First boat decisions

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Apr 6, 2011
1
catalina 250 Staten Island, New York
Wondering if a 250 would be a good first boat choice. Am over 60 years young, with 2 artificial hips, so I might not enjoy a tender boat. Took lessons on a Pearson Ensign, which I enjoyed, but that boat isn't self bailing. On a limited retired income, so thinking trailerable to keep expenses down. Probably single handling much of the time, but would like to engage 2 grandkids occasionally, in bay waters. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Thinking a used 5 or 6 year old boat...:)
 
Nov 7, 2006
28
Hunter 30 Pasadena, MD
With the C250 you have 2 choices- water ballast (WB) or wing keel (WK). Both have advantages and disadvantages. If you are set on trailering, the WB is the better choice, however even it is a heavy load. By the time you have trailer, boat, and equipment you are talking in the neighborhood of 10,000 pounds. If you don't have a tow vehicle capable of that, you'll need to figure that into your budget.

Not to disuade you, but rigging one is also not a trivial exercise. It CAN be done by a single person, but not without some effort. Friends of mine who have it down to an art can get it rigged and launched in about 2 hours and retrieved and de-rigged in about 1 and half hours. If you are doing it once in the spring, and then again in the fall and otherwise keeping it on a mooring or in a slip it doesn't really detract from taking off sailing on a whim. If you have to do it EVERY time you want to sail it can get real old real quick.

Both the WB and the WB are very stable boats, and easy to single hand without many, if any, modifications.

The WK and the WB trade off ease of trailing with headroom. The WK has roughly 9 " more head room than the WB.

Both boats are very customizable- and perhaps one of the biggest advantages is you can actually buy one, and still have funds to trick it out like you want. The basic boat is rather bare, but very functional and can be sailed away as is- so you need not try to do your customizations all in one season. I've been adapting mine for almost 5 years now :), and have some "before" as it came from the factory and "after" (i.e. now) pictures on my website (http://www.markhartong.net) that can give you just one idea of what you can do. You really are only limited by your imagination!

While you can always go "bigger", I think that the C250, and its older sister the C25 really are the ideal tradeoff of complexity and cost.

I'd strongly recommend that you become active over on the Catalina 25 250 website (http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org). They are a friendly bunch, and I'm sure that between the active members on the forums, plus the forum archives, you can find answers to almost any question about either type of 250 you could think of.
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,077
Several Catalinas C25/C320 USA
As noted above...go to the C25/250 forum. Good guys with good info.
 
Oct 6, 2008
857
Hunter, Island Packet, Catalina, San Juan 26,38,22,23 Kettle Falls, Washington
We started out with a Hunter 26 which was a water ballasted boat. It weighed 3ooo# dry and the dual axle, 4 tire trailer was an additionaL 1600#. We hauled the package 1100 miles home with a Ford 150 1/2 ton truck through the mountains without any problems.
The boat had a roller furling headsail and was our first boat. We had no previous experence at all with sailing. We spend the first winter with the boat at our home while we read a bunch of sailing how-to books. With every new item or procedure we would go out to the boat, find the parts they talked about and figured out what they did. after practicing raising the mast twice at home we headed to the lake and ran the pole up there. A friend that also sailed went out with us that first time for a day of practice.
After that first time we continued to sail at least 3 times a week all summer long as we were retired.
After the first 2 summers we sold that boat and bought a 38' Island Packet and moved aboard and sailed for the next 2 1/2 years in the gulf, Keys and east coast until med reasons forced our return. I still sail a 23 foot trailer sailer and love every minute. So just do it! That 250 is the perfect place to start and you won't outgrow it after 1 year.
Ray
 
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