most seaworthy trailer sailboat?

[mr curious]

well?

is there such a thing?

cheers

[PAR]

Flica on the small end of the scale, with several at the large end (30'). No, there isn't any such thing, just some that are better then others and personal preferences.

[alan white]

How about a St Pierre dory? 27 feet and very trailerable. Some say that there is no record of lives lost due to any design fault. It's probably an exaggeration, but such dories and smaller ones have gone transatlantic over 100 years ago. From all I've heard, the high ends and angled sides contribute to a boat that refuses to be tripped by waves.
A reasonably well ballasted banks type dory could probably go anywhere, especially if the cockpit is self-baling and the cabin is low.
The downside is that dories with slab sides make slow sailers.
I've often wondered if an additional chine or two (like Swampscott dories) would improve the sailing qualities while maintaining the survivability of the original type.

[fcfc]

Perhaps look at minitransat style boats : http://www.pogostructures.com/?m=2&s=1&l=

They are the smallest offshore racing boats. They can go in any direction in a 40 knot wind 13 ft waves, including upwind with an acceptable speed. Thats about the upper limit, though. Above that, weakest crew/boats begin to have problems. They also regulary cross Atlantic. Being the cheapest offshore boat, they are numerous enough to make reasonable statistics.

Trailerability is possible, but borderline. 22 ft lengh and 2000 lbs displacement do it. 10 ft beam is more complex. Either use an overwidth permit, or use a special slanted trailer, to make the whole width within 8'2". Draft is another issue 5'5". Some have removable keel, something between liftable keel and fixed keel. Definitely not able to use ramps.
NB to go upwind in 40 kt wind, you need significant draft and significant ballast well down.

[Petros]

I do not exactly know what you mean by "most seaworthy" but these guys make a high performance folding trimarans up to 44 ft long that can be trailered.

They look like hot designs:

http://www.f-boat.com/pages/trimarans/index.html

And this outfit makes a large trailerable catamaran 36 ft long x 24 ft beam, that folds to 8' 6" wide:

http://www.cat2fold.com/

[Hansen Aerosprt]

Ocean Voyager 26 - Great little full keel double-ender and a true cruiser.
Shallow draft and easily trailerable.
Check it out here or do an internet search.
<< http://www.sailingtexas.com/svoyager26a.html >>

[schakel]

Originally Posted by Hansen Aerosprt

Ocean Voyager 26 - Great little full keel double-ender and a true cruiser.
Shallow draft and easily trailerable.
Check it out here or do an internet search.
<< http://www.sailingtexas.com/svoyager26a.html >>

Beautiful,

That's where I am looking for for a long time. One problem: trailing it from the USA to Holland. But I keep on searching.

[K4s]

Allan Wright designed the TASMAN 20 for a bloke who wanted a 20 foot trailer boat he could sail from NZ to Fiji safely(relative I guess).
Hundreds of them sailing around NZ and quite a few for sale on Trade me down this way.

[blackdaisies]

http://www.selway-fisher.com/PCup16.htm

http://www.selway-fisher.com/PC1620.htm

These look like some nice affordable build it yourself boats. You can always get someone to build it for you or buy one used. Good luck.

[Steam Flyer]

Originally Posted by mr curious

well?

is there such a thing?

cheers

I love the look of the Cornish Crabber and the Selway Fisher gaff cutter designs; Dudley DIx did the same sort of thing with his Cape Cutter
http://www.dixdesign.com/inspir19.htm

But there's a difference between looking salty and truly being seaworthy. These boats could be very seaworthy, but what are the main characteristics, and how do you achieve it in a boat that is also trailerable? Obviously making it very heavy, or giving it very deep draft, which are usually characteristics of "very seaworthy" boats, is not desirable.

I would say to be "seaworthy" a boat needs a couple of characteristics... the first is reserve stability. This means the ability to recover from being knocked down or rolled on (or past) her beam. This will also enable the boat to remain manageable and carry sail past the point other boats with more initial stability would.

Second (and not less important) is watertight integrity. This is partially design, partially construction, and will to some extent depend on good maintenance thru her sailing life. Watertight integerity keeps you afloat and it also keeps your gear & bedding dry.

Obviously lots of different type boats can do this.

I like the St Pierre dory idea. A long history of seaworthy boats there, and no reason it wouldn't be trailerable.

Another similar is Bolger's Micro, a bit small at 16' so you could do the Big Micro 19'.
http://www.boatdesign.com/micro/

FB- Doug

[zambant]

But you could do a lot worse than a Jaguar 22 .... the old ones were built like tanks, sailed well, trailerable, displacement about 1200kg and can be picked up for relatively little money..

My 10p worth

John

[bistros]

Originally Posted by alan white

How about a St Pierre dory? 27 feet and very trailerable. Some say that there is no record of lives lost due to any design fault. It's probably an exaggeration, but such dories and smaller ones have gone transatlantic over 100 years ago. From all I've heard, the high ends and angled sides contribute to a boat that refuses to be tripped by waves.

St. Pierre et MIquelon dories are really interesting. They often had u-joints on the propeller shaft outside the hull, and the whole prop could pull up into a well. They were traditionally beach launched off tracked ways and a cradle outside the owner's fish stage. Craftsmanship was more important than their Newfoundland cousins - since they were beach launched they didn't have the luxury of taking up water to seal seams that boats left in the water did. Lots of these boats were used for smuggling rum during prohibition.

The original make and break single cylinder engines were an art form with serious personality as well - by lifting the spark wire and re-connecting it as the right time, you could reverse the engine. There was no predicting whether or not you got it right until you could see shaft rotation direction.

--
Bill

[mr curious]

thanks for the feedback guys, very interesting.

[mattotoole]

Some other boats like the ones mentioned:

• Nor'sea 27
  
• Pacific Seacraft Flicka 20 and Dana 24
  
• Folkboat and Contessa 26
  
• Cape Dories less than 28'
  
• Chuck Paine's Frances

But while these have trailerable dimensions (length by width by height), they're all pretty heavy, and would need a monster truck to pull them. They're not really ramp-launchable either.

For a more normal tow vehicle and ramp, you might check out the S2 7.9, a Great Lakes favorite. In the same vein, but bigger, the new Andrews 28 looks great.

[Chickadee]

26's Contessa and Ocean Voyager are really big looking like the real - but tiny - classic cruiser !

On the other side, the Pogo is a big boat too, maybe be more seaworthy - do you discuss it ? - and it goes so well! but it's not trailerable, you'd need to ask for a special permit as even with a special slanted trailer it would be more than 2,5 meters I believe. or unmount, then remount the keel, 430 kg ?!

Older minitransat have circumnavigated and are trailerable, with big cars only

• Muscadet
• Serpentaire

So a true trailerable sailboat is a day cruising, lighter boat, no need for a lifting crane.

Plenty of nice, day cruising, old looking boats in the previous posts !

Or look at the Microcup for somethin more modern and performant. Cute isn't it ? Or multihulls, people have crossed the atlantic on hobby-cat...