Small, beachable boat

[leffklm]

I have been working my way through the ASA classes up through their bareboat class and enjoy sailing on the bigger boats, but the idea of having a small little daysailor to dink around on is really appealing to me. My best friend has a place on a small, secluded bay where I can keep a boat (in his side yard), but it would have to be beachable and not too heavy so that it can be dragged or carried a short distance by two people. Ideally, it would have room for two people and be a forgiving boat for a moderate beginner to learn on. I'm not interested in speed, just comfortable sailing with emphasis on stability and staying dry. This would almost exclusively be sailed in relatively calm waters with light breezes. I know most of the discussions here are centered around much larger boats, but I thought I would throw this out there to see if anyone has any knowledge or recommendations on a boat that might meet my needs.

Thanks in advance!

Leff

[saurav16]

Go to new england and get a cat boat. When you get tired of it you can sell it easily they sell like hot cakes up on the cape (cod). You can take them right up to the beach and they are small.

[ChicagoNewport27]

I don't know what area you're in, but if you're in/around Illinois...

There's a guy on the chicago craigslist.org site posting a 19' Weekend sloop FOR FREE. If you're handy with tools, this might be a fun project to (A) learn to restore a smallish, trailerable boat and (B) have a fun little daysailer to dink around with.

Weekender sloop sailboat-Free

[Alden68]

I second the catboat idea. Great little boats that are stable and reasonably dry with lots of room. Tons of resources available to aid with rigging, sailing, cruising, etc..

The 18 footers have berths and portable heads and work for 2 people for short time periods. While they are certainly beachable drawing only 19" with the board up, the 18 footers weigh approx. 2,200 pounds so dragging them up a beach would b difficult unless you have won a World's Strongest Man competition recently

They are also very easy to sell in NE as saurav16 said. We paid 12K for an 18' 15 years ago and just sold it in a week for 11K. They really hold there value.

Good luck...enjoy whatever you get!

[sailingdog]

The bigger cat boats don't really count as being light enough to be dragged by two people generally. The smaller ones would be ideal. However, cat boats have rig that is basically unique to them and a few others, so unless you're interested in a Hinterholler Nonsuch as your larger cruising boat, it might be wise to stick to something with a standard sloop rig.

There are some smaller boats that might be good choices, but most of the common smaller boats that are sloop rigged are racing dinghies, and not really suitable if you don't want to get wet. BTW, staying dry and sailing on a small boat are generally incompatible...

The West Wight Potters come to mind as a decent, relatively dry daysailer, and could be used for an occasional weekend or overnight trip. Again, these like the catboats are a bit heavy to beach.

The Melonseed skiff is another good one. What I would recommend is that you get a copy of Small Craft Advisor magazine and take a look through it, as it has a lot of small sailboats listed in it.

[ollie820]

Here are my picks. From what I have seen of Cat boats they seem to be heavy and you may have issues.

O'day Widgeon
Catalina Capri
JY 15
Pearson Hawk

Be prepared to go swimming with these:
Hobie
Sunfish
Laser

[sailortjk1]

What about a Flying Scot.....
Nice boat, stable, good learning platform, trailerable, roomy cockpit for a daysailor.

They weigh 850 lbs.
You might be able to drag that up the beach.
Have you thought about some sort of dolly arrangement to help with on and off the beach. They are available.
I don't have personal experience sailing these boats, but I have admired them from a far. I would certainly consider one for myself one day.
Flying Scot® Sailboats

[Neises]

This one has sailing canoe written all over it.

[sailingdog]

A Catalina Capri is over 1300 lbs... are you guys nuts??? A Beetle Cat would be a much better choice at a third the weight. A Cape Cod Mercury, which is sloop rigged, would also be a much better choice, at 900 lbs...

While I like the sailing canoe idea, most of them aren't sloop rigged... and they tend to be a bit tippy...

[Alden68]

tippy generally wouldn't meet the "dry" criteria very well