As a long time sailor who has recently gotten into power boating
(Tolman 20'), I think the Us vs them attitude of people regarding
power and sailboats is silly.
Yesterday, my Tolman was committee boat for a 35 mile sailboat race
from Shell Pt, FL to Dog Island. I waited and fished for several
hours at Dog Island waiting for them to show up and finally decided to
go looking for them, this was about a 15 mile jaunt, something you
could not easily do in a sailboat. This took me further offshore than
I had ever been in my Tolman and I did notice that in chop I had to
slow down a lot, to less than 10 kts, sometimes to only 8 to avoid
extreme pounding. Even at slow speed, she was pounding with lots of
spray. My sailboat in the same conditions would have taken it very
smoothly (but at only 6 kts).
Later, when one of the sailboats finally came in, they wanted to know
how to get into the harbor at the island (a tricky thing for a
sailboat), I was able to go find the deeper part of the "channel" for
them since part of it shoals to about 3' and to explore the
"anchorage" looking for a large deep area for them to anchor. This
would be hard to do in a sailboat even under power with its deep
draft.
OTOH, sailing is just cool. You can take your home with you and go
where you want (slowly I admit) and have reasonable accomodations. My
sailboat will easily handle large seas and is of course better when
there is wind where the power boaters hate wind. Small sailboats are
even more fun, because it just seems as if you are screaming along whm
you really arent going very fast.
Which boat costs less? There is no doubt, the Tolman power boat costs
far less even with the cost of fuel. My Tolman gets about 4.75mpg (19
kts 4.8 gals/hr with 90 hp 2 cycle Yamaha) so I can go all day using
less than 15 gals. BTW, Top speed of the Tolman with 4 people aboard
seems o be about 30 mph in calm water. Just keeping my 28' S2
sailboat at a slip costs over $210/month and that is cheap, then you
have to figure in the cost of bottom paint.
So, if I was starting anew with no boats, what would be the optimum
boats for someone who likes both power and sail? I think it would be
the Tolman Jumbo (with cabin) and a Flying Scott (20') sailboat. Both
are trailerable and easy to set up when launched or retrieved. The
Tolman Jumbo is meant to be a cruiser with good fuel economy while he
Flying Scott is great for either day sailing or racing. You could
even set her up for overnighting.
Which is easier, power or sailing? Power is far easier ( I just have
to get used to the idea that the Tolman wont turn when not under power
as a sailboat with tiller does). Sailing is just plain work.