What is a true "trailer"able?

Jun 25, 2004
1,108
Corsair F24 Mk1 003 San Francisco Bay, CA
Just looking at DrJudyB's trimaran pictures, I guess I can answer my own question. It looks like the mast is stayed to the ama's so as long as the mast is up, I believe the ama's would have to be out and locked in place.

The Hobie TI has an unstayed mast which makes collapsing the ama's easy but probably not the case for the larger trailerable trimaran.
Not so. The geometry of the folding beams is designed so that the side shrouds hold the mast stable whether the boat is open, folded or in between. Or one side folded and one out. Many times, people motor with the mast up and just one side ama unfolded, to get around inside a marina.

The F24 is quite stable when motoring with one ama out. Not all the Corsairs are as stable when folded; it varies by specific model.
 
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Apr 5, 2018
95
Catalina Capri 25 Jackson
My buddy had an f 24 like yours he trailered to all of the races. That was one of the most fun boats I ever sailed/crewed on. It just kicked ass in all the races too.

Set up and take down wasn’t that much longer than a regular 24ft mono, because it’s launched and recovered in folded up mode. So he’d get ready an hour before the first race, motor out from the ramp, on the way to the start line fold down the runners and be ready. Same for recovery. Once he had gotten back to the ramp the boat was ready to load like a mono. Just have to be careful because it can flip easier in fold up mode. That one would get my vote for most fun trailer sailer haha
 
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Kermit

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Jul 31, 2010
5,657
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
I actually enjoy launching and retrieving my H260. Stepping and unstepping the mast, now that’s a whole nother story. It has a great system but it’s still a boatload of work.
 

Gunni

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Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
You can gain a lot of affordable day sailor simplicity and ease of rigging by going with a ketch-rigged sharpie like the Sea Pearl 21 and the Core Sound 20. None of those gin-pole gymnastics. This is a tested traditional sea worthy design.
http://www.marine-concepts.com/sea-pearl-21.html
http://bandbyachtdesigns.com/20mk3/

I have seen both boats out in very challenging conditions. They have a low center of effort and easily reefable sails. You can tow either behind a compact car and both are shoal water sailors.
 
Oct 24, 2010
2,405
Hunter 30 Everett, WA
+1 for the McGregor 26 classic. I went from trailer to the water in 30 minutes after a few years of practice. Expect 45 minutes after the first couple of times. No experience with the X or M models. The water balast and retractible center board and rudder, it works even on some pretty shallow ramps. Light weight= easy to tow.

Don't necessarily need a ramp. 26 foot. Under 2000# on the trailer. Floats in 18 inches of water. Swing centerboard and rudder. I use a gin pole since I'm old to put the mast up but most younger people just push it up. Those with simpler running rigging are on the water in under 40 minutes at the ramp. 2 of us have spent up to 2 months on the water at a time and I've spent 3 months alone. A good responsive sailboat on the water.

Not the perfect boat for everyone but sure has fit our needs,

Sumner
============================================================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Perhaps if @DockH were to give us some idea of the kind of sailing, day, overnight, longer voyaging, solo, one crew, three or more friends, etc.
The Compac 16 has a very large and dedicated following. The Mariner 19, my boat, is the same. Great quality used boats can be had for 2-3k worth trailer and aux power. They have cabin space for two to four people and cockpit space for your 6.

- Will (Dragonfly)
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Perhaps if @DockH were to give us some idea of the kind of sailing, day, overnight, longer voyaging, solo, one crew, three or more friends, etc.
The Compac 16 has a very large and dedicated following. The Mariner 19, my boat, is the same. Great quality used boats can be had for 2-3k worth trailer and aux power. They have cabin space for two to four people and cockpit space for your 6.

- Will (Dragonfly)
Indeed. Reading between the lines, he wants to replace an Abbott 22, which is a VERY well regarded little cruiser. Image a fully though-out Catalina 22. You could get the thing with an inboard. So a mini-yacht.
Also anyone who says they are looking for a new 'S/V' usually does not mean a day sailor.
 
Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
As a former dealer for many of the boats mentioned, the first question is what do you want to do with the boat? Daysailor, cruse, race, stay on board and so forth. Once determined then the spectrum of boats decreases. As pointed out, how much do you want to spend and do you have an appropriate tow vehicle. With that said a truely trailerable sailboat is one that you alone can raise/lower the mast, launch/retrieve the boat and sail by yourself. The best salesperson I had was my daughter who at shows would raise and lower the mast and that included the Hunter 26 mast at the age of 10 on TV. That was a hoot!
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Where is the original poster @DockH? As @Will Gilmore says what is wanted, beyond a boat on a trailer?

I owned a Montgomery 15 for twenty years. Sailed lakes, rivers, bays, and even the Puget Sound. Camped out in the boat on the trailer or in anchorage where I could tie up.

Not a great party overnight boat for more than two who like to rough it. Was sailed by a 20 year old from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

So maybe at 750 pounds on a trailer this anwers the question.

Or perhaps the post is just a raw meat question for us rabid sailors.
 
May 24, 2004
7,129
CC 30 South Florida
A "trailer sailer" is a boat that is designed for ease of trailering, launching, retrieving and rigging. Usually they have a shallow trailering draft via the use of ballasted swing keels or water ballast with centerboard or a short fixed keel/ centerboard combo. They are light or able to shed the ballast for trailering. They may also have a mast raising auxiliary system. The object of a "trailer sailor" is to be easily trailered to a distant sailing venue and easily launched and rigged for a short or long sail and then easily retrieved and set for road travel back to its storage. To be able to be moved from location to location in a short amount of time can be its main feature. By easily it is meant by one or two people at a launch ramp with the use of a regular street vehicle. Generally up to 22-23' with ballasted keel or up to 26' with water ballast.
 
May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
I went down from a Catalina 30 to a Compac 23. The Compac 23 is trailerable but I hated putting the mast up and down. I REALLY hated putting the mast up and down.

My Compac 23 was as loaded for cruising as you can find for a Compac 23. I had a 13.5 gallon front water tank, pressurized water, a cockpit shower, autopilot, roller furling, bimini, dodger, 100 watt solar panel, 215 amp hour house bank, and anything else you could imagine.

Still, stepping down from a larger yacht to the Compac was hard. I missed standing headroom and a dedicated head. I missed an inboard diesel.

Crazy Dave and a few others asked the BIG question...What do you intend to use it for? Really look at how you use the current boat. What will change when you get the new "trailerable" boat?

Here would be my big questions:
Do you want to put the mast down each time or do you want to just pull it out in the winter?
Do you want to haul the boat to distant places or do you just want to pull it home to keep it at the house in the winter?
If you are going to step the mast multiple times a year, how long will you leave the mast up? In other words, are you taking a week long trip or are you just day sailing?
Will you have/need help stepping the mast?
What are your physical abilities and limitations?
How do you feel about the maintenance of a centerboard or daggerboard?
Do you want a fast boat, does speed matter?
Do you want to race?
What is the budget?
What part of your budget do you want to leave for upgrades/refit?

Those questions dictate what you will buy. If you are just day sailing then get a smaller boat with a manageable mast. If you are going to cruise it for short to medium cruises get a bigger boat.

If you are going to haul the boat around a lot and weight is important, you may want to look at a water ballast system. There are tons of variables and there is a boat out there that will fit what you want, you just need to be really honest with yourself on what exactly you want.

Consider some of these:
Compac 23
Rhodes 22
Hunter 260
Catalina 250
S2 7.9 (Grand Slam) - Quicker boat with a dagger board.
Tripp 26 (Quick racing boat with dagger board)
Dragonfly 26
F27 Trimaran
Telstar 28 Trimaran

The list goes on and on. Good luck on your search and keep us updated!
 
Jun 25, 2004
1,108
Corsair F24 Mk1 003 San Francisco Bay, CA
I went down from a Catalina 30 to a Compac 23. The Compac 23 is trailerable but I hated putting the mast up and down. I REALLY hated putting the mast up and down.
Yeah, putting the mast up takes a lot of time and it's too much work for a single day of sailing, IMO. But I don't hate doing it.

I've built a couple of different mast raising systems for different boats, and when you get it right, a mast raising system can be almost idiot-proof, and pretty worry-free.

Here's the system we built this winter, for my F24. The new system is a near-copy of the system used on the new Corsairs and Farriers trimarans.

(The video is not a polished production done by a pro, but it shows how it works, and what the main components are.)

 
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Aug 1, 2011
3,972
Catalina 270 255 Wabamun. Welcome to the marina
Very nice touch with the "V" that cradles the furler. Well done.
 

Kermit

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Jul 31, 2010
5,657
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
@DrJudyB does the pole holding the furler also act as a gin pole? I noticed the pulling line wasn’t attached to it but it still put lots of pressure on it at first. Thanks!
 
Jun 25, 2004
1,108
Corsair F24 Mk1 003 San Francisco Bay, CA
@DrJudyB does the pole holding the furler also act as a gin pole? I noticed the pulling line wasn’t attached to it but it still put lots of pressure on it at first. Thanks!
@Kermit, Yes, the pole holding the furler actes as a gin pole when the mast is horizontal. The purpose of a gin pole is to improve the angle of the lifting line when the mast is down.

In this case the lifting line goes over the V at the end of the pole. In this case, we use the spinnaker halyard and the winch strap as the lifting line.

As soon as the mast is up halfway or so, the geometry has changed and the angle of the lifting line to the mast is bigger. We no longer need the pole there to make the angle larger. The gin pole is short enough that it doesn’t interfere with the forestay at all.

So I’m guessing you are all asking “How did you figure out how long to make the gin pole?”
The pole is short enough that I can reach the V. That’s so I can place the furler in it. :dancing:
 
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Kermit

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Jul 31, 2010
5,657
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
@Kermit, Yes, the pole holding the furler actes as a gin pole when the mast is horizontal. The purpose of a gin pole is to improve the angle of the lifting line when the mast is down.

In this case the lifting line goes over the V at the end of the pole. In this case, we use the spinnaker halyard and the winch strap as the lifting line.

As soon as the mast is up halfway or so, the geometry has changed and the angle of the lifting line to the mast is bigger. We no longer need the pole there to make the angle larger. The gin pole is short enough that it doesn’t interfere with the forestay at all.

So I’m guessing you are all asking “How did you figure out hole long to make the gin pole?”
The pole is short enough that I can reach the V. That’s so I can place the furler in it. :dancing:
Thanks for the explanation. I use a gin pole on my H260. I have no idea if your idea would work on my boat but I really like the way the forestay and furler are cradled all safe and warm.
 
Apr 8, 2010
1,942
Ericson Yachts Olson 34 28400 Portland OR
We used to use our spinnaker pole as a 'gin pole' to lower our 34' mast on our former Niagara 26. Fractional rig sloop, so the mast was rather long. I did that twice in the decade we owned that boat. Not an evolution you would want to do more than once a season. (!)
There were guy lines from the end of the pole and also the mast, and all had to be adjusted as the spar support changed its geometry on the way down and back up. Both primary and both secondary winches were in use.
The main line was the one from the end of pole, thru a snatch block at the bow, and back to the cockpit. We built a wooden crutch for the stern rail to receive the mast when it was mostly all down. Then it could be -carefully- separated from the base channel pivot point and walked forward to the bow pulpit and finally tied down on a wooden bow support and a stern pulpit support piece. There were two of us, and we took out time. It was a very good thing that no large wakes rolled thru the little marina when we were doing this. :)

Time flies! That was in the 80's...... more youth and strength available in those days...
 
Jul 16, 2018
4
Don't have one yet Still looking Alberta
Hello,
I'm not the OP, but it I have a similar question and the people who answered seemed pretty knowledgeable so I thought I'd ask here.
My husband and I are very novice sailors and live in land-locked Alberta. We want to start sailing more, however, and have a plan to get a smaller, trailerable boat and moor it for the summer at a lake in British Columbia and winter it back home in Alberta. It's about a 5 hour drive from our place to the lake.
We would only be setting it up and taking it down once per year and would want something that would allow us to live-aboard for a week or so at a time. We're used to tenting a lot in the summers, so we don't need anything really luxurious, but would need a place to sleep, sometime type of toilet setup, and a galley with a sink, icebox, and burner or two. We'd also like something on the lighter side so we wouldn't need a really big towing vehicle.
Any recommendations you have to offer would be great!
Thanks!
 
Aug 1, 2011
3,972
Catalina 270 255 Wabamun. Welcome to the marina
It's about a 5 hour drive from our place to the lake. Thanks!
5 hours?
You'll never use it. Ours is 45 minutes from the house, a far cry from the travel of some folks here (John) :) and there are days where we wonder if we have the cycles to go out. You'd be far better off with something lighter that's easy to rig and you can launch in a puddle, which would lend itself to regular use, here, and for the times you go to the interior, you can provision it at home and take it with you. We had a MacGregor 26c model for 15 years and used to do exactly that. The boat logged almost as many miles overland as water, was rigged and launched in 1/2 hour and without the water ballast was light on it's feet.
Depending on where you are, there are decent launch ramps all over the place, there's Ghost west of Cowville, Gull apparently has a decent ramp, and there's a couple at Wabamun.
 
Jul 16, 2018
4
Don't have one yet Still looking Alberta
Thanks for the response Meriachee,
We both have the option to take summers off from our current jobs, so the plan is to basically summer out there and stay on the boat as much as possible. We wouldn't be going just for the weekend, but for a minimum of a week at a time. We regularly drive 4 hours to camp for long weekends (did so twice this summer all ready), so 5 hours for a week isn't daunting for us. If we were pulling the boat back and forth each time and loading/unloading, that might change things, but being able to leave it out there for summer makes it reasonable for us.