Much appreciate the responses!

The place where I would keep this boat is about a mile from the lake and
there is a power line crossing the road with a 20 foot clearance. There is
another sailboat in the area who keeps the mast rigged and its clearly
higher than 20 foot (as is almost any boat I was looking at) so Im guessing
he must temporarilly "droop" the mast to transport it (on the trailer) under
the power line. Seems to me keeping the mast rigged and just dropping it for
the mile drive would make the setup a lot easier. One concern for leaving
the mast rigged all the time where the boat will be parked is the risk
lighting strike but I beleive this will be very small since the boat and
mast will not be grounded and there are taller trees around the boat.

Also, seems that I have a lot more options if I can accept a fixed keel and
this raises how high the boat sits on the trailer. The boat launch at this
lake has a low slope so Im concerned that this would make getting the boat
on and off the trailer fairly difficult..

This has little to do with this topic or boatbuilding but here are some
pictures of the lake in Colorado where this sailboat will be used:
http://analogengineering.com/elevenmile/lake_shots/

Regards,

Wally Hall
Denver

Walt wrote:

Not exactly related to "building" but..

Im thinking about getting a used small sailboat. I have experience
sailing (windsurfing and ice boating) but very little with sailboats..
So here is what I think Im looking for..

* I want something very easy to get in and out of the water and set up.
Im thinking something around 18 foot with a retractable keel? or water
balast might be good. I helped someone launch what I think was a
Catalina 24 and it was a nice sailing boat but a little more hassle in
the launch and set up than I would like (trailer had to be pretty deep
for the keel and the mast looked like it required 2 people. Id like to
be able to get it in/out of the water and setup by myself.

* Id like to have a "little cabin" on the boat

* One reason I want this boat is because it will live at a lake which
can have some high winds that come up fairly quickly. So Im hoping that
the boat is still safe to motor around with say a 4 hp outboard with the
sail taken down.

* I dont care at all about speed but Id like to be able to to reasonably
safely have four adults in the boat.

* can you tip over a boat such as Im looking for? If so, is this a big
deal?

Any recomendations or comments?

Regards,

Wally Hall
Denver