Recommend sail boat for crabbing in PNW estuaries

[estuarian]

I am looking for a sail boat to use for crabbing in estuaries and bays in southwestern Oregon. I need to carry up to four persons. A small cabin would be nice, but not essential. No need to sleep on the boat. What is essential is finding a sail boat that I can stand up in to sail and to run the crab traps without worrying about getting my head boomed. I'm 6'2" tall. I've sailed Cal 24s and a couple of 26-30 foot sloops. These are exactly not what I am looking for. Since there are a lot of rocks here, i wouldn't mind an aluminum sail boat--a sailing equivalent or all the aluminum plate power boats used here. I don't need speed. I'm only going short distances for my crabs. I need stability and the ability to negotiate both occassionally big chop and skinny water in shallows from time to time. Never sailed a Cat Boat, or seen one up close, but have read they used to be used by lobster fishermen in the northeast for sailing. I hear they draft about 3 and a half feet. But I've also read about sail boats used in northwest Europe's coastal estuaries that have no bottom keel, but rather have keels sticking out at 45 degree angles from the hull to reduce draft and allow the boat to stand upright on its keels when the tide goes out. The weather here is often cold and rainy, so this is not the place to wear shorts and top siders. Rain suits are the rule. I left Socal and love it here, but all the sail boats I am familiar with are just pleasure cruisers. Southwestern Oregonians seem to just use power boats. I want a sail boat that would serve well as a working crab boat. I have no desire to go over the sand bar into the ocean, as I live on one of the hairiest sand bars in the PNW. It can be trailerable, or not. I just want it as short as possible and still be able to stand up in it and crab. Thanks in advance.

[blt2ski]

This is the style of boat you want, Alth this particular boat and brand is NOT what you want for "your" use.

You may find that there are some Wherry style boats that will also work, or the skipjack flat bottomed boats used on the east coast for lobster work too. I would also think one of the beetle cat style and brand boats would work too. Not sure that you will find an aluminum one, with out having someone modify a design or have one design/built for your purpose.

Gig harbor boats has some day sailers in the 16-18' range that may fit what you want.

Marty

[sailingdog]

First, who ever told you anything about cat boats doesn't know jack about them. They're very shallow draft boats with the centerboard up. As an example, the Beetle Cat, although a bit small for what you want, has a board up draft of EIGHT INCHES.

What you might want to look for is something like a Com-pac Sun Cat. The boat has a 14" draft board up... However, someone of your height is going to be at risk of getting whacked by the boom and certainly can't stand up in its cabin.

My boat, although probably out of your budget, would probably work fairly well for your intended purposes. The Telstar 28 has a cabin with about 6' of head room, as shown by my crew, who are mostly 6' tall... The boom clears a bimini they can stand under, so the boom isn't a danger to your head. The draft on the boat is only FOURTEEN inches with the board up. It can be beached, and will sit flat if it dries out on a mud or sand bottom. The ama decks would work as a fairly decent work platform for the crab pots.

Generally, shorter boats have lower booms, and less standing headroom in the cockpit and the cabin. One problem I see with your plans is that most fiberglass sailboats won't like the abuse that crab pots will give the deck and topsides.

Originally Posted by estuarian

I am looking for a sail boat to use for crabbing in estuaries and bays in southwestern Oregon. I need to carry up to four persons. A small cabin would be nice, but not essential. No need to sleep on the boat. What is essential is finding a sail boat that I can stand up in to sail and to run the crab traps without worrying about getting my head boomed. I'm 6'2" tall. I've sailed Cal 24s and a couple of 26-30 foot sloops. These are exactly not what I am looking for. Since there are a lot of rocks here, i wouldn't mind an aluminum sail boat--a sailing equivalent or all the aluminum plate power boats used here. I don't need speed. I'm only going short distances for my crabs. I need stability and the ability to negotiate both occassionally big chop and skinny water in shallows from time to time. Never sailed a Cat Boat, or seen one up close, but have read they used to be used by lobster fishermen in the northeast for sailing. I hear they draft about 3 and a half feet. But I've also read about sail boats used in northwest Europe's coastal estuaries that have no bottom keel, but rather have keels sticking out at 45 degree angles from the hull to reduce draft and allow the boat to stand upright on its keels when the tide goes out. The weather here is often cold and rainy, so this is not the place to wear shorts and top siders. Rain suits are the rule. I left Socal and love it here, but all the sail boats I am familiar with are just pleasure cruisers. Southwestern Oregonians seem to just use power boats. I want a sail boat that would serve well as a working crab boat. I have no desire to go over the sand bar into the ocean, as I live on one of the hairiest sand bars in the PNW. It can be trailerable, or not. I just want it as short as possible and still be able to stand up in it and crab. Thanks in advance.

[tager]

I am thinking you might have to make this boat yourself.

[Izzy1414]

Originally Posted by estuarian

..... Southwestern Oregonians seem to just use power boats. I want a sail boat that would serve well as a working crab boat. I have no desire to go over the sand bar into the ocean, as I live on one of the hairiest sand bars in the PNW. It can be trailerable, or not. I just want it as short as possible and still be able to stand up in it and crab. Thanks in advance.

Hey, hey, hheey, that's just crazy talk esty !!! yeah, you're right, stinkpots abound here because of the treacherous nature of our coast. I can't help you much on the workability of different boats but it seems to me that a trailerable boat would prove to be more practical. For instance, you'd be able to move easily from Coos Bay to Winchester Bay or up to Florence without venturing "out". Or inland to some more friendly lake sailing for a change of pace.

[estuarian]

I know how to sail a little, but have never studied the engineering and wind dynamics of sail boats. I took some lessons, and have sailed in bays and on the channel off Santa Barbara before moving north. Nothing more challenging.

After looking at some of the longer boats and noting their high booms, also short enough to stand up at helms near the stern, I am wondering if there is any naval architectural, or engineering factor, that precludes either a high boom, or a shortened one, in a 15-18 footer? Would shortening the boom and raising it in an existing boat, say, a West Wight Potter for a common example, simply cost me some sail surface and so some speed, or would it make a sail boat dangerously unstable and unsailable by raising the center of wind forces too high up the mast and to high above the hull? Thanks in advance.

I would rather not have to build a sailboat from scratch, if one could be adapted.

[estuarian]

Don't misunderstand me here. I may be an immigrant, but I am a proud and devoted one. I love Oregonians and Oregon, or I wouldn't have moved here. I had been coming up for visits for 14 years, before finally finding the right time to make the move. I don't begrudge anyone their stink pots. Those plate boats are among the most significant advances in power boat technology in the last 40 years. And I am proud as heck to be living in the state that probably builds the most of them. I just want to be able to sail on the Coquille River Estuary with my boy about a quarter of a mile, or so, each way, from the launch, to run my crab pots the way god and Neptune intended, and to teach him to sail. It is the best thing I ever learned how to do, and I want him to start out with it, not end up with it the way I unfortunately had to do.

I know most persons love sailing just for the sake of sailing, but for me sailing is so much more fulfilling when I'm going out to bring something back for dinner. Know its not rational. But its true. My great great grand father was the captain of a whaling boat that sailed out of New England somewhere. Maybe its in the genes, though he must have had waaaaaaaaay bigger genes than I have.

[Izzy1414]

Originally Posted by estuarian

......I know most persons love sailing just for the sake of sailing, but for me sailing is so much more fulfilling when I'm going out to bring something back for dinner. Know its not rational........

Nuthin' at all wrong with that view. Truth be told, most of us sailors make up reasons why we have to sail from point A to point B or pretend them's pirates in those other boats we're runnin' from!! You're just giving yourself a real reason to be out there and getting back to your roots at the same time. Of course being out with your son is reason in and of itself. Have fun .

PS, Trailerability would make haulouts for regular maintenance a little more manageable as well.