First post and a question.

[bmiller]

Hi folks! Brand new here so I might well start off with the age old question, which boat?!?! Currently my wife and I sail a 23' Hunter in Colorado. Our plan is to find a trailerable coastal cruiser and explore the flatter rest of the world. I really like the Pacific Seacratf Dana 24. They seem very well built and safe, two important atributes in our next boat. But is the full keel heavy displacement boat too slow to get around at a decent pace?

What we are looking for is a boat that can be trailered, not necessarly trailer launced, safe, not slow, 24-30 feet in length, can be single handed, at least 6' head room, diesel power, enclosed head with holding tank, sloop or cutter rig. I can make the galley what we want and don't mind fixing up an old boat, within limits. Budget, well, we'll see. If the house sells then anything goes!!!

Plan on cruising Mexico, the PNW, Florida, possibly Bahamas and even down to the Carribean.

Want to avoid production boats, Catalina Hunter and such. Can tow around 10K lb.

Let me have it, what fits the bill? If you have the same dream and a dream boat what is it?

Thanks in advance, Bill.

[Charlie Jones]

Bill- if you are really interested in fast, look for a multihull such as a Corsair.

Any monohull sailboat that fits the criteria you have outlined is going to be within 1 knot of any other one depending on waterline length. Our Rhodes Meridian is capable of 6 knots in the right conditions, but offshore, practically speaking you are looking at 4 on average. Hull speed on the boat is 5.6 knots

The Dana will do close to the same, maybe a hair more, but even then you are looking at maybe 5 knots. Hull speed limits how fast you can sail, and a cruising boat, loaded for cruising is gonna make hull speed at a max.

I lived aboard a 35 foot triamaran. On occasion I saw the boat do double digit speeds ( up to 19 knots on one occasion) , but normally we sailed a 7 knots.

Forget speed and look to seakindliness and relative comfort- I say relative because until you get WAY big, sailboats offshore aren't particularly comfortable. They hop around a lot.

Having said all that- the Seafarer Meridian 25 and 26 ( hard to find) Pearson Ariel ( will need work) Dana 24, PSC 25 ( no standing head room) Contessa 26, and others all will fill your bill

I'd sugesset you purchase John Vigor's book- "?? small sailboats that will take you anywhere" I forget the number but you can find the book.

[Greg Luckett]

Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere (Paperback)

by John Vigor "Not many 30-footers, old or new, seem as basically seaworthy and rugged as the Alberg 30..."

at Amazon.com, $19.95

This the right one Charlie?

[capt jake]

No pointers as there have already been some pretty good suggestions.

Saw you location adn it made me thing of friends we had (or still have) there in Buena Vista. They owned an old motel on the outskirts of town. Along with many acres of land to explore. Fun time for me there as a kid! Doubt you would know them but there are the VanderHoops'. Can't remember the name of the motel though.

[Charlie Jones]

Thanks Greg- yes that's the one. I"ve not read it but I have heard from people I trust that it's a very good reference.

[Frank Hagan]

Hake Yachts has some interesting shoal draft trailerable cruisers, like the Seaward 26 and Seaward 32. They are at http://www.seawardyachts.com/

I think the 32 is pretty new, so you won't find many used ones. But the 26 has been around a while. I've seen the 26 and I was impressed with it (but I'm a lousy judge of boats, because I like 'em all).

[bmiller]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I have the Vigor book and find it very helpful in figuring out what characteristics we may need in a boat.

Does anybody have experience with the Com-Pac 25?

Or the Nor'Sea 27?

Thanks again, Bill

Jake, the name does not sound familiar. Where is the motel?

I see you are a FF also, where?

[Charlie Jones]

Greg Delezynski and his wife have been living aboard a Northsea 27 for the last ten years, currently cruising Sea of Cortez.. He visits the Cruising Sailor BB. Here's the link.

http://www.cs-bb.com/forums/CSBB/index.cgi

He's also often on the Trailer sailor BB. Link for that board.-

http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/trailersailor/index.cgi

Post a question directly to him on either of those and I'm sure he'll answer whatever questions you have. They DO love the boat.

[Greg Luckett]

I would love to have a Nor'Sea 27......okay along with about a dozen other boats too

[capt jake]

Jake, the name does not sound familiar. Where is the motel?

I see you are a FF also, where?

Fire Captain in the greater Seattle area.

It's been years since I was there. I think it was on the North end of town, on the highway coming into town. Older, probalby from the 40's or 50's (the motel). Neat place to explore on the property.

[Hirilonde]

Trailerable and ocean cruiser? I guess everyone has there own opinions but I don't really see both of those criteria fitting the same boat. My thoughts are that each would compromise the other too much. I beat myself up debating similar issues as well and couldn't find a suitable mix. I settled on an old Pearson Renegade which I refitted myself. http://www.renegade27.org/

Comfortable (relatively speaking) and seaworthy won out over trailerable.

[Charlie Jones]

I suspect we've moved out of the realm of a really " trailerable" boat and into the realm of a "Highway legally transportable" boat.

Long ago I had a phone discussion with Fred Bingham about his Alegro series. We decided that "transportable" was the proper word for the type boat we are discussing here.

And remember- even the Hiscock's Wanderer III that they sailed so many hundreds of thousands of miles was legally transportable here - it was only an 8 foot beam.

[Hirilonde]

I suspect we've moved out of the realm of a really " trailerable" boat and into the realm of a "Highway legally transportable" boat.

Ah, now this thread makes more sense to me. Now the 2 criteria are much closer.

[Frank Hagan]

"Transportable" means a lot more money to move it, right? Its not like you hook up a 32' long, deep draft boat to your Ford Explorer. So how much does it cost to have the boat trucked 1000 miles? I would expect it to be pretty expensive.

[Charlie Jones]

can't say Frank.

But I really don't consider our Meridian 25 as "trailerable" She's 5300 pounds dry weight and loaded for cruising we figure her at 7000. We can haul her around behind our Silverado 5.7 L engine, but we run at about 55 doing it. We brought her down from New York on a flatbed in a cradle.

I have a friend in Houston who JUST launched his PSC 25 - He has a cradle that sits on a flatbed trailer. Hauls the boat with his pick up, but not fast. 1/2 ton pickup. With a 3/4 ton truck he'd be fine. But you are tallking travel lift launching then. couple hunderd most anywhere. Of course, that's still cheap and a WHOLE lot faster than sailing from say here on the Texas coast to the Chesapeake Bay. You could do that on the road in three days. Sailing would probably take 6 weeks. I delivered my trimaran around from Jacksonville to Galveston, pushing every day to make as many miles as possible and THAT took 35 days.

That's at least 30 days we could be sailing at the destination. I'm really looking to put a trailer under Tehani as soon as we can, for JUST that reason. Hey- from where we live it's 10-12 days in the ICW mostly under motor, 5 days offshore ( IF you don't get headwinds), JUST to get to Florida. We know that for a fact, having done it twice now.