On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 13:49:45 +0000, 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?


Keel boats are usually designed so that they can't capsize (tip over) in
normal conditions. If they do capsize, they usually don't stay that way,
as they are very unstable upside down. However, if a typical keelboat
doesn't right itself very quickly, it is liable to fill up with water and
sink.

Probably you don't have to worry about all this stuff unless the lake you
are talking about is fairly large. Wind by itself won't capsize or sink a
keelboat. It is the seas and wind together that sink boats, and a small
lake can't develop large seas unless you are talking about hurricane force
winds.

Just now, the lyrics from the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
come to mind. ;-)

Any recomendations or comments?

Regards,

Wally Hall
Denver


--Mac