advice on centerboard boats

[Hoyden]

Hello, I am currently sailling a 19' O'Day Mariner, "Yes" on the Upper Chesapeake with a friend. We are thinking that something a tad larger would be more comfortable for weekends and weeks on the water. It would be nice to be able to sit up belowdecks. We have free dockage but the boat must be able to sit on the bottom at very low tide and be trailer kept. Any suggestions? Thinking of a 22' Catalina. Does anyone know of the Precision 23' centerboard. It will be a Chesapeake boat. Fixed keel will just not work. Thanks for any suggestions.

[camaraderie]

Try a Catalina 25 with centerboard. Lots available and more suited to your goals than a C22.

[Delirious]

Precision 23 is a fine sailing boat but you'd snap or bury the rudder to "beach" it with the tide. It also has a bit of a shoal keel and likely could not balance itself on that without careful dock-line management. --- I take part of that back - the P-23 has a kick up rudder so as long as you remember to lift that it will be protected.

A Nimble 20 could sit flat (it has a sharpie rudder no deeper than the skeg, as does the Nimble 24. A boat with a number of sailing faults but very versitile in thin waters. We had both and trailer-sailed them all over the Eastern Shore from Havre de Grace to Crisfield.

There are several English designs with bilge-keels that are designed to settle dry in high-tidal areas,; but you pay a price with added drag of a second keel.

[sailingdog]

One thing to be aware of... most bottom paints will not protect the hull from growth if they are buried in mud... so you'll probably have to scrub the bottom on a regular basis.