Largest cruiser that can go on a trailer at a boat ramp?

[Vitis01]

What about something like a Corsair 37? Retracting hulls, folding mast, stupid fast.

[Ifitsworthdoing]

Great Harbour TT35 “Trailerable Trawler” - a slim beauty of a boat!

[Jdege]

My Vaitses/Herreshoff Meadow Lark is 37-foot ketch that's launchable from a trailer.



My understanding is that the biggest problem with launching large boats from a trailer is depth - a lot of ramps don't let you get deep enough for the boat to float.

Curlew, though, only draws 20 inches.

[Augi]

Originally Posted by sailnow2011

I want to do some cruising, but live in a hurricane area, so it will need to come out of the water and travel 2 miles to my home.

I own a semi truck, and understand oversize load permits.

Make no mistake, I am not planning to tow it to key west from jacksonville, just from a ramp to the house. I realize height will be an issue, and prefer to keep it under 13.6 loaded height.

What kind of passage maker can I get? I want to be able to do a comfortable bahamas passage.

Seaward 32 RK monohull, Corsair 37 trimaran, Corsair 31 trimaran. Photo of Corsair 37 on her trailer is attached. The beam of a Corsair 37 folded is over 9'. Therefore, is probably not street legal without a permit depending on the State.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by out42

Corsair 31. Easy to launch and trail, sails brilliantly, circumnavigated the North pole. No contest for me.

Yep. I think they make those up to 37' if the OP needs to go big.

[Sailmonkey]

Be aware that lots of ramps drop off abruptly. Launching 40’ boats wasn’t part of the typical ramp design brief.

[MartinF]

What Sailmonkey said. If you go big and fixed keel it will be difficult to find ramps that you know are smooth and solid down to 5 or 6 feet below water level.
M

[fourlyons]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Be aware that lots of ramps drop off abruptly. Launching 40’ boats wasn’t part of the typical ramp design brief.

Very true.

But if the tidal range is at least 5' the ramp is usually long enough if it going to be usable at low tide, you just launch at high tide. The ramps I used had a 7-9' range and so had to be very long to be usable at any state of the tide.

[Davepf]

Had the same question when we were looking at switching our catamaran. We choose an old 1980 Carver Santa Cruz 2667 to use it in Canada then trailer to Florida, cross to the Bahamas and back. 8 feet beam makes it legal in ALL the states, 12feet height when on trailer. 200miles range at 24mph with a 25% reserve. On of the smallest boat to have a flybridge too. We love it ! Wish we had more space for our 3 kids but we manage to make it confortable !

[capt jgw]

There are a couple of storage yards here that use hydraulic lifting trailers on a regular launch ramp, and can do up to about 50 feet. Getting the boat out of the water and up the ramp is the hard part, it's downhill from there. Your limit is height on the trailer which of course varies with the trailer. Almost all new boats get delivered to the dealer by truck, usually with the fly bridge off, maybe even on a separate truck. So your only real requirement would be no fly bridge. I once looked at a 36 Grand Banks in a repo yard. To get it there they had to remove the bridge ... with a chainsaw. Pass.

[SailingFan]

Originally Posted by capt jgw

There are a couple of storage yards here that use hydraulic lifting trailers on a regular launch ramp, and can do up to about 50 feet. Getting the boat out of the water and up the ramp is the hard part, it's downhill from there. Your limit is height on the trailer which of course varies with the trailer. Almost all new boats get delivered to the dealer by truck, usually with the fly bridge off, maybe even on a separate truck. So your only real requirement would be no fly bridge. I once looked at a 36 Grand Banks in a repo yard. To get it there they had to remove the bridge ... with a chainsaw. Pass.

Owie.. "No, that wiring just tapes back together! Sure, you can fix that! No, there is no structural issue, just nail that back on with a few 2x4s and slather some paint on it, she will be just Jim-Dandy! Bobby-Joe just got a little excited with the chainsaw, it will buff right out once you nail that lid back on! Of course we want to resell her, and you are JUST the guy that this boat has been looking for!" Heck, we have a ramp right here! Climb on, we will just shove her right in, and you can be in Australia by next week!!"

Yep, HARD pass!!

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by guyrj33

If it's a sailboat, unstepping the mast will quickly become the limiting factor.

Don’t underestimate this

[chbpresent]

Recommend having enough power to maintain speed slightly greater than following seas to avoid uncomfortable and dangerous yawing - 9 to 11 knots

[Augi]

Originally Posted by sailnow2011

I want to do some cruising, but live in a hurricane area, so it will need to come out of the water and travel 2 miles to my home.

I own a semi truck, and understand oversize load permits.

Make no mistake, I am not planning to tow it to key west from jacksonville, just from a ramp to the house. I realize height will be an issue, and prefer to keep it under 13.6 loaded height.

What kind of passage maker can I get? I want to be able to do a comfortable bahamas passage.

An idea is find a dry storage location that allows the boat you chose to be stored on it's trailer with the mast up. So the dry storage location would have to have a boat ramp or have a lift to launch, retrieve the boat. That way you don't have to raise and lower the mast each time you go sailing. That means you will sail a lot more. If the dry storage location has a lift and a tractor to tow the boat on it's trailer to the lift then you don't even have to hook the trailer up to your car or truck and do the launching, retrieving yourself. That again reduces the hassle factor which means you will sail more.

[Peconiceast]

I trailer beneteau 311 swing keel
Takes about 4 hrs to step mast
With at least three people.