How to stow a small sailboat onboard

[wgkenney]

Good morning all,

My daughter is enjoying sailing on her college sailing team and has asked if we could get a small sailboat this summer to use while we are at anchor. I was thinking about a sunfish or sailfish. This would give her some experience handling a small boat and would be fun for all of us.

My issue is how to stow this on our Beneteau 473. I sailed both sunfish and sailfish when I was in my teens and they seemed very small at the time. But in looking at them at the Annapolis Boat Show .. they are much bigger than I remembered.

I stow the inflatable between the dodger and mast and we have a baby stay that is foreward of the mast so the deck space is a bit limited.

Does anyone here have a way to haul around a small boat this size on your larger boat?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[zeehag]

if your inflatable is a roll up, stow it below and put the sailing dink on coach house under boom???? or do you have a vang?? or , if you have davits, will the sailing dink fit on those/? i knew someone from pnw area had a hobie on his bows--made cover of latitude 38 long ago, when he went to sf-- was kept to the stbd side of his forestaysail track..... hang inflatable off davits?? another friend had a ct 48 with a dink on davits and an inflatable on coach house roof, under boom...there are so
many viable places with a 45+ ft boat.....mine is 41, and i stow a kayak, bicycle,inflatable and walker bay and inflatable kayak on board, but i have to keep the inflatable rolled up.....

 

[Tim R.]

Why not buy a sailing dinghy to use as a tender and tow it behind? We used to do this with our CD10. Great for sailing and rowing.

 

[Joe]

A Laser is 14 ft and a tad heavy to manhandle out of the water on to the deck. Don't know your J measurement, but with a set of custom chocks you should be able to make it fit on the fore deck. You'll need to lift it out of the water with some type of hoist... perhaps the spinnaker pole with topping lift and vang tackle on the outboard end could allow you to lift the hull and swing it onto the foredeck.

 

[Tim R.]

Two more thoughts:

A Snark or have her learn to windsurf.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Seems like a lateen rig(single sail), while fun, would not really prepare her for the college team. But I can't think of a sloop rig that is small and light enough for what you need.

I think towing a Sunfish would work. You would need a bridle and a snap on cockpit cover. Spars and sail could be lashed to the stanchions.

 

[wgkenney]

Thanks all

I think there are a few options here. We were considering davits for the inflateable and then stow a small sailboat on the fore deck.

Also the sunfish may not be the best option. It looks like there may be better alternatives for small boats.

 

[wgkenney]

Thanks everyone for the advice. We decided that we will install davits and get the inflatable off the foredeck. It is a pain to get it on and off the boat each weekend. So we can keep it on the davits and will look for a light small sailboat to stow in its place.

We had several suggestions. I agree the laser and sunfish are both a bit heavy. Also we are looking for some mounting brackets as suggested above to hold the boat.

Thanks again.

 

[walt]

Another option..

We towed a Hobie Adventure Island behind a trailerable sailboat. Two sons age 13 and 15 used the AI a fair amount this summer. 15 YO really took a liking to it. Its different than sailing a dingy but they have a lot of fun with it and Ive seen both kids out in fairly high winds with it. Made me a little nervous to watch... but no problem. I think its a great kid sail craft - and the bonus is that I also have had a lot of fun with it..

We also ended up using the AI as a dingy for a moored sailboat - not so good as the Amas keep you from getting comfortably close to the ladder. Sort of worked..

This picture below is not that relevant.. but I like the picture (how to overload a Hobie AI)

 

[rejenk3]

Sabots and El Toros are very compact, weigh in at about 80-90 lbs and configured pretty good for rowing. They would even make a decent dink if you are disciplined enough to step in the boat and not on the gunwale. I learned to sail in an El Toro and still have fond memories of those days.

 

[Old Skool Neil]

Here's where I carried the 8' sailing/rowing dink on my previous boat, a Westsail 32. Used the main halyard as a crane.

 

[BrotherB]

Hey Kenny, a little variation off your topic, but is your daughter going to New Orleans for the big competition this week? I sail on OSU's team here in Oklahoma, and we're headed off in the morning to compete on Lake Pontchartrain; good times!