Trailer Sailer Cruiser ?

[tomales bay]

heya been around boats for awhile. ( powerboats) nothing special but some ski boats and fishing boats. i got myself a sailing dinghy love it and now would like purchase a bigger boat.

i am not looking for anything over 30ft its just me and a buddie or my GF.

is it reasonable to have a trailerable boat if i am not planning on living on it that i can pull out of the water and store yet still be able to do some coastal cruising during summer or vacation time? i know it is not considered coastal but hawaii could it be open to a boat less then 30ft if purpos built or well designed for cruising that far? i live in the san fran bay area and would love to be able to get out to hawaii or up to alaska but thats as far as i would go. maybe cross country trailer then hit bahamas.


i have read a crap ton of books but am now looking for opinions.

what boats under 30 would you guys recomend. i have around around 40k would prefer it to be considerably less.

thanks
John

[phantomracer]

check out www.ne-ts.com

We are a community of trailer sailers.. we have lots of fun. Macs are great for our lifestyle. We have a 26M in addition to our Ohlson. We love both the boats!

[clockwork orange]

C&C Mega 30 is an interesting trailable.
Steve.

[roverhi]

The Norsea 28 is a boat that can be trailered or sailed around the horn. Weird aft cabin layout on most of the boats but the owners seem to like the design. Here is one with a Junk rig that you may want to junk but the price is good. 27-FT NOR'SEA, 1980 Monterey Bay

[S/VSkylark]

Big fan of the Com-Pac 27. Sturdy boat that you can pull rather easily.

[SkiprJohn]

Try to do a search on Seaward boats. Rather expensive but very well put together.
kind regards,

[Jack Tar]

The Trailer Sailor - Home

[scook1]

Very doable! There are lots of great different models of trailer-sailors. the key is to make sure that you have some great destinations planned as well. Chances are that you will want to spend a decent amount of time off of the boat. A 23 footer, gets to be pretty claustrophobic after a few days.
Spencer

[Lowcountry]

2nd on Compac Yachts. They make some great little boats. Also, check out Nimble's line of trailerable sailboats.

[u4ea32]

I would suggest you focus on a trailerable sailboat that is truly fun to sail. Presume that anything trailerable results in camping aboard, not living aboard.

Something that works in your favor is that trailerable boats tend to remain in far better condition than boats kept in marinas, so you can consider 30+ year old boats. They can be hard to find, you may need to go to a bunch of yacht clubs in your area and find "for sale" signs in the dry storage yards.

$40K is probably barely enough to consider a Farrier trimaran. These are very fun, very fast, roomy, great for day sailing, and probably the easiest to go from highway to sailing of any trailerable sailboats, and that includes sailing dinghys. Unlike keel boats, Farrier trimarans are easily launched at a normal ramp. If you can find an F-25C that is in good condition, that would be the ticket. Really high quality, but since they were kit boats, the finish on some is annoying. The F-82 is the new version, and I know of one for sale, I don't know the cost (contact Sam samjwhitmore@hotmail.com or (321)363-7613 in Orlando FL).

But you might be happier using a lot less of that $40K for the purchase, and then being able to act like a rich man when owning the boat (because every boat likes to vacuum all available money out of your bank accounts). Here are some far cheaper, but still FUN boats:

If you want to day sail more than overnight, I would suggest an Etchells or a Soling. You can pick them up for on the order of $5K. Simple, lots of cheap used good sails available. Cheap gear if something breaks. Really fun to sail, and easy to trailer (you need a yacht club hoist, generally not much of a problem but you need to be a YC member).

If you want to cruise more than an Etchells or Soling will let you, then I suggest a racing trailerable monohull like an Olson 30, Santa Cruz 27, Express 27, B32, Hobie 33, CF 27, an ex-MORC boat, maybe even a Melges 30 or a Mumm 30. Take a look at the sailing anarchy classifieds for some examples. Note that some of these might require permits for trailering because of beam exceeding 8.5 feet.