Trailerable Pilothouse Catamaran?
I am about 10 years away from an intended trip from
Los Angeles, up the West Coast to S. E. Alaska through
the Inside Passage.
I am considering both trailerable and berthed vessels.
With all the uncertainty of future pension benefits
and Social Security in question for some of us, I am
scaling back my budget to $50,000.00 +/- for a used
boat - or about $500.00 monthly. I calculate that at
that price a trailerable boat could be financed for
about what the slip fee alone would be for a berth
down here in the Los Angeles area where I live. The
boat payment and slip fees for a berthed vessel could
easily double that to $1,000.00 monthly.
Here are my requirements for this project:
Trailerable - 10 feet or less wide
Easy to launch
Easy to set up the sail - stepped mast. I have done
some sailing. I owned a 14 West Wight Potter. However,
I motored it more than I sailed since I mostly fish at
dawn, and generally there is no wind to sail until
about 10 to 11 am in these waters, and the fishing is
generally over by then. The idea of a sailing when
favorable conditions are present is compelling to keep
costs down.
Desired features include:
Unobstructed area in cockpit for 2 to fish or do some
crabbing. Preferably with a flat deck.
Quarters for 2 Pilothouse Dual or Triple steering
stations with cockpit controls so boat can be
maneuvered while fishing.
Standing shower/head.
Heating and AC Limited galley Long range - speed is
not an issue. Great fuel economy is.
I would like a 300 - 400 mile range under power if
possible.
My preference is a Catamaran since they would have
optimum available space for boat length, shallow
draft, and extremely stable while at rest. However, I
am not aware of any Catamaran that meets these
requirements.
Any suggestions and recommendations would be
appreciated.
Happy New Year to all.
Sincerely,
Jim Garner
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Jim,
I'm sure you'll get lots of informative responses, but let me give you a
few of my thoughts:
-
You're asking for a lot. My 28' powercat can pretty much do what
you're talking (minus the sails), and it's 9'6" wide. But towing it,
and launching it are not exercises for the faint-hearted, even with my
diesel pickup truck. A few times a year is OK, and not very far down
the road. -
Sticking a mast and sail on a 10' wide cat - probably not advisable.
Catamarans receive their heeling stability almost exclusively from their
beam - that's why you see most sailing cats with a length/beam ratio of
2:1, meaning a 30 ft cat will have a beam of 15 feet. -
Another characteristic of catamarans is that the individual hulls
are very narrow - typically a L/B ratio of 8:1 or higher. That's what
give them their performance advantages. A fat cat is a dog. Those
skinny hulls also present some challenges - on a smaller cat like you're
talking the hulls might not even be accessible. Fuel to meet your range
requirements will take up a substantial part of it. And skinny hulls
depress quickly as you add weight, like when on a longer cruise, and an
overloaded cat is uncomfortable and dangerous. -
Occasionally we see a boat up here in SE Alaska with a big stick
poking straight up out of it. We all point and snicker... seriously,
sailing is pretty much the pits up here with the narrow channels, big
currents, and 100% headwinds (your direction matters not). EVERY boat
up here is a power boat - big stick or not. -
Your idea of trailering down south makes some sense, but you need to
look at a road atlas for BC and SE Alaska. Not many roads to trailer
on. You can load a tow vehicle and boat on the ferries but that will
get awfully expensive. Besides, why bother? There are thousands of
miles of protected waterways in the inside passage - a very modest boat
can safely navigate most of them, most of the time, using just a bit of
judgment. My buddy ran his 22 ft Seasport up from Bellingham last
summer with zero problems - smaller boats than that routinely do it.
You just need 250 miles of fuel range and you'll be fine. -
Cost - cats are not cheap boats to begine with, and they command a
premium resale price these days. $50K sounds light to me. Probably
heresy to say on this board, but you should give some thought to a
monohull - you'll get more boat for your money. -
If your heart is set on a trailerable, sailing multihull, you might
at least take a look at some of the folding trimarans out there. -
10 years is a long time. Why not get a boat today that you can use
today. In 10 years you can trade out for the boat that'll do the your
trip o' dreams. Who knows what your situation will be and what will be
available on the market - I think we're at the beginning of a flood of
catamarans - in 10 years there might be a lot more to choose from.
A good book you might want to read is The Cruising Multihull by Chris
White - it does a great job of explaining multihull technology,
strengths, and weaknesses. It's geared towards sailors, not power.
Hope this helped.
Bob Deering
Juneau Alaska
-----Original Message-----
From: power-catamaran-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:power-catamaran-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of Jim
Garner
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 6:14 AM
To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com
Subject: [PCW] Trailerable Pilothouse Catamaran?
I am about 10 years away from an intended trip from
Los Angeles, up the West Coast to S. E. Alaska through
the Inside Passage.
I am considering both trailerable and berthed vessels.
With all the uncertainty of future pension benefits
and Social Security in question for some of us, I am
scaling back my budget to $50,000.00 +/- for a used
boat - or about $500.00 monthly. I calculate that at
that price a trailerable boat could be financed for
about what the slip fee alone would be for a berth
down here in the Los Angeles area where I live. The
boat payment and slip fees for a berthed vessel could
easily double that to $1,000.00 monthly.
Here are my requirements for this project:
Trailerable - 10 feet or less wide
Easy to launch
Easy to set up the sail - stepped mast. I have done
some sailing. I owned a 14 West Wight Potter. However,
I motored it more than I sailed since I mostly fish at
dawn, and generally there is no wind to sail until
about 10 to 11 am in these waters, and the fishing is
generally over by then. The idea of a sailing when
favorable conditions are present is compelling to keep
costs down.
Desired features include:
Unobstructed area in cockpit for 2 to fish or do some
crabbing. Preferably with a flat deck.
Quarters for 2 Pilothouse Dual or Triple steering
stations with cockpit controls so boat can be
maneuvered while fishing.
Standing shower/head.
Heating and AC Limited galley Long range - speed is
not an issue. Great fuel economy is.
I would like a 300 - 400 mile range under power if
possible.
My preference is a Catamaran since they would have
optimum available space for boat length, shallow
draft, and extremely stable while at rest. However, I
am not aware of any Catamaran that meets these
requirements.
Any suggestions and recommendations would be
appreciated.
Happy New Year to all.
Sincerely,
Jim Garner
--
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Power-Catamaran Mailing List
Jim: Bob Deering's comments appear spot on, at least for the present.
If you tow much over 4500 lbs., towing, launching and retrieving will
require at least a 3/4 ton truck, best in diesel with 4 WD. We briefly
considered the 26' Glacier Bay power cat. Its hulls are wide; decent
performance requires @ least 250 H.P. It does not 'trawl' well.
Accomodations/ galley are minimal. Weight is about 10K# with trailer;
one needs a one ton to tow this, and then not great distances.
As jubilados (retired ones in Spanish) and boating newcomers (read
fairweather sailors),we want a boat towable behind our Ford F150, easy
to launch and sail. We're spoiled by the comfort level of the 150.
We've decided to go with a 26' MacGregor powersailer
(www.macgregor26.com). We plan to travel far and wide in the next
years, possibly eventually doing parts of the Loop minus locks and
waterways. Winters we'll use it at our winter casita on the Sea of
Cortez @ Bahia de Kino, Sonora, MX.
When and if we sell our home in the states, we'll look at the powercat
market which I'm following thanks to Georgs and this site. This will
become our summer home. Lots 'o nifty designs will be a few years old
or more by then, and a bit kess of a bite
BTW: for the PNW, Bob might agree that protected prop(s)/rudders are
the way to go. While on a twin screw in the San Juans in Sept., we ran
over an almost submerged invisible log (confused seas) that bent the
port prop enough to knock against the rudder post! No water in the
boat, but we got a bit of a fright. The charter firm was quite helpful,
we tied off the port shaft and eased back to Anacortes. No more bare
naked shafts/props for me!
-Original Message-----
From: Jim Garner jimgarner1@earthlink.net
To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com
Sent: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 07:13:50 -0800
Subject: [PCW] Trailerable Pilothouse Catamaran?
I am about 10 years away from an intended trip from
Los Angeles, up the West Coast to S. E. Alaska through
the Inside Passage.
I am considering both trailerable and berthed vessels.
With all the uncertainty of future pension benefits
and Social Security in question for some of us, I am
scaling back my budget to $50,000.00 +/- for a used
boat - or about $500.00 monthly. I calculate that at
that price a trailerable boat could be financed for
about what the slip fee alone would be for a berth
down here in the Los Angeles area where I live. The
boat payment and slip fees for a berthed vessel could
easily double that to $1,000.00 monthly.
Here are my requirements for this project:
Trailerable - 10 feet or less wide
Easy to launch
Easy to set up the sail - stepped mast. I have done
some sailing. I owned a 14 West Wight Potter. However,
I motored it more than I sailed since I mostly fish at
dawn, and generally there is no wind to sail until
about 10 to 11 am in these waters, and the fishing is
generally over by then. The idea of a sailing when
favorable conditions are present is compelling to keep
costs down.
Desired features include:
Unobstructed area in cockpit for 2 to fish or do some
crabbing. Preferably with a flat deck.
Quarters for 2 Pilothouse Dual or Triple steering
stations with cockpit controls so boat can be
maneuvered while fishing.
Standing shower/head.
Heating and AC Limited galley Long range - speed is
not an issue. Great fuel economy is.
I would like a 300 - 400 mile range under power if
possible.
My preference is a Catamaran since they would have
optimum available space for boat length, shallow
draft, and extremely stable while at rest. However, I
am not aware of any Catamaran that meets these
requirements.
Any suggestions and recommendations would be
appreciated.
Happy New Year to all.
Sincerely,
Jim Garner
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.9/217 -
Release Date: 12/30/2005
Power-Catamaran Mailing List