Advantages to have a small boat

[hamburking]

Saw this for sale locally. Seems like a real steal:
1976 Contessa 26 Sailboat | sailboats | Trenton | Kijiji

I wonder if it originally had a small diesel?
Still, a lot "go anywhere" boat for little dollars...cdn too....so even less in USD!

Contessa 26, $3500cdn asking. Located north shore of Lake Ontario, west of Kingston.

[Hudson Force]

When I attempt to think of things that would be absolutely impervious to any damage in a violent storm out in the open ocean, the things that come to mind are a tennis ball or a capped bleach bottle. I'm not automatically thinking of big things as being more durable.

Comfort, storage and making way are other variables, but increased size doesn't seem to be a factor for durability in a storm.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

When I attempt to think of things that would be absolutely impervious to any damage in a violent storm out in the open ocean, the things that come to mind are a tennis ball or a capped bleach bottle. I'm not automatically thinking of big things as being more durable.

Comfort, storage and making way are other variables, but increased size doesn't seem to be a factor for durability in a storm.

Speaking for myself and the other 99.9 percent of the people on this planet, we're thinking more along the lines of something like this being a safer bet during a storm.

[Boulter]

Hi:

I agree with most of the comments for and against large and small. I'll highlight what I particularly enjoy about my small boats.

For a given relatively small annual expenditure, say $5000, (an amount that a considerable number of people could handle), I can over time achieve a very high degree of condition: better parts and rigging, new sails more often, very well done electrical system, whatever one might deem to be premium kit and accessories. Whatever your personal definition of technical excellence is more likely to match your finances.

I can enjoy both Lake Ontario and Lake Huron in the same season without the time and expense of having to transit locks or canal systems. Now this for me is very convenient by virtue of having two smaller boats, one docked for the season, the other trailer sailed, but this would still be true for a single boat.

Trying new things that you might not like or you might not get right is less costly. I have running backstays on my 18 foot boat for a few hundreds of dollars that I might or might not continue using. If it were to have been a 4 figure experiment on a larger boat, I likely would not have done it.

A smaller boat has a modular engine. Put on a bigger or smaller one. Sub in a lower value one in high theft areas. Take it off altogether. Share between 2 boats. Take it home to work on it.

There is the possibility of putting your mast up and down while under way. I have plans to set up the 18 foot boat to do this efficiently and maybe sail parts of the Trent-Severn system this fall.

The boats come home on their trailers for the off season. This has a number of advantages beyond yard fees avoided:

I can keep an eye on them through the winter as opposed to them being 100 miles away at the club.

Easier to contemplate and plan new work when I can run out to the boat with a tape measure at any time, even in weather unsuitable to actually do any work.

I get to work on them at home no more than 50 metres from the full force of my detached shop building. Every tool and material I own is always available at the cost of a short walk. I could have this feature with a larger boat at an annual trucking cost of perhaps $3000, but that seems extravagant.

Probably other stuff, but above is what comes to mind.

Boulter

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Speaking for myself and the other 99.9 percent of the people on this planet, we're thinking more along the lines of something like this being a safer bet during a storm.

Small boats are safer in storms because the owners are more likely to hide in port and wait in a taverna for it to pass.

[Jim Cate]

Small boats are inherently unsafe, less stable, less comfortable, slower and harder on the crew. They get bashed more by the wind turned upside down sooner by the waves and are out there only because some lunatics and dreamers have pockets not deep enough.

thanks, Barney... finally someone brave enough to state the obvious in unequivocal terms!

There are certainly some advantages to smaller boats, and they have been well noted in the thread. But the "small boats are safer" idea that I objected to earlier is not one of t hose advantages in any realistic situation.

Jim

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Well, let's not mince our words, shall we... how do you really feel?

Don,

All due respect to anybody sailing a small boat. I am sailing one too.

Beyond doubt, small boats have many advantages over big ones! Then the big ones have some advantages over the smaller ones too.

At a point in this thread we went from looking for the advantages to suggesting that small boats have not only their own advantages but also the ones that belong to their bigger brethren.

Expansion by extension ;-) but not a valid one!

Love and hugs,
barnakiel
aboard his 26' shooter

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Frankly, I doubt someone telling us they felt safer in a 22' boat (than in a 62' one) is serious.

I think the person simply did not sail enough in each style or at least not enough in one of them!

Our own boat is 26' and I have sailed long distances in boats up to 72'.

Small boats are inherently unsafe, less stable, less comfortable, slower and harder on the crew. They get bashed more by the wind turned upside down sooner by the waves and are out there only because some lunatics and dreamers have pockets not deep enough.

And I am glad they are as otherwise I would not be sailing either. Except I have a mirror in my boat and I look myself deep into the eyes before every offshore passage.

Cheers,
b.

You could be right.. WTF do I know..??

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Speaking for myself and the other 99.9 percent of the people on this planet, we're thinking more along the lines of something like this being a safer bet during a storm.

Yet the 'Unsinkable Titanic' went down in a flat calm.. there's all kinds of false assumptions..
All I can say is 3 large commercial fishing boats (2 Spanish, 1 Portuguese) went down in my vicinity during the last few days as I slowly closed Viviero that Nov/December in 2008.
Must confess it was my longest Biscay crossing as much was spent hove to

[MJ84]

I'm all but certain... no, actually certain that the answer to this question lies in the original poster gaining some actual experience.

Switch off the computer and go sailing for about 3-5 years to answer your own question

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by boatman61

You could be right.. WTF do I know..??

C'mon, brother - have some mercy on me!

I am getting older too and who knows, perhaps my memory is telling me things that never happened!

;-) ;-) ;-)

+Love&hugs,
b.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

C'mon, brother - have some mercy on me!

I am getting older too and who knows, perhaps my memory is telling me things that never happened!

;-) ;-) ;-)

+Love&hugs,
b.

Ahahahaaa.. I was conceding that your sanity may out weigh my insanity..
Even tho' I've spent considerable time on a variety of sizes of boat from 19ft to 65ft and distances from 80nm to 17,000nm.. in coastal and offshore/ocean voyages its still just 1 mans opinion..
Really its each to their own.. you and I regard being out of sight of land as no big deal.. others find it terrifying.. same with large and small boats.
As Keno says.. 99.99% of folks here would consider venturing into the N Atlantic in a boat under 30ft insane.. yet people do just that fairly regularly in the UK/EU.. and survive.
Lets face it.. the creator of the Nimble Navigator C/P program has successfully managed to do the N Atlantic circuit in the same old small boat for 17yrs (according to MarkJ).. this year will be his 18th from the Caribe-Azores-Madeira-Canaries-Caribe.. and his boat is far removed from what the 99.99% would regard as 'Safe'..

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Speaking for myself and the other 99.9 percent of the people on this planet, we're thinking more along the lines of something like this being a safer bet during a storm.

Hmm, didn't her sister ship the QE2 need some repairs to the rails and windows after bashing her way through a storm in the N Atlantic.

Pete

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by hamburking

Saw this for sale locally. Seems like a real steal:
1976 Contessa 26 Sailboat | sailboats | Trenton | Kijiji

I wonder if it originally had a small diesel?
Still, a lot "go anywhere" boat for little dollars...cdn too....so even less in USD!

Contessa 26, $3500cdn asking. Located north shore of Lake Ontario, west of Kingston.

Looks pretty and in good condition, may have been moulded but not fitted with a diesel. You should buy it at that price. Only downside is the standing head room or lack of it would put me off. I want to stand up to get dressed in the morning not lie down on a berth to put me trousers on.

Pete

[barnakiel]

Yes. His experience and then also the fact that he is sailing a BCC. OK, there may be a shade of weed at his waterline ... ;-)

Another proof small boats are fine sailing big waters. But not a proof they are better or safer doing this than their big sisters.

On the second thought, maybe the weed is the answer. Maybe boats in bristol condition are simply less seaworthy. This would make plenty of sense given that they are owned mostly by people who never sail them ...

;-)
b.