Sailboat Lenght

[Capt'n Laddie]

New guy on the boat here. Always wanted a sailboat, but I have no ideal on what popular sizes in lenght is needed for the various water ways. Would someone please enlighten me.

[sharpii2]

Hi Capt'n

I think the first thing you need to do is to tell us what type of sailboat you're considering. They come in all sizes. Some are small and light enough to fit on top of your car. Others are big enough to live aboard and can carry several tons of your stuff. If you have never owned a sailboat before, I would suggest you start with the car topable size. Mavbe even a sailing pram dingy. This way, with minimal investment, you can find out what sailing is all about. You can see if you like it.

As far as length goes, everything is a trade off. Longer narrower sailboats can go faster when there's a good wind. But if they are not also deep (having deep airplain wing like keels with ballast bulbs on them) they just don't seem to have the stability to support a big enough rig for light wind performance. I have learned this the hard way. I have been designing a 20 x 5ft sailboat with no ballast keel. Originally, it was supossed to have 200 sft of sail. Once I did my stability calculations, though, I found it could only carry about 140 sft. This did not ruin my day because this boat was: A.) not supposed to be fast to begin with, and B.) was for my personal use.

Making a boat reasonably wide (about 30 to 40 percent her length) is the least expensive way to give her decent performance in average conditions.
It would be an interesting experiment to shorten my design by 20 percent and increase the beam by 20 percent. I wouldn't be surprized if the shorter, wider version ended up being faster than the longer, narrower one. This is because it could either carry a bigger rig, or it could carry its original rig in more windy conditions. I expect the longer, narrower version to reach speeds of 3 to 4 knots. The shorter, wider version would probably be able to reach speeds of 4 to 5 knots.

Hope I have been some help.

Bob

[PAR]

The average pleasure boat in this country is under 20' of on deck length, by a large majority. Under 25' the next range and under 30' comprise the bulk of pleasure craft in the USA. This may be the large number of trailered boats, or just the wish for craft that are easy to handle, own, operate and store.

Go get a ride on a friends sailboat or rent one at the river or lake, if you can. They come in a very large variety of shapes sizes, styles, configurations and number of hulls. They, like all boats, power and sail both, are a big set of compromises intended to meet a designer/client wish list of things. Some they'll do well, others not as well, but for the most part all will provide may hours, days, years and a life time of enjoyment.

I've been sailing since I was rather young (I was born 150 miles off the coast of Virginia in a 86 year old schooner in the early 1950's) and I can assure you the pleasure is hard to describe without being a writer of much better skill then I. The first thing you'll note is the lack of fuss or noise, being propelled by God's own breath. The skills to sail are very simple and come naturally as the body "feels" it's way through the wind. It's actually quite easy to learn and feel safe. Getting good enough to beat others while racing is another story, but the basics are very intuitive to most.

Go get a ride and have someone learn 'ya the basics. You will love it like a NASCAR fan loves Sunday afternoons, trust me . . .

[Jeff H]

This is something akin to asking 'how long is a piece of string?'; there is no real answer. If you have never sailed I suggest that you start out taking a course and sailing with other people until you have a sense of what size feels right for you. If you want to buy a boat as a way to learn to sail, there are severla options depending on your physical condition.

If you are reasonably athletic and agile, and know how to swim, then the best way to learn boat handling and the affects of sail trim is with a small centerboard boat. Boats like the Flying Juniors, Jets, Daysailer and JY 15's are good boats to learn to sail on as they are responsive enough to tell you when you are doing the right or wrong thing and yet not so high performance that you won't be able learn for capsizing.

If you are less agile, then a better choice would be a small responsive keel boat. I typically recommend boats in the 23 to 28 foot range. Ideally the best to learn on should be moderately light displacement, fin keel/spade rudder sloop. Boats like the Ranger 23, Sonar, and Colgate 26 just to name a few offer a good balance of responsiveness and stability.

Respectfully,
Jeff