The worst trailerable coastal cruiser

[TomF]

We've spent a lot of time discussing the best of this or that, but my Dad once remarked that you often learn a lot more when something truly screws up. A wonderful thing can have the elements that make it wonderful so seamless ... as to be invisible. It's when things go down in a fiery mess than all the contributing factors come to the fore.

So in the interest of higher education and humour, what are the real pig-dogs in the trailerable coastal cruiser pantheon, and what makes them the horrible carbuncles on the face of all things nautical that they are?

(pictures not required, but gleefully accepted)

[switters]

super snark.

http://www.castlecraft.org/super_snark.htm

sail to windward=screwed
tide=screwed
stowage=screwed
comfortable sleeping without copious amounts of beer=screwed

on the + side, easy lo launch.:D

[Steve Paskey]

So in the interest of higher education and humour, what are the real pig-dogs in the trailerable coastal cruiser pantheon, and what makes them the horrible carbuncles on the face of all things nautical that they are?

An interesting question, but it may need some refinement. To be fair, let's leave out any boat that was not designed to be trailerable, and any boat that was not designed to be a cruiser. (That rules out the Super Snark.) And one could nominate the Stevenson Weekender, for instance -- it's a trailerable cruiser -- but it wasn't really designed for coastal work.

Within those parameters, are there any truly horrible efforts by professional designers? Or are we limited here to self-designed, backyard boatbuilding fiascos ... the trailerable equivalent of Raw Faith?

And would anyone like to make a case for the original Martha Jane, given that Bolger returned to the design years later and added some rather ugly sponsons to bolster her stability?

[Steve Paskey]

Here's a candidate:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sPN8m-a6tsw/SXFhDd_ijKI/AAAAAAAAAKo/eGAbaPs3TAk/s400/junkraft.jpg

[Steve Paskey]

And I assume we're focusing on boats that are bad by design, rather than those that have suffered from a bit of neglect?

http://shipsked.ucsd.edu/Journal/RR0903-SwiftI5/Week_7/derelict_sailboat.jpg

[TomF]

I was thinking more along the lines of legit designs, not home-made and horribly altered boats bearing little recognition to their designer's intent.

That is, an actual designed boat, which makes owners/passengers wish to howl at the moon.

So not True Faith, or any similar true execrement. But say, one of the mass-market oriented bleach bottles where the various compromises really compromised the viability of the whole.

[donald branscom]

Yes !!!! You TOM F thread breakers. No JUNK. Just good honest lousy boats.

That snark has a nice sail though!!

[TomF]

Coupla times we've heard people describe Bud McIntosh's utter dismay when he built the 24' Hampton boat that is in Chapelle's Boatbuilding.

I haven't every ridden in the boat, or seen it ... but reports are that it pitched something fierce, scaring the passengers. Including Chapelle.

[Steve Paskey]

There have been similar discussions on other forums, and the Macgregor 26 has often been mentioned. Here's an interesting comment from a naval architect at Boatdesign.net ... I think he's on to something: sailboats designed by powerboat guys ...


My votes for the 3 worst production sailboats?
Reinell 26
Bayliner Bucanneer 24
Bayliner Bucanneer 27

All these were designed by powerboat designers that had only the vaguest idea of what makes a sailboat go, or hold together. However, a lot of people who bought them (cheaply I hope) graduated to real boats.

The Macgregor 26 is an honest, cheap boat. I wouldn't own one but I know a few happy owners. I would buy a 30 year old Islander or Ericson for the same money and fix it up.

Grahame Shannon
Naval Architect

[switters]

while on the subject, a friend has a Colgate 26 that has been in the back 40 for 6 years now, he keeps trying to talk me into driving away with it. I'm sure the sails and motor are shot by now but the rest is pretty sound at a glance.

Having had a few free projects in the past that became yard ornaments over time I have been reluctant.

[James McMullen]

I should maybe have mentioned this already on one of the Raw Faith threads, as it bears some resemblances. :D

Can't remember exactly what design it was...possibly a Glen-L Tango, maybe?. . .but I saw a poor boat on the Willamette River in Portland once whose owner had made every possible poor decision at every step along the way. He had tried to cut corners and save pennies at all costs: butt-jointed fir CDX plywood, slathered with fiberglass roving(not cloth) and polyester resin, "faired"--if you could call it that-- with Bondo--though not faired enough to hide the checks and knotholes showing through the paint, yellow zinc deck screws holding on the unbedded red oak rubrail, yellow polyethylene standing rigging tensioned with open-eye clothesline turnbuckles, spars of 2x4's glued together and painted, sails made of what looked like canvas painter's dropcloth--and to top it all off, it looked like he had raised the roof of the house by at least a foot more than what would seem even remotely reasonable, for extra headroom inside. . . . . .

This wasn't just a simple and economical boat. This was an appallingly crude absence of care and worksmanship. I've competed in those Quick 'N Dirty boatbuilding races where you rush to finish a boat in the quickest time for the least money. This boat would remind you of one of those, super-sized.

I was absolutely dumbfounded when I saw it. If only I had owned a cellphone with a camera back then! Alas!

I don't think that the basic design itself was necessarily at fault, I think it was the owner who "improved" and cheapskated the poor thing beyond all comprehension. I never again saw that boat, even though I was on the Willamette most days of that summer teaching kayak lessons and giving boat demos. I wonder whatever happened to her.

[Venchka]

Perhaps the owner took her around the Horn and is quietly living the good life in an Argentine backwater. Living on the money he saved building his boat. Sipping rum and grinning from ear to ear.

[PeterSibley]

We've all seen em , but for some strange reason never felt the need to take a photo !:D

[Don Kurylko]

Bayliner Bucanneer 24
Bayliner Bucanneer 27

All these were designed by powerboat designers that had only the vaguest idea of what makes a sailboat go, or hold together.

Grahame Shannon
Naval Architect

Now that's funny! :D Bill Garden designed the Bucanners! :eek: The story goes that, when asked why he designed such ugly boats, he repiled that he would design anything anyone wanted for the right price...or something like that. :rolleyes:

They are ugly, but I know of a lot of familys that got into sailing because of the interior accomodations and loved these boats. They don't sail that well, granted, but good enough for beginners. And in a blow, perform not too badly: safe as a country church!

[donald branscom]

Coupla times we've heard people describe Bud McIntosh's utter dismay when he built the 24' Hampton boat that is in Chapelle's Boatbuilding.

I haven't every ridden in the boat, or seen it ... but reports are that it pitched something fierce, scaring the passengers. Including Chapelle.

Can you post a photo of that boat?

I do not have that book anymore.

[donald branscom]

Bayliner Bucanneer 24
Bayliner Bucanneer 27

All these were designed by powerboat designers that had only the vaguest idea of what makes a sailboat go, or hold together.

Grahame Shannon
Naval Architect

Now that's funny! :D Bill Garden designed the Bucanners! :eek: The story goes that, when asked why he designed such ugly boats, he repiled that he would design anything anyone wanted for the right price...or something like that. :rolleyes:

They are ugly, but I know of a lot of familys that got into sailing because of the interior accomodations and loved these boats. They don't sail that well, granted, but good enough for beginners. And in a blow, perform not too badly: safe as a country church!

Just the name should scare off most of the people. If that doesn't work then they need to go through it.

[Steve Paskey]

Now that's funny! :D Bill Garden designed the Bucanners! :eek:

No! Seriously? I can't believe that without reliable proof.

Ah, wait just a minute! I googled it, and the stuff I'm reading says that he designed the 30 and 32 foot versions of the Buccaneer -- NOT the 24 and 27 footers.

Look here, for instance, at the inventory of the Wm. Garden collection at Mystic: It lists only the 30 and 32 foot Buccaneers.

http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/spcoll096/spcoll096.html

[DGentry]

while on the subject, a friend has a Colgate 26 that has been in the back 40 for 6 years now, he keeps trying to talk me into driving away with it. I'm sure the sails and motor are shot by now but the rest is pretty sound at a glance.

Having had a few free projects in the past that became yard ornaments over time I have been reluctant.

Switters, I've raced against Colgate 26's on numerous occasions. Those are fine boats for daysailing or racing . . . .

[Don Kurylko]

Oops! My Bad! :o So who designed the 24 and 27?

[Craic]

Aesthetics aside, the worst trailerable coastal cruisers are certainly the ones that flip, and are prone to flipping by design.

I dimly remember there was such a case a few years back in UK, but I cannot find it on the web today. Maybe someone here remembers some specific deatil under which it can be found.

The story was -I think-: People bought this cabin sailer, new. Looked good enough and was not expensive. Built in eastern Europe. Had a CE classification as 'C'. They flipped it. The following lawcase was about wrongful CE classification.
I think the guys went empty handed because yes it was found the boats classification was grotesquely wrong, but no because the importer of this thing had gone out of biz.

Anyone remember more?

[Steve Paskey]

My vote? The Guppy 13. Seriously... That's a "trailerable coastal cruiser" ? Trailerable sure... but what coast would you take that on? The coast of a medium sized pond? And "cruising" in a 13 foot boat?

Now wait a minute. That's hardly fair. Here are links to the sales brochure: www.shortypen.com/boats/pocket/guppy/

Do you see anything claiming that the Guppy is a "coastal cruiser," or that it's suitable for a "cruise" longer than a weekend?

[kenjamin]

There's just something I don't like about the sheer line on this one.:rolleyes:

http://ford.physics.fsu.edu/GeoHouseBoat3411.jpg

[Paul Pless]

can i nominate the weekender

[Nicholas Scheuer]

I've daysailed in two Weekenders, and I can say with confidence that I would not care to cruise in one, nor even "overnight" in one.

They are so underpowered I didn't really like daysailing in them, though I thought perhaps a fresh breeze (which we did not have) mght get one moving.

One of the Weekenders had polytarp sails that were a tad too large for the spars, though why bother with excuses; polytarp sails aren't worth the bother.

Both boats exhibited fine workmanship, it's just that they're too small and complicated tobe practical.

Moby Nick