Trailer sailer
A trailer sailer is a type of
Trailer sailers are used for both racing and recreation and are popular with small families and retirees. They occupy a space between smaller trailerable sailing dinghies which are intended for day use and larger boats which can only be removed from the water with specialised equipment such as boat lifting cranes.[3]
Unlike dinghies, many feature enclosed cabins which allow for overnight sleeping and dry storage. Most trailer sailers also feature
Trailer sailers offer a number of advantages over larger boats that are impractical to tow on a trailer. Because they can be towed and stored at home, owners can avoid the mooring fees and maintenance costs of boats that remain in the water. Towing is also a relatively fast and efficient way of reaching new destinations from which to sail.[1][2] However, they generally have less living space. All but the biggest do not have standing room in their cabins. Moreover, trailer sailers are generally more lightly-built and ballasted, making them incapable of tackling open oceans, confining them to coastal and protected waters.[3]
Due to the limitations of trailer capacity, towing vehicle size and weight, as well as highway width limitations, most trailer sailboats are limited in size to about 22 to 26 ft (6.7 to 7.9 m) in length and beams of 8 ft (2.4 m).[2][3]
History
The first trailer sailers were built in the 1950s. They were light,
The advent of mass production fibreglass boats in the mid 1960s saw an expansion of trailer sailer designs, such as the
Trailer cabin sailboats appeared on the US market in 1970 and were sailed on small lakes and rivers. A large number were initially sold in North America in areas such as Arizona, New Mexico and the Great Lakes region.[2]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s trailer sailers evolved into sportsboats, of a similar size but more optimised for racing speed with reduced accommodation and lightweight hulls.[16][17][18] There is an absence of an accepted definition of the term.[A]
Accommodation
Cabins in trailer sailers are usually arranged with dual purpose settee-
The smallest trailer sailers in the 14 feet (4.3 m) range generally have two berths. As boats become larger four berths are commonly fitted, with a V-berth at the
Towing
Trailer sailers, by necessity, must be transported by trailer, which places a number of restrictions on their design. To make them easy to launch, retrieve and transport by trailer, boats cannot have long fixed keels. Therefore, most trailer sailers have swing keel centreboards or daggerboards. Generally a trailer sailer should be towable behind a vehicle without special licences for oversized loads. This means that the beam is usually limited to approximately 8 ft (2.44 m) depending on jurisdiction. The practical limit for the length of such boats is 26 ft (7.92 m), although some trailer sailers such as the Robb Legg 28 or the Gougeon 32 are longer.[20] Weight limitations are determined by the towing vehicle. Smaller trailer sailers can weigh 500 kg (1,100 lb) or less and can easily be towed behind average cars, while larger, heavily ballasted trailer sailers can weigh over 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) require heavy vehicles with specialised towing equipment. Larger trailer sailers over 26 ft are difficult to tow and are sometimes kept in the water and only placed on their trailers for occasional towing or storage.[3]
Trailer sailer masts must be lowered for towing. This becomes difficult on larger boats with heavier, longer masts. Such boats require complex mast raising systems.[3]
Some sailboat designs for trailering incorporate special features. The
On the design limitations of trailerable boats with flooding water ballast, Cruising World writer Bill Lee said in 1996:
The geometry required to make a trailerable flooding-ballast boat function is such that they are a little awkward in appearance. This is accentuated by the high freeboard and narrow beam required to meet highway trailering limits ... Such boats almost always score poorly relative to their fixed keel counterparts in both sailing performance and power to carry sail. Apart from issues of portability and low cost, the more conventional fixed-keel boats ... are superior ... in most respects. Certainly if one is on a limited budget but wants a refined, good sailing, capable boat, one should consider a previously owned ... fixed-keel vessel.[22]
Rigging
Most trailer sailers use a Bermuda rig with one stayed mast, a mainsail and a single foresail.[3][23]
Mast raising
Masts can be raised by attaching them to the deck and walking them up. This is practical on smaller boats with lightweight masts, but as larger boats have longer and heavier masts. On such boats, raising the mast by brute force requires significant strength and is beyond the abilities of smaller, frail and short-handed crews. Therefore, many designs employ mast raising systems to make the task easier. Methods vary but can be classed into three groups.[3]
One method is to use the boom as a gin pole, laying the mast on deck, with the boom at right angles. Hauling on the boom then raises the mast. This method has the advantage of using equipment that is already on the boat. A second method is to attach two poles called shear legs in an A-frame configuration with poles running from the sheer to meet above the boat. The mast can then be hauled upward using the forestay. This method requires additional equipment. A third method is to attach a pole to the winch post on the trailer and haul the mast upwards once again with the forestay, which also requires additional equipment.[3]
As the mast is being raised, it must be tensioned laterally. In many boats, the sidestays are not attached to the deck close to the axis of rotation of the mast and therefore tighten or loosen as the mast raises. The mast can be either held straight by a second person, or with temporary babystays mounted close to the masts axis of rotation.[3]
Engines
Trailer sailers usually have a motor for docking and maneuvering. Most trailer sailers use
Outboard motors used for trailer sailers need to be geared down as trailer sailers sail at slow displacement speeds compared to the higher planing speeds of powerboats, which are the most common application for outboard motors. Outboards are often mounted on the transom, with some boats mounting them in a well, also at the stern. Outboards may be mounted on a lifting mount, to allow them to be raised up out of the water. Long shaft outboard motors are advantageous, as they prevent the propeller from exiting the water and over-speeding when the boat rides over waves.[24]
Anchoring
Trailer sailers usually carry anchoring equipment. Due to their small size, the tackle is also light and can be lowered and raised by hand. Therefore power winches are unnecessary.[3]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ "Internationally, in the last ten years, yachting has generally declined in terms of the numbers of boats being raced. This trend, however, has been bucked by the ever increasing number of sport yachts being built and raced world -wide. Why is that? ... for the purpose of this feature, let's define a sport boat. The main feature is, as the name implies, a sporty racing yacht. ... road trailerable. They don't fit any rule and there doesn't seem to be an international consensus to define them, [and they are evolving.] ... These boats were all performance orientated, fun to sail and fast. The biggest difference these boats displayed compared to their trailer sailor predecessors, was that they tended to plane downwind. ... The reduction in weight is not the only answer used to justify the cost of a carbon rig, because with them, we can power the boat up so that it's fully loaded in 8 knots of air. There are two developments that have advanced the sport boat cause over the past few years: exotic construction materials and asymmetric spinnakers. Both have had a big influence in the evolution of these boats."[16]
Citations
- ^ a b Burgess, Bob (14 July 2011). "The Zen of Trailer-Sailing". Sail Magazine. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
- ^ ISBN 0-911284-00-1
- ^ ISBN 978-0-07-147258-6.
- ^ "History of the Type". Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ^ "Silhouette". Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ^ "Silhouette Yacht / Trailer Sailer". Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ^ "The Affordables" (PDF). Australian Sailing. October 2001.
- ^ According to the Hartley Boats website: "HARTLEY 16FT (5M) TRAILER SAILER". Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Aquarius 21 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Boomerang 20 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Cal 21 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Careel 18 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Neptune 16 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Pearson 22 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ "Catalina 22 sailboat". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ a b Thompson, Steve (February 16, 2003). "Sports boats" No Rules, Fast and Fun: Yaching's Fast Growth Segment: Sportsboats". boats.com. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
... let's define a sport boat. The main feature is, as the name implies, a sporty racing yacht. They generally tend to be between six and eight metres and are more than likely to be road trailerable. They don't fit any rule and there doesn't seem to be an international consensus to define them, but this may come in time as the boats evolve.
- ^ Glyn 1997, p. 161.
- ^ Sleight 2017, pp. 163, 165, 255.
- ^ ISBN 978-0877423430.
- ^ "RL 28". Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ Browning, Randy (2016). "MacGregor 26S sailboat specifications and details". sailboatdata.com. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
- New York TimesPublishing
- ^ Johnson, Rich; Johnson, Becky (2009). Rich Johnson's Guide to Trailer Boat Sailing. NorlightsPress.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-07-174957-2.
Bibliography
- Glyn, Charles (1997). Keelboat and Sportsboat Racing (Illustrated ed.). West Sussex, UK: ISBN 9781898660378.
Designed for racing or day sailing, this type of keelboat generally carries between three and five crew, and has a rig that consists of mainsail, jib, and a conventional spinnaker that is hoisted to hound height. It features wide hulls, rotating rigs, asymmetric kites and masts that are set well back.
- Sleight, Steve (June 6, 2017). The Complete Sailing Manual (4th ed.). New York, New York: ISBN 9781465467133.
Another type of keelboat, known as sportsboats, typically use asymmetric spinnakers. Although most are no faster than conventional keelboats upwind, they are designed to plane downwind under asymmetric spinnakers, often flown from the masthead.