Buying first boat. Major criterion -- TRAILERABLE

[sailingdog]

The other advantage, especially if you're basically land-locked, is that a trailerable boat can be taken to different sailing areas via trailer, and give you far more areas to explore than a non-trailerable boat. Not many boats can go 60 MPH to windward, which a trailerable can often do.

[tdw]

All this talk of Ford Exporers and Macs struck a chord with me and then I remembered this. Go for it. Why do you need a shitty old Ford and and equally crappy floating hamburger ? You can thank me later.

Top Gear's Car/Boat Challenge

[denverd0n]

I've towed a boat with a Ford Explorer with the towing package. It was a San Juan 23. Boat, gear, and trailer--the all-up weight was probably no more than 4,000 lbs. I'll tell you, that was a struggle for the Explorer. I surely wouldn't ever want to tow anything heavier. Most especially not around NC (I lived in Raleigh at the time), where there are lots of hills. It wasn't so bad when I lived in Florida (where everything is flat).

I would look at that 5,400 lbs. tow rating as a now-and-then, for very short trips, you don't want to do it too much! sort of rating.

For me, today, having owned a couple of trailerables, were I going to buy another trailerable, I would stick to pretty small boats--the West Wights, the small end of Catalinas or Hunters, or something similar.

Good luck!

[fullkeel7]

Sovereign 24...sleeps 4, approx. 3000 lbs.(outboard version), 2'7" draft. 8' beam and 5'7" headroom. They can also be found, although rare, in an inboard diesel version. Water tankage is about 20 gal. Not a bad looker.

Bob