Couples boat?

What you want is a good old cat boat. A jaunty sheer, surprising accommodations in a small boat in case she wants some privacy, you need to be the Golly Green Giant with the world's largest pancake turner to flip it, in the the wind strengths you describe, it'll sail reasonably flat, people will drool when you pull up to a wharf and if you happen to run down a Laser, you'll hardly notice it as it's keel hauled and spit out the other end.

 

Damn ... That is one of the types I was considering. Bolger's Catfish Beach Cruiser with a nice gaff rig would work. Privacy and accommodation are not needed ... will probably never sail more than a few hours at a time. A proper cedar bucket would serve my wife just fine.

I'm not sure how a catboat fits as far a fun to sail double hander when I want to go out in the bay for Wednesday night beercan races, my Catalina 30 is one of the slowest rated boats in our fleet. I think a small trimaran has a better chance of being faster than a similar length cat boat.

When you talk about running down a Laser and spitting it out I suspect you are talking about a boat in the 20 foot range?

Do you have any particular design you like? If it is not a production design, it would have to be simple and fast to build. I'm not up for 1000 hour project.

R

 

THIS is your boat, Randy, Cox's Bay Skimmer; 5.5m x 2.25m

 

I think you've arrived at the stage of life where Uffa Fox said:

“When to the age of forty we come
The men go the belly and the women go to bum.”

His response to reaching that age and proportions was to design the 18ft Jolly Boat.

http://www.cvrda.org/jollyboat/?page_id=2

 

That is a very pretty boat.

 

Yes indeed, nice looking boat, and best of all ...TWO masts, one for each of you !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not bad, not bad at all. Guess you could also go cat...one tiller for each .

Hey, instead of a couples boat, why not a couple of boats ? Everyday a new race. Looser cooks dinner ?
STARBOARD !! Gimme a hole Im coming thru......

 

We do that with RC Lasers. Wench has better sailing skills that she thinks she does. Sailing the little boats might add to her confidence in big boats.

R

 

Sorry, I didn't see emotional stirring on the SOR. ;-) Also did not understand that performance only had to be better than a Cat 30. Almost any multi (and quite a few monos) will fit that bill.

I was going to race a proa to Hawaii in 2008 and 2010. Maybe 2012. The boat is built, "just" waiting for the rig. There will probably be a sister ship sailing before mine is finished. Using flat panels and a variation on the KSS system, the sistership will weigh less than 500 kgs and cost $AUS35,000, plus rig.

rob

 

Check out Iain Oughtred's designs. A very different approach from most of this thread, but trad types in lapped glued ply designed by a rabid dinghy racer.