25' Sailboat - large enough for CC Bay?

[jepomer]

Everyone's opinion will vary with their personal experience and preferences. My wife and I have been sailing out of Winthrop MA for the past two years in a Capri 22. Occasionally we have taken others with us cruising the outer harbor islands.

The cabin of the Capri is small (low and minimally furnished - does have a port-a-potty) but adequate for an occasional overnight "camping style". The advantage is that the cockpit is much larger than most 25' to 27' cruisers. For day sailing (which is what we do) this works out fine even with four good sized adults although one of us is usually in the companionway or foredeck.

You will need to balance the cockpit and cabin space for your family's preferences. How does everyone react when traveling several hours in a small car?

Wind-wise, the Capri 22 will handle speeds into the 20+ knot range better than we did initially. Experience and skill bring confidence. We simply avoid sailing on "small craft advisory" days.

We will be moving up to a Cape Dory 25 next year. It will be heavier like the Catalina 25 and will handle the weather better. But it does have a much smaller cockpit that will be tight for four adults. The cabin has more interior room but only 5 feet of head room.

These boats have suited our immediate needs. We think we may move up to a 30' size in a few years, but only of we want to do multi-night cruising. There is no "perfect" boat.

 

[dscribner]

CTA,

Check out a Bayliner Buccaneer 24. It appears to have a lot of room for a small boat.

 

[Stu Jackson]

WADR, the boat is plain ugly and has such a small keel that it always sails sideways. A friend who had one told me that.

 

[TomY]

I don't sail there regularly but I've gone through it numerous times. I'm amazed how quickly wind, currents and shallow water can turn it into a tough stretch of water.

Try to plan your sailing to weather conditions that will make it enjoyable for the least experienced person you have onboard.

 

[bffatcat]

Catalina 25 is it seaworthy for cape cod bay

The boat if sound and in good condition will take more than you. Its perfectly adequite for what you want to do. I have a pearson 26 weekender that I sail out of Mass bay. ITs been
to Nantucket the vineyard and the coast of Maine. Im 74 and I have had no problems.
There is just myself and my wife. With 5 people you will be a bit crowded.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Ross, the only limitiations are those that you impose upon yourself.

Stu are you referring to the Catalina 25 with that short little winged keel?

For the past several winters, I've had 2 Cat 25's parked on blocks next to ours. One has that short little winged keel and the other has a swing keel. I'd have to agree that the little winged keel doesn't look very useful. The swing keel looks far more substantial, with a much deeper draft and probably greater stability.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Pay attention to cockpit size to determine if it suits your needs. Our boat has a very nice sized cabin for 27' but a small cockpit. The bridgedeck makes the foot room in the cockpit even smaller. 3 people in our cockpit only works if the helmsman stays behind the wheel. With one person on windward and one person on leeward side, the foot room in front of the wheel is completely filled and if anybody wants to sit on the bridgedeck, they have to keep their feet up ... but that would never work because it completely fouls up the use of the traveler.

Honestly, our 27' boat is really only set up well for 2 people in the cockpit. Any others have to sit on the rail or in the cabin. Many much smaller boats have much longer cockpit seats and more room. But they have to sacrifice cabin space and they may have a cockpit that can be swamped with water which endangers the vessel when water floods the cabin thru a low companionway. Ours has much lower cockpit volume and a companionway that won't be easily breached, making it safer when flooded with a boarding wave.

All considerations involve compromise ... let your gut do the talking!

 

[Ross]

Sometime ago some asked what size boat was big enough for nything the great lakes might throw at him. The answer was it would need to be bigger that the Edmond Fitzgerald.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Stu are you referring to the Catalina 25 with that short little winged keel?

For the past several winters, I've had 2 Cat 25's parked on blocks next to ours. One has that short little winged keel and the other has a swing keel. I'd have to agree that the little winged keel doesn't look very useful. The swing keel looks far more substantial, with a much deeper draft and probably greater stability.

Nope, I was referring to the Buccaneer 24.

We had a C25, fixed keel, for 12 years, loved that boat, sailed it out in the ocean and all over the Bay. The winged keel is fine, although with all issues surrounding winged keels compared to deep keels. Stability is pretty much the same, based on the input from the C25 guys. http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3

Small boat with a big boat feel.

 

[RECESS]

Hehehehe, when you look at the circumnavigations done in the 60s and 70s..... yeah many of them are 25'. I am glad my wife does not know about the one hour from shore rule. We often sail or motor 5 to 7 hours off shore to go fishing. We just finished a 5 day sail that was over 300 miles total. We also spent almost the whole summer living on our Oday 25. We have a nine day sail coming up that will cover about 400 miles. After that we will be mostly day sailing through the winter and getting prepared to sail it down the west coast of Florida to Biscayne Bay and jumping to Bimini in late May early June.

Both Catalinas and Oday 25s are not blue water boats, but they are more than enough to do some serious off shore sailing with good weather windows. When we get caught offshore in the inevitable short thunderstorm, we just put out a lot of anchor line and go down below and let the boat swing a little while the storm passes in an hour or two.

You should have plenty of boat. Once you get some experience and confidence, make sure to leave the dock when it is nasty, but not life threatening out there. You cannot avoid bad weather forever, it is best to get used to it on your terms.

 

[BobM]

yes...but....

Buzzards bay is a bit more entertaining!

 

[cta5946]

Re: yes...but....

All great feedback on this topic, many thanks. Impressive amount of knowledge out there in a short time frame! I have the long off season to contemplate what direction to go. Leaning towards starting off with the C25, getting used to it, make sure family likes before jump into something larger. With any 25', my trip will be weather dependent, but such is boating in New England.

 

[Benny17441]

Scott, a small cockpit is indicative of a boat built to go offshore; when swamped it does not hold to much water. On the other hand if you want to put four people in the cockpit tell them to sit up instead of allowing two of them to sprawl in the benches. Perhaps allow just one at a time and have them take turns. They may call me Captain Bligh but I could get four people in that cockpit. I do it on the Starwind 223.