Trailerability and launchability

Tom Hoffman · Sep 29, 2011

There seem to be an American come up for sale in the mid west fairly regularly.

Tom...

dscribner · Sep 29, 2011

Squidd,

This is the best time to buy. Folks are done sailing and don't want to pay winter storage so they just want them gone. I paid $2200 for our Lancer 25. I think Tom paid somewhere around the same. The deals are out there.

Sumner · Sep 30, 2011

Squidd said:
... I'm jumping at the bit to get one, but still in the "which one do I really want" as opposed to whats available mode...

I think that is smart if you want to keep the boat for any length of time. I researched for a month or more online and we decided what we wanted and then didn't settle for anything else. One problem we have is we live in the high desert, so we couldn't see boats first hand.

In fact we didn't even see our Mac until it showed up in front of the house. I found it on Craigslist in Phoenix 400 miles away and had a good friend look at it. I meet him from racing at Bonneville and didn't even know that he was a former sailor until I asked him to look at the boat. If he gave it a thumbs up we were going to drive down and look at it. Once I found out the he knew way more than I did about sailboats and he was impressed with the condition of the boat we bought it unseen. He then said that they wanted to come see us and would tow the boat to us in Utah. Can't beat that.

He had sailed a lot in Florida and said that we would love the boat down there with it's 15 inch draft and he was right, but we also loved it the other places we have been with it.

So back to your point....decide which boat you want and then find one. Chances are unless you flip it right away you are going to end up with time and money into it that you won't get back out of it, so put that time and money in what will work best for you. I would rather spend twice as much on a boat that I'll keep and enjoy vs. half as much on a 'good deal' that I won't want to keep.

It looks like Tom and Don both got boats that are working great for them, hope you find the right boat for you,

Sum

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Benny17441 · Sep 30, 2011

Trailerable boats are full of compromises. First determine your intended use and primary needs and go on about choosing a boat that fills those. Do not forget that an important component in a tralerable boat is the required tow vehicle. To give you an example we keep a trailerable to use once or twice a year to take a 10 day trip at a distant sailing venue. Our boat is a 1985 Starwind 223. It is a rather large boat for its length but it is a 22 footer nevertheless. It has a fixed, short, ballasted keel with a swing centerboard. We chose this boat because it combines good stability with ease of launching and retreiving. The boat can sleep 4 and a good size cockpit allows for comfortable sailing. With a tow weight of around 4,000 lbs it requires a good tow vehicle rated for at least around 7,000 lbs to reliably and comfortably handle distances and terrain. We use a full size V8 SUV with a towing package. Because of trailerable weight issues most boat in the 24-26' class use water ballast. This gives you the added space with reduced weight at the expense of some stability. I don't think anyone is currently building ballasted swing keel trailerable vessels at present and choosing a used boat may carry some risks about the condition of the support and swing mechanism. I would like to warn you about a possible pitfall. There is a natural tendency to get into a trailerable for the wrong reasons. Some choose it as an entry step into sailing just looking to upgrade as soon as possible and others choose it to try out if the like sailing before getting into dock fees and other expenses. The first usually find they upgrade sooner than latter and take a loss in dispossing of the trailerable and the second may give up sailing altogether as they found they used the boat less and less because of the difficulty of transporting, launching and retreiving. Our main goal was to have a boat that could travel long distances rather quickly and no other boat could have filled the need but a trailerable. We love it. Good luck.

OldCat · Sep 30, 2011

Benny17441 said:
Our boat is a 1985 Starwind 223. It is a rather large boat for its length but it is a 22 footer nevertheless. It has a fixed, short, ballasted keel with a swing centerboard. We chose this boat because it combines good stability with ease of launching and retreiving... I don't think anyone is currently building ballasted swing keel trailerable vessels at present...

How about a Precision 21 or 23? These are newer designs, in production, available new or used. Like your Starwind, they use a fixed shallow ballasted keel with a swing board. I think that the Starwind may have been designed by Jim Taylor, just as the Precisions were.

OC

Trailerability and launchability

Tom Hoffman

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dscribner

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Squidd

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Sumner

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Benny17441

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OldCat

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Squidd

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