Only needs a small outboard,
Can sail in most winds,
Can take a tent for limited overnighting.

All applicable to a Dabber, which I happily owned for many years.

I had a main rigged as a 'dipping lug', whilst a mate had a gunter. Much prefered mine for single handing on main alone.
 
I have a 14' Lune Pilot (built by character boats in the 1980's) which ticks all your boxes, in much the same way as a dabber. (although she has positive bouyancy, I suspect she would be hard to recover if completely swamped). She has been a great boat for taking on holiday with us to lovely places in the West Highlands, where not all the party want to sail all the time. Unlikely to get over powered, easily reefed when at sea and a stable enough platform for my daughters to learn the basics of sailing, in a very Swallows and Amazons type way. Nice to row, possible to motor, easily swallows a family of four. She is however getting towards the limit of what you would want to get on and off a trailer singlehanded (she carries a bit of internal ballast), and is not the boat when you are in a hurry to go to windward: she gets there, but your pals in bermudian boats will get there first.
 
The Rustler 24 looks very like the Windermere 17ft (LWL, about 22ft LOA) Class boat.

classboat_4.jpg


classboat_3.jpg


classboat_9.jpg


classboatheeling.jpg


windemere17b.jpg


They are pretty cheap actually, but certainly not a day boat. I could have had one for £1K but the deep keel, no engine, little room in the cockpit and huge sail plan made it all a bit daunting for a day boat.

The Alerion looks very nice, but too big for what you are talking about and you really would never use the cabin.

For single-handed launching you'd be surprised how unwieldy anything over about 16ft becomes. Don't forget that it may be perfect conditions when you launch, but recovery may be a different matter.

The Drascombe is popular. These two guys have had theirs on Windermere for years

drascombe_2.jpg


That Scaffie looks a good boat. Not unlike my clinker dinghy. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
"the deep keel, no engine, little room in the cockpit and huge sail plan made it all a bit daunting for a day boat."
Yes but just <u>look</u> at it. Not sure I could have resisted for that price.
 
Oh, I was tempted. It had all the gear. New sails, hydraulic strut to adjust mast rake, etc, etc.
My butcher, who sailed one, said "They've tried everything with that boat and it's still slow" so although I wasn't planning racing, well, you know.

The ones in the pics are really old, but sell for £20-30K. The butcher sold his for about £7K and it was good, but not a front runner.
 
I occasionally sail on a Cornish Crabber Coble. It's a lug rig with a roller furling jib (!) which can be removed for easier single-handed sailing. You can pile quite a few passengers in. Sixteen feet I think. It has a wooden centre board which doubles as a depth sounder.
 
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