TSA starting page

                                    Note from web master

Prior to producing this page, it seemed that about 5% of the visitors to the TSA's web site have been sufficiently interested in the idea of trail sailing to follow up the visit with an enquiry, and a list of questions. Some of the initial questions get repeated with each enquiry, and whilst each gets a reply, this page is intended to provide some general answers about choosing a boat. There is almost nothing about towing and launching techniques, as these are looked at on the pages with the logical link titles of TOWING and LAUNCHING.

Some people ask if there is a book on the subject. To the best of this web-master's knowledge, there is no such book, which is is another reason for producing this page. I hope it helps you, and that you will feel welcome to tell me if anything has been left out. (Or if you disagree with anything that has been put in !)

The most common question is "What make of boat does the TSA recomend for a beginner ?" It is impossible to answer such a question without knowing a lot more about the questioner's ability and expectations. I hope that the long page below will let you sharpen your ideas in this area.

The second most popular question is "Do you recomend that I buy a XXXXX yacht ?" Here the TSA can be more specific in responding, as if there is a member who owns an XXXXX yacht, he/she can be a source of information about the boat.

                  The information on this page assumes that

1) You have had some sailing experience, and feel competent to handle
     a sailing boat of around 18ft - 20ft in reasonable conditions.

2) You are interested in using a sailing boat for cruising, and not for
     racing. Therefore ease and comfort are of interest to you, rather than
     speed, performance, and the excitement of risk taking.

                              THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

                             1) The depth of your pocket.
Trail sailing is an economical means of cruising, as even brand new
                    boats can be good value for money.

Given that older boats depreciate slowly if cared for, money spent on a good second hand trail-sail boat need not be money that can not be recovered later. Water, especially salt water is bad news for all boats, and apart from convenience, there is no point leaving a boat floating for weeks on end in a marina, generating 'osmosis' damage to the hull. The first step in curing 'osmosis' damage is to lift the boat out of the water, and let the wind blow under the hull to dry it out.

This is simply copying the treatment that every trail-sail boat receives at it's voyage end. Trail-sail boats will thus survive in good condition long after marina based boats have seen their hulls 'rotted' by the water they idly float in. Which is why second hand trail-sail boats can make very seconomical purchases. The durability of trail-sail boats is also a reason why few new trail-sail boats are offered these days. Boat builders have to compete with the well filled quality end of the second hand market.

Investing in a cheap tarpauline to cover the boat whilst not in use is a further step to preventing the elements attacking the value of the investment, something which is not normaly possible for a marina base boat. It is also another reason why a well cared for trail-sail boat can be in better condition than one of the same age, that has it's decks exposed to the elements whilst not being used .

Regretably, uttering the phrase 'That will make a nice present for the boat' tends to ruin even the most careful budget.

                                  2) The size of your car.
   The car is not only a tractor, but also the place where you carry as
      much gear and kit as possible, because it is wise to reduce the
           weight of the trailer and increase the weight of the tractor.
    The size of car you choose to own may have more effect on your
                 choice of boat, than the depth of your pocket !

Slip-ways are slippery, and a four wheel drive vehicle is desirable, especially one with a low ratio gear box, if a larger boat is to be launched and recovered. Good brakes are also necessary, as modern over-run trailer brakes with auto-reverse facilities do not work when going backwards down a slip-way. It is for this reason practiced trail-sailors carry chocks, as back-ups to the hand-brakes of their cars.

Two wheel drive vehicles can tow trailers on normal roads, where steep slippery inclines are not found.

The car maker states it's maximum safe weight, as well as the maximum weight of braked trailer it can move away from rest up a hill with a 12% gradient. The Caravan Club suggests that the trailer's weight should not exceed 85% of the tractor's weight. This good practical advice can be exceeded, BUT, only after a
lot of care and thought has been given to what needs to be done to make it safe and legal. If you have not towed any large object behind your car before, then do not be tempted to ignore the 85% ratio. Moving weight from boat to car helps improve towing, which can be reduced to a very easy thing to do.

Also, never ignore the question of nose-weight, meaning the weight of the trailer pressing down on the car's tow ball. Theory says it should be about 5% to 7% of the trailer's weight. The car maker may say something else about the maximum nose weight the tow ball can carry. For reasons that need too much space to explain on this web page, some trailers always follow obediently behind the car. Other trailers are prone to wandering. Fitting a stabliiser, bought from a trailer specialist or caravan shop can then make good sense.

Even more thought needs to applied to safely, and legally, moving down the road where the trailer exceeds the weight of the tractor.

Towing a trailer born boat is not difficult. In most cases it is much easier than doing the same with a caravan with the same length and beam, as the wheels are visible when manoevering a boat trailer. Being able to view over-taking traffic in the wing mirrors is frequently as easy as there being no trailer, because the line of sight passes under the turn of the boat's bilges.

There are also rules, in part based on your Driving Licence, defining what you can tow, with 3,500 kgs moving down the road being a significant number. This weight is a lot of car, boat and trailer for a first time Trail Sailor, and your ambition and interest in a particular boat is probably not going to take you above this weight.

If you have only towed a small trailer, and found it impossible to manoever, you will be surprised how easy it is to manoever a longer boat trailer. In more than one way, it is a case of the longer it is, the easier it gets.

There is a Government web site that gives more imformation on the subject of the size of car and trailer. It is at http://www.dtlr.gov.uk/roads/vehicle/standards/trailers/index.htm

                                  3) Your driving licence.
    Some driving licences limit the size of trailer that can be towed.

These are ones that have been issued recently, either to somebody who has passed the driving test after Jan 1st 1997, or has had an older driving licence re-newed after that date, showing a change of address etc. When renewing older Licences, it has been said that the 'System' automaticaly removes a previous right to tow a large trailer. (Old licences gave the driver the right to move up to 8,250 Kgs of vehicle and trailer down the Queen's Highway. See note about web site below.)

If the Licence holder did not notice the loss of category removed by the system without warning or comment, then what was a legal activity suddenly becomes illegal ! (You can have the right restored if you notice within two years. Otherwise you will need to take another driving test in the same way as anybody who has recently passed the driving test.)

There is a Government web site with more information on driving licences : http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/dl/_towing_trailers.htm that gives a lot more information on the topic.

                                         4) Your ambition
       Trail-sailing allows for almost limitless ambitions to visit distant
      cruising grounds, without having to waste precious holiday time
                     sailing past the boring or dangerous bits first.
.
    Distant may also be the word used to describe the coast, lake or
                             river of interest, from where you live !

The road map is the start of the voyage planning. However, the journey does take longer, perhaps 25% longer when there is a trailer following on behind your car. Likewise, it will take longer than you think to get the boat launched and ready to sail. Experience will reduce this time a lot, so much so you will be surprised, but it will never be as quick as turning up at a marina, and stepping on board a yacht.

But there again, trail sailing eliminates the boredom of having visited every place within reach of the marina so many times, that there is no interest in going there again. The voyage to another port may be equally enjoyable as on a marina based yacht, but after arrival, there is no need to be bored with the destination.

                                   5) The size of the crew.
Buying a boat with two small berths suitable for children is one thing. Children grow and need bigger bunks. The average beginner's learning curve, and ability to fund and comfortably handle a larger boat on a slipway, approximates to the rate that junior crew members grow a need for larger bunks to sleep on.

                                     6) The size of the crew
Launching and recovering a trail-sail yacht single handed is not only
                          possible, but is frequently done.
            As is single handed sailing. Mainly men do this.
However, it is much safer to have a crew of two or more on board,
   and it can be much more enjoyable if the 'skipper' has the right
                                               attitude.

If things go wrong, it should always be considered as being the skipper's fault, even if it is another person who makes the mistake, perhaps, because the skipper has not first explained the matter properly. Or the skipper has assumed the crew has more ability to do something, such as being a mind reader, whilst doing things on the boat. Bad skippers loudly blame other people for their own inabilities to explain what is needed, good skippers quietly decide not to make the same mistake again. The best skippers quietly thank their crew for helping extract the boat from the skipper's lapse of skill.

Trail-sail boats have to be small, leaving no place for quietly nursing a bruised ego. It is better to start trail-sailing with an abundant supply of 'Thank-you's' and other words of praise in everybody's pockets, ready to be used liberaly to cushion the damage of mistake making. A pocket filled with an inexhausable supply of such phrases adds nothing to the weight moved by the car and trailer, yet always has a substantial lubricating effect when trouble arises.

If ashore, a crew of two consider themselves to be equals, there is a lot to be said for both of them arguing along the lines of "No, I don't want to be skipper - you do it and have the red face when I get something wrong !"

If the crew is to include females, the toilet arrangements have a greater priority than the sails or engine ! Incompetent male failure to recognise that female anatomy is incompatible with oilskins in this context, may be one reason why so many wives do not want to get involved with any form of sailing. Trail-sailing increases the significance of this topic area and it's embarassement potential.

           7) Where the boat is to be kept when not sailing.
Having the boat 'moored' on a trailer at home offers huge advantages
         in terms of maintenance, and ease of preparation for a trip.
      (It can also be bad news for gardening or home maintenance.)

Having the boat at home can block up access to the garage etc. If it is to be kept in a near-by storage facility like a caravan park, the preparation for a trip to the sea or lake is less convenient. The cash saving advantages of free storage are also reduced, but even the most expensive caravan park will demand a lot less than a marina.

When stormy winds blow, it is much better to be able to glance out of the window at home, and see the boat is OK, than to worry about it breaking loose from it's moorings in some distant place. Or the effects of somebody else's boat breaking loose, and damaging your dream before drifting off, leaving you to pick up the bill.

                           8) More money to go trail-sailing.
It may cost about �2,500 to keep a 22ft boat in a marina. Assuming the boat is used ten times a year - which is a lot - it can be thought of as costing �250 per use. Assume it takes three hours to convert from trail to sail - which implies a largish sized boat - and three hours to convert from sail to trail. To use the boat ten times a year, some 60 hours are spent messing about with the boat. Using slipways varies in cost between free and about �15.oo to use both ways. Say �10.oo on average, or �100 per season is spent on slipways.

Simply by messing about with your boat for 60 hours a year - which is generaly a pleasurable thing to do - you have added �2,400 to your own boat's sailing budget compared with it's marina based sister's budget. Money which can go towards cross Channel ferry fares, so you can enjoy sailing on waters South of Brest, where the weather is always warmer.

                                                    CHOOSING THE 'RIGHT' BOAT

If you have no experience of trail-sailing, your ideas today are probably going to be wrong when you look back at them with hindsight gained over a couple of seasons.

It may be better to buy a sound second-hand boat that has been produced in the large numbers that indicate it is a popular design, than go out and buy a new dream boat. The older boat may not match your ideas precisely, but after one or two seasons of experience, you will be better qualified to judge what you really want. In the meantime, because the boat is only 'temporary', you will accept the limitations rather than regret the purchase.

Popular designs have the advantage that somebody else will want to buy the boat from you, for the same reason as you bought it. The builder will have had the time to work on improving the launch and recovery methods, and has probably provided an effective system.

Lesser known makes, and there are many of them, can be equally worth looking at.

Few yacht builders started out building the large yachts they now only produce today. Most of them started their businesses making small boats of a trail-sail size, competing against a lot of other small businesses. Then, not necessarily because of poor quality, their competitors ceased production.

The economics of building small boats is very different to that of building large ones. Take for example the Skipper 17. It was a small boat worthy of praise, yet it's builder was unable to sell enough to survive. The moulds were sold, modernised, and by limiting the production of the current version, called the Eagle 525, the new manufacturer is able to survive in a market niche where there is a demand for a small well presented boat. The Jaguar 21 was sold in the sort of steady numbers over the years that indicated it was seen as a good trail sail boat. One that has been sailed over the Channel to France . Production only ceased when the bureaucratic burden of European boat building legislation became too heavy. The maker simply lost interest in building boats, which were turning his business into a convoluted means of providing employment for bureaucrats.

Another boat that has returned to being manufactured because of sufficient interest in a simple, and rather pretty, trail-sail boat is the Sailfish. It has been modernised, and the builder has faced the hurdles of the European Directives for small boats.

                                                                                    Size ?
This is a very important question. Get the answer right, and you will enjoy yourself. Get it wrong, and.....

Small boats are easy to trail, launch and recover, and thus make frequent use easier.

But, small boats are very dependant on good weather to make a passage enjoyable for all the crew, and not just for the person with the most experience. The crew's ambitions are constrained by the weather, and the fact that the speed of any boat is a function of it's length. This may not be significant if you feel that a good two weeks could be spent exploring the Falmouth estuary, or that the Tamar River and nearby places are worthy of a week's inspection. Owners of boats intent on going further will miss out what you enjoy
.
Large boats go faster, are less weather dependant, and have more space below for the crew. They also weigh a lot more, need heavier 'tractors' and take longer to launch and recover.

A short mast of about 20 foot is easy to raise without anything more than a good deck to stand on as it is pushed up. Add six foot, and suddenly the mast needs other equipment to make it easy to raise. Equipment that has to be attached to the mast, and then removed afterwards, all of which adds time to the conversion from trail to sail. But once afloat, the extra toil (?) has earnt more comfort.

A boat wanted for a bit of river or lake day-sailing need not have any accomodation other than a place to sit, and enjoy a lunch break away from the wind or rain. An occasional over-night stop in fair weather can be contemplated in a small cabin. Sub 20ft boats can meet this need adequately.

Boats in the 20ft to 22ft range, (excluding those with water ballast), are probably the most useful size within the range of options that can be towed behind a large car.

Above 22ft, the beam of the boat starts to become significant, because there are limits to the width of boat that can be moved down the highway without a Police escort. Longer boats are available, but the limitation on beam means the hull shape has to be a compromise, and some modern solutions to the problem can look awkward and 'boxy'. If a particuar type of boat is different from normal, it can be worth while to phone up owners of such boats for sale, and ask them why they are selling. You may find a common reason, such as the vendor was inexperienced with sailing when the boat was first purchased. An honest look at your own knowledge could then affect your inexperienced enthusiasm for that type of boat, as few people like to admit mistakes.

Below 20ft, headroom in the cabin becomes a matter for careful consideration. Your choice depends on how big you are, and how ambitious you are to make exposed coastal passages.

Above 20ft, if four bunks are provided, they will all probably suit adult sized bodies. The cabin/cockpit size ratio tends to see the cabin being larger than the cockpit, once the designer is looking at a trail-sail boat bigger than 20ft over-all.

This is because cockpits do not need to be much bigger in bigger boats. There are many 22ft boats whose cockpits are as big as those on safe 30ft boats, as big wide cockpits are dangerous, providing nothing to rest feet against when the boat heels to the wind..

Boats above 22ft tend to be more in the trailerable range, and lack the convenience of a true trail-sailer that needs nothing more than it's crew to launch and recover it.

Water ballasted boats again get round this sort of comment, by discarding the ballast when the boat is recovered, and thus leaving more weight to be 'spent' on GRP to make a bigger boat. The result may be a 25ft or 26ft boat that weighs the same as a 22ft boat with conventional ballast. There is also a risk that the designer has made everything too light, including mooring cleats etc, in the persuit of saving yet more weight to let the boat be bigger still. This is not to say that the boat is dangerously weak, only that you should compare your ambitions and intentions with the type of use the designer had in mind.

                                                                  Weight ?
This is another way of thinking about size. The displacement of a boat increases rapidly as length increases by small amounts. As does the space inside the boat, as all the extra space comes in the middle, where it is most beneficial. Dispacement is another way of describing the weight the car has to tow. Trailers tend to be about 40% of the weight of the boat they carry.

The weight of a boat stated by the builder will probably be just that, the weight of the boat. Not boat plus engine, fuel tank, gas bottle(s) and all the other things that are not easy to carry in the car. Thus a 22ft boat stated to be 950 kgs is more likely to weigh 1,100 kgs when you get to play with it. With 440 kgs of trailer to carry it, this adds up to 1.54 tons - a lot for your car to drag up a slipway.

The builder of an 18ft boat might tell you it weighs 650 kgs. This is more likely to be 750 kgs. Add 40% for the trailer - 300 kgs - and the total is little more than a ton for the car's clutch to deal with. The smaller outboard engine needed for the lighter boat can be easier to lift off and put into the car, further helping reduce the 85% towing ratio that is desirable on the open road.

When thinking about weight, it is better to assume that the object of your desire weighs more than you think it does. Even if it does not, the average cruising yachtsman's need to take lots of things with him/her, will soon increase the weight towards a higher figure.

                                                                     Engines

The days are long gone, if they ever existed, when a small boat sailor could do without a reliable auxilary engine to help move the boat through the water. Now, sailing in a marina is positively discouraged, and Bye Laws require sailing boats to motor on a precise course where shipping lanes or harbour mouths are congested. Few if any true trail-sail yachts have inboard diesel engines, and the rest have outboard motors of one type or another. These can be mounted on a bracket attached to the transom, on the transom itself, or in a well in the cockpit. A few have the engine in a cockpit locker, but these tend to be trailerable boats, not true trail-sail boats.

Outboard engines mounted on transom brackets, some of which are spring loaded, are usualy intended to be lifted clear of the water when not in use. This reduces drag and increases speed under sail. Which is good news for people who want to race. Cruising boats, which frequently travel longer distances away from shelter than racing boats, are normally willing to accept the drag penalty, in order to have an engine whose propeller will always remain under the surface. This means that should the weather turn foul part way through the voyage, and large waves be generated, the engine can be relied on to drive the boat.

An engine on a transom bracket is alway lifting and falling through a greater arc than the transom of the boat, and as each wave passes, the propeller is lifted up to the surface by the steeper wave . This allows the propeller to 'cavitate' creating loads of foam as the engine screams at full revs with no work to do. When the transom sinks into the hollow between waves, the engine is then at risk of being swamped and extinguished by the arrival of the next wave. If the boat has a single rudder, it has to be on the centre line of the hull, which frequently means the outboard engine has to be off-set on one side or the other. Motor sailing then sees the propeller either lifted up out of the water, or the engine sunk down to the water, depending on which tack the boat is on.

There is a lot of derision about outboard motors mounted in cockpit wells, but the insults come from 'performance sailors' ,who seldom stray far from calm waters, or safe harbours. The abuse comes because they are ignorant of the consquences of leaning out over the back of a boat to change a spark plug in rough weather. Serious trail-sail boats, intended for safe coastal cruising, have their engines mounted inboard. Tools, spark plugs or even spectacles, that get dropped by accident remain within the boat. Accepting the drag of the propeller is a small price to pay for the security of being able to do things safely to a reluctant engine, whilst out on the open sea. If you never intend to trail-sail to coastal cruising grounds, then the bracket mounting is better, and cheaper to build in the first place. If you change your mind, be very aware of the sea state, and any possible changes that will prevent you from being able to use the engine to safely finish the voyage.

In calm weather a 3 or 4 Horse Power engine can move a 22ft boat at a goodly speed. (In fact, think of a single horse pulling a 60 foot barge along a calm canal, and you will realise how little power is needed !) Things change when it comes to pushing the same boat into a strong wind, and the boat's speed gets converted into generating great sprays of water, each time it meets a big wave. Then the 4HP becomes dangerously inadequate. Trail-sail boats have to be light in order to be trailed. This means that unlike their heavier cousins of a similar length that live afloat, when they do hit a wave, they loose more speed, and need more Horse Power to get going again.

A typical 22ft sailing boat will need 6 or 8 HP to maintain 4 knots motoring directly into a F4 wind, and the open sea waves such a wind brings. Being reduced to doing 3 knots instead of 4, because the engine is not strong enough to beat the bad weather, adds a depressing 20 minutes to every hour that could have been spent reaching shelter.

Carrying a 10 HP engine on a 20ft boat as a secondary means of propulsion does not mean that all the power and petrol have to be consumed running the engine at full speed all the time. It will be quieter at the lower revs needed to move at normal hull speed, and use little more fuel than a smaller engine working harder to make the boat move at the same speed. In fact 10 HP is too much power for a 20ft dispacement hull, but it does make the point that it is better to have too much power than not enough when the going gets rough. Sailing boats fitted with even larger engines are probably better described as motor boats, with sails as a secondary means of propulsion.

Propeller types can have more effect on the power converted into motion than most people realise. This is because small out-board engines are more commonly used to drive light boats very fast, and not heavy boats relatively slowly. Therefore, the manufacturer fits a propeller suitable for the high speed market. At slower speeds, a lot of the power of the engine gets converted into thrashing the propeller around pointlessly. Slow boats need fine pitched propellers of larger diameter. A yacht with an outboard fitted with a dual-thrust propeller is able to get as much power into the water when using reverse gear as forward gear. This is because the propeller is not spinning in a bubble of it's own exhaust gasses, as happens with a conventional design. Stopping the boat's forward motion becomes easier, and manoevering in small spaces becomes safer. Surprisingly, only a few outboard engines seem to have dual-thrust propellers, despite the obvious advantages.

                                                                                  Keel types
There are three basic keel types. Fin, twin bilge and lifting. Of the latter there are those that pivot upwards like an Enterprise centre board, or the 'dagger board' type that drops vertically through the hull.

Fin keels are bad news for trail sailing.
The boat stands very high on the trailer, where the unstable load is exposed to wind and the buffeting of passing lorries and coaches. Launching requires the trailer to be submerged deeply, making access to the boat after de-coupling from the trailer very difficult. Deep submersion inevitably means that sea water can get into the trailer's wheel bearings causing rust. Recovery is likewise not very practical.

Bilge keels can be poor trail-sail boats
(Not all yachts with twin bilge keels are poor trail-sail boats. Some very good ones have twin keels).

Whilst the boat sit lower on the trailer than a fin keel yacht, the main mass is still quite high above the ground. Launching again needs a long rope between car and trailer in order to get the boat to float off the trailer. Recovery can be eased by devices such as docking arms, which guide the boat into the right position above the trailer. Docking arms add to the weight that has to be towed behind the car, yet only gets used for a few minutes each trip.

An alternative way of launching and recovering a bilge keel yacht is to carry the boat on a 'launching trolley' which can be moved off or onto the trailer. The trolley is designed to get submerged, leaving the road going trailer well away from the damaging effects of salt water. Such trollies are an effective solution, but the ongoing 'cost' is the extra weight to be towed down the road, and time spent winching the trolley up or down the slipway. In the context of bilge keeled yachts, this 'cost' can become quite acceptable. Likewise, launching trollies have been used with water ballasted boats, as the trolley weighs a lot less than the water that drains out of the boat once pulled clear of the sea or lake.

A boat with a lifting keel has the maximum amount of weight as close to the road as possible. This makes for the most stable towing option. Lifting keels allow the boat to be launched into shallower water, even perhaps without even getting the brakes wet if the boat is on a break-back trailer. However, a sailing boat without a keel is very difficult to manover under power when motoring back to the trailer prior to recovery. Long ropes, and the aid of a couple of friends eases this difficulty.

Lifting keels that pivot upwards when hitting an obstruction allow for casual navigation, as accidentally passing over water that is too shallow for the boat seldom does not damage anything other than pride. Vertical lifting keels can get damaged when hitting something under water, but if the grounding is not too violent, the keel can be raised, and the boat moved to deeper water.

A bilge keeled boat that runs aground gently will probabaly simply have to wait for the tide to rise far enough to lift it off again. (It becomes a good time for a picnic in fortunate circumstances) Fin keeled boats that go aground on a falling tide face real problems that can be made worse due to the light-weight construction needed for trailing. Ie : The forces acting on a fin keeled hull that has gone aground on a falling tide are much greater than on a similar sized hull with a lifting keel. Likewise, whilst the lifting keeled boat will sit more or less level on the ground, even without legs, once the keel is raised, the fin keeled boat will heel over to an alarming degree, and risk flooding by the returning tide. Fitting legs to a heeling boat is not a viable option.

Few if any trailable fin keeled sailing boats, intended for racing, make suitable trail-sail cruising boats.

Vertical lifting keels have many of the benefits of fin keels - because weight can be placed in the efficiently shaped fin for improved stability - yet the boat can sit low on it's trailer when the keel is raised. Avoidance of shallow water is necessary, which sounds easy. To a novice cruising sailor, depth is something easily overlooked if the echo sounder is ignored in favour of concentraing on where a narrow channel's buoys are. Bulbed vertical lifting keels have all the weight in the bulb at the bottom of the keel, and the bulb offers other sailing benefits in the context of grip on the water. Such keels feature on some of the most effective trail-sail boats that have been made to date.

                                                               HULL TYPES
There are two types of boat that can be bought.   New or second hand.   This may seem very obvious, but the option chosen by any buyer has a big effect on the type of boat that is available.

There are 'fashions' in boat design, frequently driven by the racing fraternity who want to win races. To make the race an even match of skills, Rules are produced that should result in boats that are identical in terms of performance. That is until the yacht builders start to examine the Rules, which have taken years to be agreed on, and tries to create a design that maximises the performance of his boat, whilst still meeting requierments of the Rules.

The result is boats that develop distinctly strange shapes compared with what was considered sensible or reasonable a few years before. This can be seen by the way that head sails once grew and grew, whilst main sails shrank towards the proportions of a sword. Not because it makes for a better boat to have such ill proportioned sails, but because such a sail plan allowed more power to be developed, whilst staying within the Rules that described how sail area should be measured. Then the Rules were changed, and one saw new boats with different aspects of their shape become distorted, whilst sails returned to more reasonable proportions.

Having created a successful racing boat, then seen it's race winning abilities eclipsed by another design, the yacht builder tries to produce a 'cruising' version in order to extend the production run, and pay for the tooling costs.

The prudent buyer asks what the boat was first designed to do, not what it was later marketed as being capable of. If it was made to win races, then it will be fast. It will also probably demand a much higher level of skill to sail it safely, than a boat that was never intended to be anything more than a comfortable steady plodder.

There are exceptions to the above comment. Most of them stand out when the numbers produced is looked at. A good trail-sail design can start out as a race winner, then go on to be produced in large numbers over subsequent years as a popular cruising boat. Such is the history of the Swift 18, for example. If a lot of people have parted with their money to buy a particular type of boat before you put your hand in your own pocket to buy a trail-sail boat, it is probable that you are not going to waste your money by copying the crowd.

                                                  Popular designs hold their value.

Realy good designs can see long production runs, and second hand values may even start rising after a while when production ceases, and demand outstrips the fixed supply. Such boats might seem 'expensive' when compared to similar sized boats of a different design, but there is nearly always the same reason : One builder got it right, another was just good at marketing a less effective product in similar numbers. Adverts for second hand boats in old issues of sailing magazines give a good hint of how things such as second hand prices change.

There is also the fact that people with a good boat will see no reason to sell it. If the buyer can discover how many were originaly sold, and divide that by the number of second hand ones offered for sale, it is another indication of what real life experience has demonstrated to be the 'best' boat. For example, a large number of Etap 22i boats were sold in the UK up to the mid 1990's, when production ceased. Yet only 3 or 4 boats, (less than 4% of the fleet), ever get offered for sale in any one year. The remaining 96.5% of the boats belong to people who obviously have no intention of ever parting with them. Such a high level of satisfaction results in prices that end to remain high, and the boat is seen as a 'good investment'. Being a 'good investment' there is a feeling that maintenance is not money or effort wasted, and thus the boats will probably last longer in good condition than boats that were cleverly 'marketed'.

Journalistic claims of 'Boat of the Year', and 'feels like a boat 4ft bigger' may have more to do with the need to keep good relations with boat builders, than the suitability of a particular boat. It is a rare occasion that a journalist writes anything negative about a sailing boat. Therefore the reader of a report is left pondering two things. How much of an expert is the writer of the article ? What has the writer remained silent about because it is negative information ? It is almost impossible for a beginner to see past the writer's need to sound authoritive - and thus get more work, and the need to avoid upsetting his contacts.

Asking people about their boats is an obvious source of information. It is better to ask also what they use the boats for, as the virtues they experience may hold little or no interest to you, if you have a different use in mind.

                                                             YOU CHOOSE
The above very basic information could all be summarised as "There is no such thing as the perfect trail-
sail yacht." Assuming a boat is soundly constructed, what may be good for one person, may be a floating disaster for another. It is also well worth considering what extra items, such as VHF radio etc, are being offered for sale with a second hand boat, as the list of desirables will not be included at the same prices as it will cost you to buy them new.

On the EQUIPMENT CARRIED page is a list of the kit carried by a group of serious trail-sail yachts.

Only a few items on the list are necessary for a safe passage, but all of it contributed to the enjoyment of the cruise. All of the boats have been with their owners for several years, and all have benefited from the budget destroying concept of 'A good present for the boat this year.' that has increased the list of kit carried.

Scanning through yachting magazines, the beginner will be urged to believe that it is dangerous to put to sea without first having bought a particular manufacture's product. And, as there are many manufacturers offering all sorts of things, the list of 'necessary' items can add up to more than the cost of a boat.

Thus the point of the list is to show what items an experienced group of trail-sail skippers have spent their money on, and does not imply that everybody else must also buy the same things to be safe. Most of the boats in the fleet expect to be able to cross the Channel alone, or go sailing on other waters, where they need greater or different abilities than perhaps needed in Scotland. The interesting thing about the list is the things the owners elected not to buy !

On that particular cruise, apart from a small number of boats of the same type, with vertical drop keels having heavy iron bulbs on the tips, all the rest of the fleet was made up from widely different types of boat. Some were successful 'cruising versions' of racing boats, and one was an out-and-out racing design only notionaly converted to being a 'cruiser'. When the weather turned bad, it needed a lot of skill and experience to keep it upright. Not a beginners boat. The skipper knew what sort of boat he was buying, and wanted it because it was intended to win races. To him, it is an ideal trail-sail boat, allowing him to quickly sail long distances, provided that he continually treats the boat according to the weather he meets from moment to moment.

Other people could hate it, and the need to constantly trim it's sails, had they bought it by mistake.

                                    As the man says "Yer pays yer money and takes yer choice."

Perhaps your choice for a first trail-sail boat will be smaller, second hand, and nearer 20ft long, or perhaps a little smaller, where things are easier to do with simple muscle power acting as a substitute to technique.

                                                                             WARNING
                                                                Trail-sailing is addictive.

                              To dream of reaching distant horizons and far flung places is one thing.
   To be a trail-sailor, and know that such dreams are all within a car's ride of desire, is something very different.

A trail-sailor thinks of a place to sail, and simply goes there at speeds no other boat's skipper can ever dream of.
                                                                                     AND

                                   If the weather forecast on the day of departure is not to your taste,
                                    just drive to the opposite part of the country where it is better !
                            The boat, and all it's amenities, will follow you, wherever you choose to go.

                     "Trail-sailing maximises the pleasure hours spent cruising."