2.5 draft with ease??

novelman17130 · Feb 19, 2010

ramp access

jimmyb said:
I may have found a nice little pocket crusier for first boat. 93 Catalina capri 16 ft. Has fixed wing keel and 2.5 ft draft according to owners. In your opinoins woud most ramps that you folks launch at (lakes or bays) handle this depth with ease. I know this is subject to hundreds of different ramp locations but whats your experience. Thanks for your help.

God Bless, jimmyb

Jimmyb,
It all depends on the length of the trailer tongue, the steepness of the ramp, the distance from your rear wheels to the tongue. In short I think you migh have a problem if you have a sedan, small pick-up or other typical vehicles You could very well end up with your rear wheels deep in the water. The only way to know for sure is to attach the trailer to your vehicle and try it. In my opinion it will be a problem, especially if you launch into salt water.
novelman

sailingdog · Feb 19, 2010

You should be fine, especially if you make a trailer tongue extension.

One thing to watch for is the ramp length. On shorter, shallow ramps, your trailer may go off the end...and that would be bad.

Sumner · Feb 19, 2010

Does it come with a trailer with a tongue extension? Like the others have said I think you will need one and a pretty steep ramp.

Here is our .....

......boat that has a 15-16 inch draft. See how low it sits on the trailer in relation to the trailer tires.

Here we are retrieving.....

...it and we have the pickup right at the water and the trailer has to be in to the point where the tops of the fenders are under water. With the mods to the trailer it loads and retrieves very easy. The one thing that we do have down, now to become better sailors

.

Now I found this picture of a Capri and it's trailer.......

....they say....

http://www.sailingtexas.com/scapri16b.html

.... that it has a "Trailer extension tongue", and the tongue is a lot longer than ours, so that should help. Still look how much higher the waterline is above the trailer tires. It is going to take some water depth to get it in.

I think if you haven't bought it I would say to the present owner can we take it over to the lake where you want to launch and see what happens.

To us the beauty of a trailer boat is the easy to trailer it and launch and....

.....retrieve it almost anywhere, like above with no ramp. Think about if that is important to you or not. There are lots of sailboats out there to choose from.

Good luck and it is a nice looking boat,

Sum

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novelman17130 · Feb 19, 2010

jimmyb said:
Ok, looking at Sumners post its pretty clear it probably will be a problem, even with a trailer extension in use. It would take a quite an extension by the looks of it and yes I may run out of ramp even so. I definitely havent purchased yet. Boat is about 3 hrs away so a trial run is out. Better start search over for very shallow entry draft with a drop board keel. I appreciate the honest clear answers. I dont want to kid myself here. There is potter 15 near by but Im not sold on this boat. If the capri was a drop keel I would be towing it home tommorrow>

you guys have been very patient with my begginer questions and I do thank you. I dont have another source right now for help and we all need a little help now and then.
God Bless, jimmyb

PS- will be visiting the NE boat show in Boston tommorrow. will be checking out one of the sailing schools on the harbor their. any specific questions i should ask?

jimmyb,
Forget about the 15' potter, it does NOT have a weighted keel, only a light drop keel. So it is farily easy to turn over unless you sail VERY CAREFULLY. I owned one and even though I have been sailing for more than 25 years it turned over AND could NOT be righted by three Harbor Patrol boats. If you sail only in lLIGHTER WINDS (less than 10 knots) and with little or no waves go for a more stable boat with a weighted keel.
novelman

JoeWhite · Feb 19, 2010

I made some measurements for my 84 Hunter 25.5 before launching.
1) While boat is on the trailer and on the hard measure from gound to the waterline.
2) Go to the ramp and at high tide using a 1" 10' pvc pipe measure from the dock to the bottom of the ramp and see when the depth is equal to the depth you measured in step 1.
3) Then measure from that point to the water's edge.
Using these measurements you can determin the distance from the beam of your boat to the hitch on your tow vehicle and this will determine the lenght of the extension required. In my case this was 13'.
I lower and retrieve my 3' 6 " draft sailboat with ease. Make sure you plan to do this only during high tide slack. I learned this lesson the hard way by dropping off the trailer off the ramp and since my tires were on the wet and slimy ramp I could not pull up. The scary part was that the tide was comming in and flooding my truck was immenent. I called someone else to tow me out fortunately. The trailer and the boat weighs 6200Lb.
Good luck and do not miss the fun.

BobM · Feb 20, 2010

Sailing School

jimmyb said:
PS- will be visiting the NE boat show in Boston tommorrow. will be checking out one of the sailing schools on the harbor there. any specific questions i should ask?

I sailed out of Courageous. The Rhodes 19 is a great boat, but the lack of auxiliary power and their location in the inner harbor can be frustrating to a beginner. Bostonharbor Sailing has big boats, but a big price tag. I don't have any experience with Pier's Park, but had a friend that sailed out of there and he enjoyed it.

It is definitely worth doing and worth doing before you buy a boat. Although I decided to buy a larger boat and move on after a few years it is a great way to get out on the water fast without the maintenance work.

In hindsight I really should have taken lessons on the smaller boat as I had experience on larger boats and a smaller boat is actually much more challenging to sail. I had a hard time with it initially and it was rather unpleasant for my Wife at times.

Joe11688 · Feb 20, 2010

jimmyb said:
I may have found a nice little pocket crusier for first boat. 93 Catalina capri 16 ft. Has fixed wing keel and 2.5 ft draft according to owners. In your opinoins woud most ramps that you folks launch at (lakes or bays) handle this depth with ease. I know this is subject to hundreds of different ramp locations but whats your experience. Thanks for your help.

God Bless, jimmyb

Jimmy,
A friend of mine in Taunton has a Nimble Peep Hen that he's been talking about selling for the last three years. He's never sailed it since he's owned the boat. It's a Special Edition model. He purchased it on line brand new from Glen Gardiner's Sailboat Shop in New Jersey years ago. I believe that he has the spars and rudder but unfortunately the sail is no good. He bought this boat with the intension of using it as a small power boat with a 2000 Johnson 8 hp short shaft outboard. It has a Bimini Top and a good size cabin for a 15' boat. He's 6' tall and he was able to sprawl out in the cabin. I know that he's motored this boat all over the Mount Hope Bay and it's a pretty stable little boat for it's size. Probably a lot more stable than the Potter. I have no idea how they sail. I could never get him to sail it. He's no longer able to go boating. I have an O'Day 222 that I used to trailer sail back in the 1980s and 1990s and at age 66 I could never go back to doing that again, but if I had something as small as a Nimble Peep Hen, I think that I could do it with ease if I still wanted to go back to doing that. I just wouldn't be able to carry as much gear as I do now on my 222. If you're interested just email me sailtrinkka1986@verizon.net
and I'll give you his phone number.
Joe

Joe Blizzard · Feb 20, 2010

jimmyb said:
whats your experience.

I have no real trouble launching and retrieving my shoal keel Gloucester 20. Here are some factors to consider: My boat may have a couple inches less draft than your Catalina. I have a roller trailer with a long tongue and a full size pickup. I launch at the shallowest of my local ramps (because it's the only one without overhead obstructions), but I'm on a river with fairly steep banks, so shallow may be a relative term. The relatively light weight of these boats makes horsing them on and off the trailer when they aren't quite floating a little more practical than it might be with a larger boat.
http://blizzard.zmm.com/g20/trailer/zanjero.jpg

kenn · Feb 20, 2010

jimmyb - In your case I'd base the choice of boat on how often you anticipate launching and retrieving it in a year.

If you have a home base to sail from where your boat is usually moored/docked, and you will only occasionally trailer the boat to a new spot, then the occasional hassle of launching/retrieving the keeled boat would be worth it.

If however you will be trailering it alot and won't always know how suitable the launch is... then that fixed keel could be misery.

One of the top reasons we bought our Sandpiper 565 is that it has a lead-filled keel that cranks vertically all the way into the boat. With keel up, the draft is less than a foot, which means that we can launch anywhere a small motorboat can be launched. In other words... just about any ramp... and a tongue extension isn't required.

Also, depending how much you intend to actually cruise and overnight in your boat, you may quickly "outgrow" a 16 ft boat. Our 19 ft boat is just enough space for two of us to happily spend 3 nights in, and we could easily stretch that to a week or more if there was a mid-week opportunity for provisions, showers and laundry ashore.

okawbow · Feb 20, 2010

You shouldn't have much trouble launching with a 2'6" draft, on a "normal" ramp. I have launched my bristol 24, 3'5" draft, on several different ramps using a 10' extension. I also launch my Sailstar/Bristol 19, 2'9" draft, with a 7' extension without getting the tires wet.

Sounds like a nice boat to me.

Roger (Ninette Manitoba) · Feb 21, 2010

One other item not yet mentioned is if the measured water depth and launching depth (as mentioned in a previous post) is only inches apart and you need/want to make it work. As previously mentioned a tongue extension will add some ability to get the trailer back further yet keeping your tow vehicle's rear wheels out of the water. The other items that can be done is to go with a smaller size wheel, say dropping from a 12 to 8" wheel. Larger wheels are great for towing long distances, but if this is not going to be your experience, try going to smaller wheels. Secondly, attaching the wheel axel above the springs rather than below will gain you another couple of inches. Finally, you may be able to lower the bunks or rollers on the trailer by a couple of inches. I gained (or more accurately lost) a total of 6 inches of water depth needed to launch my boat. For comparision; the draft is 14" and I need 27" of water at the trailer wheels to be able to float the boat off.

dscribner · Feb 26, 2010

JimmyB,

Go for it. I bought 25 foot Lancer last year. My first sailboat, first boat, first trailer . . . didn't even have a truck to pull it! No, I'm not a complete idiot, we considered everything before we signed the check. That said, she drafts 30" +/- and weighs about 2 tons, and I launch her about any place I feel like. I have gotten the bumper a little wet when the ramp was quite shallow, but everything went great. It had too because there were a dozen or so twenty-something onlookers wondering what those morons with the sailboat thought they were doing. My trailer is proabably a bit longer that yours but you'll probably have no problem at all.

Did I mention that we had never sailed before either? This has been a father/son adventure from the start. It's been great, a real learning experience.

Fair winds!

Don Scribner
Maine

Joe11688 · Feb 27, 2010

The O'Day 192 is a nice little boat Jimmy. We've had two members in our club who owned 192s and they sail great and have good stability with the keel/centerboard. Rudy Nickerson of D & R marine in Assonet has all the parts for these boats too. The 192 has a kick up rudder blade like the 222. Check the blade and make sure that there are no cracks or open seams along the edge. These rudder blades including mine, were molded in two halves, glued together and pumped with foam. They have a tendency of opening at the seam and breaking. I broke two blades on my boat years ago before I had a solid blade made for me by Rudy. The blade can creep up as little as 1/2" while you're sailing and cause a little weather helm. The weather helm on the blade can cause it to flex which I believe can be a contributing factor of these blades cracking. The tip-up blade has a pendant line connected to it which runs under the tiller and is cleated off in a self rescue clam cleat. This is what keeps the blade all the way down when you're sailing along. If it does creep up a little, you'll feel it. In my case, I use an autopilot most of the time and if it did creep up I wouldn't know it unless I took the pilot off and grabbed the tiller. It's really no big deal and most of the time the rudder will stay down with the pendant line holding it. The only other thing that you may want to check are the side chain plates and the "L" brackets that hold the chain plates in the cabin on the bulkhead. Make sure there's no cracks in the brackets and no bulges under the side chain plates. Keep your eyes peeled for a Seaward 22. These are fast, stable, and roomy keel/centerboard boats with good looks. They're trailerable but best left in the water for the season. Good luck!
Joe

walt · Feb 28, 2010

Picture of the Capri 16 I used to own. You need an extension to launch it - the stock trailer has the extension built in. Cabin is only useful for storage but its a very nice sailing boat. I always felt safe in it despite having it out in some fairly nasty conditions. If you get the keel stuck, its easy to just jump out of the boat and push it off.

Attached picture - yesterday on the same lake..

sailingdog · Feb 28, 2010

This is one major advantage of shoal draft boats...

walt said:
Picture of the Capri 16 I used to own. You need an extension to launch it - the stock trailer has the extension built in. Cabin is only useful for storage but its a very nice sailing boat. I always felt safe in it despite having it out in some fairly nasty conditions. If you get the keel stuck, its easy to just jump out of the boat and push it off.

Joe11688 · Feb 28, 2010

jimmyb said:
Thanks for the tips Joe. Much apprieciated.

Jimmyb

There is one thing that I didn't point out about the O'Day 192 that I forgot to mention. The 192s, and 222s in my area came new in the boat shows with Load-Rite roller trailers. These trailers were made special for these boats and also had a rack of four 12" rollers for the keel which means that no tongue extensions were necessary to launch these boats. In spite of the keel hanging down, you could launch these boats just as easy as launching a powerboat with these trailers. Some sailboat hulls were not built to be launched with roller trailers but not so with the O'Days. The same dealer who sold me the O'Day 222 at the Boston Boat Show, also had the Catalina 22s and I loved the Catalina 22 interior more than that of the 222. However, the Catalina 22s came with bunk trailers and the dealer told me that the hulls on these boats can't take a roller trailer. To me, having a boat that size that can be launched with a roller trailer was a big deciding factor in my choice of the O'Day 222. I wound up buying that boat in spite of the fact that I didn't even have a suitable vehicle that could pull it up a ramp. A Plymouth Horizon and a 6 cylinder Chevy pickup with a column shifter weren't suitable vehicles so I got rid of the Horizon and bought a 1998 Olds Delta 88 which worked out great for me. Today I'm towing it with a 2001 GMC Sierra pickup with a cap and complete towing package. Every spring I put the mast up in the yard and run the engine in a barrel to make sure that everything works before I bring her down to the club.
Joe

2.5 draft with ease??

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