C & C 24 - stability?

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karndt

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Jan 15, 2012
5
none none Pompano Beach
My boyfriend and I are looking to purchase a sailboat for day sailing off the Florida east coast. I would like to get a boat that is reasonably stable. Is a C & C 24 good for this or does it heel way over in any strong winds?
 
Dec 1, 1999
2,391
Hunter 28.5 Chesapeake Bay
I owned and sailed a C&C 24 Niagra for many years on the Chesapeake Bay. It is a very fast and easy to sail boat that I sailed in various conditions up to including gale force winds. This is a relatively light displacement, round bottom, wide-beamed boat that is, in my mind, very tender and prone to heeling. I do not say that as a negative criticism as it added a lot of saling fun to my adventures. I found the key to sailing this wonderful little boat was always having the right sail combination up before conditions worsened. I had 4 headsails for this boat that ranged from a smallish spitfire jib up to a 150 genoa and used all them. The boat did not have furling so changing a hanked on headsail or reefing the main, in a blow, while solo sailing, was a challenge, albeit a manageable one. Just do it early. I loved my C&C 24 and only sold it (it has since been fully restored by the current owner in Canada) as I planned to do some more serious crusing and wanted a boat with full standing headroom. It is a great day sailor.
 

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Doug L

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Sep 9, 2006
80
South Coast 22 MI
Hi karndt, Do you have much sailing experience? Heeling over tends to be scary until you are used to it, after you gain experience it is just part of the sailing experience. You want a boat suitable for the conditions you will be sailing in, just do not get too excited about heeling over. 15-20 degrees is normal, and 30 degrees really won't hurt. It just seems like it will, at first. Good luck in your boat search.
 

Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
7,999
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
why don't you just post one list of all the boats you're interested in, instead of posting separately for each one............ then you could easily compare them. ]

For what it's worth........ the sailor controls the heeling in the end, but I can understand your reasons for looking for a less tender boat. Good luck.
 

karndt

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Jan 15, 2012
5
none none Pompano Beach
why don't you just post one list of all the boats you're interested in, instead of posting separately for each one............ then you could easily compare them. ]

For what it's worth........ the sailor controls the heeling in the end, but I can understand your reasons for looking for a less tender boat. Good luck.
Thanks for all the good information. I am a bit new to the forum and buying a sailboat! We have fairly good sailing experience and have been bareboat ASA certified. We regularly rent boats in bay waters including the catalina 30 and Freedom 20. We are now ready to get our own boat. Through our sailing instructor, I certainly see how the sailor can make a big difference in the heeling of a boat. I don't really mind some heeling as it is all part of sailing, but it seems like some boats we have taken out consistently require you to hang on for dear life which I don't particularly find relaxing. Of course the Catalina 30 and Freedom 20 are very stable boats in my mind.

We don't really want to get a boat that has too many bells and whistles. i.e. we don't need a head or any major amenities and feel (perhaps incorrectly, that a small outboard would be easier for a first time sailboat owner to maintain over a diesel.) Since most of the boats we can afford are in the 1970's area, we expect a lot of maintenance to occur so the less extra "stuff" that can break the better!

With that said, we found the following boats in our price range that looked like good candidates:

Ranger 23, S2 7.3, C & C 24, C & C 26, Grampian 23 and Morgan 27 (although the Morgan had a head on it which we don't require)

From looking at the data (thanks to referrals from people on this site), it looks like the Ranger 23 and S2 7.3 might be good candidates due to their Bal/Disp ratio at .44 and .40 respectively, but seemed to both have a decent sail/displacement ratio which I assume refers to the boat's speed.

Any suggestions?
 

Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
7,999
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
Thanks for all the good information. ........................................

.................................................. Any suggestions?
I found this article about stability that may be as enlightening to you as it was to me. Hope it helps... http://www.goodoldboat.com/reader_services/articles/stability.php

here's an excerpt:
To sum up, the stability of the boat is directly related to two factors: her displacement, and the length of the righting arm. The heavier the displacement and/or the longer the righting arm, the greater the stability. In turn, the length of the righting arm depends on the location of the center of gravity (CG) and the location of the heeled center of buoyancy (CB). The lower the CG, the longer the righting arm. The further outboard the heeled CB, the longer the righting arm. It's that simple.
 
Nov 18, 2010
2,441
Catalina 310 Hingham, MA
We had a C&C 24 before our C310. We loved the boat but ended up moving on largely due to the lack of a head and inboard engine. While the outboard is a little easier to maintain, it has significant negatives when powering in choppy water. And the lack of a head limited the amount of time we could spend out on the water.

To the stability, she is a very well designed and built boat. She is more tender then the C30 you have sailed but as others have mentioned, that is within your control. My wife was concerned about that and one day we went out to show her it was more stable then she thought. For the most part a well designed boat will round up into the wind before it goes over. We had 20+ it's winds a 135 genny and full mainsail. You could bury the toe rail but she would round up before going over any further. From that day on, she has been more comfortable with heeling.

Good luck
 
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