wrote:

Yes and no. I recommend rigging a jib downhaul if you intend to do
this. It's particularly useful if you do as I do and generally heave
to before dropping the jib when single handed. Jib comes down inside
the lifelines neat as can be, and if you secure the downhaul you don't
risk the wind's raising the jib for you when you don't want it to.

Tried a down haul. Took it off.

Was a bigger PITA than it was worth.

Sail down wind with jib and main sheeted in hard.

Back wind jib.

Throw jib halyard off and let the wind drop the sail on deck inside
the life lines.

Works for me.

Lew

Nobody's mentioned multihulls. Most octogenarians won't feel comfortable on
a boat which is likely to heel at least 20 degrees in any middling wind.
Multihulls are likely to be a lot flatter. Some trimarans have decent
cockpits.

The other problem which has been noted is sail handling and, between the
Nonsuch wishbone catboats and the Hoyt boats (Alerion xx) with self-tending
jibs, that's a help.

I'm building a 28' daysailing tri, Dick Newick's 'Spark', which has a
Ljungstrom cat-yawl rig. There's a lot that's experimental in the rig, but
it's hoped that it'll be easy for an old fart to operate. Ask me in a year.

In article ,
Harlan Lachman wrote:

My first thought is cat-boat: A single sail, stable and the newer
designs are pretty good sailing vessels.

Jere, any made with a highly reliable furling sail with either a
electric assist or great mechanical advantage.

I think they would like something of this ilk if it was large enough?

Any specific recommendation?

You've gotten the major makers from people that have used them. There's
also the AC cat (I believe Atlantic City) that I've seen around. Foot
for foot, catboats have enormous accommodations and they're designed for
easy use.

Taking the conversation in a different direction: How about a small
catamaran? Wouldn't take much to give power-assist and they're pretty
comfortable. Drawback might be the up-and-down to the various levels
that the catboats don't have, and they're more complex, more things to
fiddle with and keep track of.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

There are certainly advantages to multihulls for older folk: a stable
platform, more room to get around, much easier to work at the bow,
greatly reduced sail area for the size.

However, there are downsides: the cruising cat design does not scale
down very well - there are very few modern designs under 32 feet.
Since that's the equivalent of a 40 foot monohull, the price will be
fairly high - $80K or more. Various maintenance issue are multiplied
- I have 144 feet of waterline to tape when I paint, double the oil
changes, etc. If you have twin engines you gain a lot of
maneuverability, but still it can be difficult to dock singlehanded.
And its very hard to find slips in many areas, you end up on face
docks which give less protection, and while easier to get out, can be
hard to land at with an offshore breeze.

But the biggest issue for the OP is that I presume they are interested
in shorter daysails rather than longer distance cruising. Cats can be
very tedious to sail in constrained waters. On my Nonsuch I almost
always raised sail within 100 yards of the slip, even if it meant a
beat out of the inner harbor. We did numerous short sails, sometimes
just tacking around the inner harbor. With the cat, we're far more
likely to power until we clear the middle harbor and start heading for
distant vacations.

I did know of one Gemini that was setup for someone in a wheelchair,
and a PDQ 32 for someone in crutches, in both case they were strong
active men, who felt it was easier to get around the cat. I also knew
of a Nonsuch 36 that was cruised by wheelchair bound man - he had a
special StackPak designed that could be operated entirely from the
cockpit.

One more thing - as it turned out, for the first year we had our cat,
every overnight guest was 78 years old. My FiL crewed for half the
delivery, and my parents joined us for 5 days on the Vineyard. All
enjoyed the boat a lot, of course.




Jim Conlin wrote:
Nobody's mentioned multihulls. Most octogenarians won't feel comfortable on
a boat which is likely to heel at least 20 degrees in any middling wind.
Multihulls are likely to be a lot flatter. Some trimarans have decent
cockpits.

The other problem which has been noted is sail handling and, between the
Nonsuch wishbone catboats and the Hoyt boats (Alerion xx) with self-tending
jibs, that's a help.

I'm building a 28' daysailing tri, Dick Newick's 'Spark', which has a
Ljungstrom cat-yawl rig. There's a lot that's experimental in the rig, but
it's hoped that it'll be easy for an old fart to operate. Ask me in a year.