Daysailer for middle-aged couple

[kmtmd]

We would appreciate any thoughts on a good daysailer. We are a middle-aged (50's) couple, one of whom has moderate arthritis. The boat would be used on a 3500 acre inland lake in Wisconsin. My husband is a fairly experienced sailor who grew up racing small boats and has cruised keel boats up to 40'. The winds on our lake vary from light and flukey in the summer to quite strong in the fall. We would sail mostly with 2 people, but occcasionaly up to 4 or 5 people. The boat has to have a cabin with a private head (a middle-aged thing...) Other requirements include:

1) Maximum draft of 3' 6" (we need to pass through a channel)
2) Pretty to look at (the boat will be moored behind our home)
3) Able to be launched from a trailer (there are no travel lifts on our lake)
4) Be fun to sail

Some of the boats we have been looking at include a Cape Dory 25, a Paceship 23, Com-Pac 23, and a Paceship 26. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help.
Kate

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by kmtmd

We would appreciate any thoughts on a good daysailer. We are a middle-aged (50's) couple, one of whom has moderate arthritis. The boat would be used on a 3500 acre inland lake in Wisconsin. My husband is a fairly experienced sailor who grew up racing small boats and has cruised keel boats up to 40'. The winds on our lake vary from light and flukey in the summer to quite strong in the fall. We would sail mostly with 2 people, but occcasionaly up to 4 or 5 people. The boat has to have a cabin with a private head (a middle-aged thing...) Other requirements include:

1) Maximum draft of 3' 6" (we need to pass through a channel)
2) Pretty to look at (the boat will be moored behind our home)
3) Able to be launched from a trailer (there are no travel lifts on our lake)
4) Be fun to sail

Some of the boats we have been looking at include a Cape Dory 25, a Paceship 23, Com-Pac 23, and a Paceship 26. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help.
Kate

Those boats you listed are getting up on the large size for easy trailering, set-up, and quick launching. Hopefully you would not have to launch/retrieve very often.

Given your draft requirements, and the need to launch from a trailer, it might be best to focus on boats with a centerboard (maybe some of those have them?).

Could you give us a better idea of budget?

P.S. Welcome to Sailnet!

[svHyLyte]

Take a look at Harbor 20 .

[2Gringos]

An O'Day 16 would be about perfect, but that's just me.

I think they called the nice little daysailor with a small cuddy to stash stuff the "Mariner" or "Mariner 2+2" I used to sail one of those sometimes, with a friend and we also sailed my own AMF Sunbird around Waquoit Bay and out to Martha's Vineyard. Easy to haul on a trailer, and not difficult to launch.

I bet you can buy one of those ready to go for way under a thousand bucks these days.

[blt2ski]

Do you want new, recent new, or older used? Budget?

I would agree a Center board model would be best if you only have 3.5' in the channel where you moor or get thru after launching. with a kickup rudder, if it got to 2' for some strange reason, you could get thru. If you had a fixed keel at 3' you're screwed!

Catilina and Hunter build models in that range. Another out of Colorado has some. Shock has as mentioned the Harbor 20 and IIRC about a 25'ish foot version. Not sure if there is an Alerion in that 20-25' range that is trailerable or not. I am recalling something, but it may not have a cabin/head option.

marty

[Mark1948]

What about a Catilina 22 or 25 with the shoal keel. There are some in the Milwaukee market that need a little work but would be a good boat for the lake.

[kmtmd]

All, thanks for your suggestions. John, we would like to keep our cost less than $20,000.00. We only plan on putting the boat in once in the spring and taking it out in the fall. Fortunately, my stepson and his friends are rugby players and can help us with that process :-) Kate

[JohnRPollard]

Okay, that helps. That's a pretty decent budget, too, which opens up possibilities.

One of the requirements that makes this a little tricky is the "cabin and head". In my mind, you are getting a bit beyond "daysailer" and into a somewhat larger realm when the boat has a cabin with private head. The Cape Dory 25, for instance, is certainly more of a cruising-oriented keel boat.

So the title of your thread may throw people off a bit.

"Fun to sail" is also somewhat subjective. For some, that would mean a more "athletic" ride, but given the arthritis you mentioned, I don't expect that's the case for you and your husband?

Also, does this boat need to have an auxiliary engine, or are you thinking strictly sail power?

Don't worry, we're not nitpicking here, we're just trying to focus the search.

[kmtmd]

John, thank you for your questions, it helps us to think about what we want.

The channel we need to use is usually about 4' 6", so we hope that by limiting the depth of the boat to 3' 6" that we should be okay most of the time.

By fun to sail, we mean something that is responsive, will sail upwind well, and be useable in light air. We have a Flying Scot now, which is all of the above, but a handful for a middle-aged couple once the wind gets above about 12 knots and has no cabin.

Hence, we are looking at keel boats (either fixed or swing) with enough ballast so that we don't need to be hanging out over the edge of the boat when the wind picks up!

The enclosed head requirement is a concession to the medical realities of aging :-(

We are flexible on the engine. On our small lake we probably won't use it very much. Thank you again for your help!

Kate

P.S. Your Pacific Seacraft 31 looks gorgeous! (If only there was a way to launch one off a trailer...)

[CoastalEddie]

Have you considered one of the larger catboats?

Such as Com-Pac's Horizon Cat?



Or, the Marshall 22?


Catboats have large cockpits and cabins (for their LOA) and are certainly pretty to look at.

They are a bit pricy, but that is also a function of their relatively large beam (i.e., there is more material in them for their length).