Sail boat to motor cruiser for 102cc gull

[david doyle]

Been pondering over a way to get a 'poor cousin' Orkney Longliner type boat. An idea that occurred to me (and I am sure it is bereft of problems) is that maybe a guy could find a shallow draft swing keel or dagger board 16-19 foot compact cruiser on the cheap (i.e one with rigging problems or missing sails) ditch the mast and call it a motor cruiser.

A question I'd pose to those with more knowledge then I is: Without it's mast how would you expect a small sailboat to behave? With keel up? With keel down? Is there a 'best' sail boat type hull for motoring?

If anyone has any insight I'd be pleased to hear it.

[denchen]

The flat metal and sometimes wood drop keels play little effect to the stability of a boat. They are there to stop the boat from moving side ways when pushed by the wind in the sail. You could look up center of gravity and metacentre height calculations to prove this but a lot of folk cannot understand the numbers when you have worked out the numbers. I have a 16 foot ex sailing dingy that was missing many of its plywood panel, I put in new plywood then fibre glassed the outside with 200gms. CSM and the boat is fine. To give more room I removed the slot the drop keel went in and put a piece of wood in to fill the slot in the keel. The boat handles well, but one observation is that there is much more `gut` in the bow than a `normal` dingy and the stern is a little low. I guess this is part due to the sailing boat design as when the wind is pushing the sail from the rear, it is in effect trying to push the bow down. The mast would slow the boat rolling but I removed mine and the boat is very stable. Good luck, the boat I bought was 5 english pounds and the grandkids love it.

[Robin Anderson]

Have used both a Forty Featherweight and a 40 Plus on an Enterprise sailing dingy to good effect. This was somewhat through force of circumstances when we lost a shroud and the mast came down one day - "timber!"
As a motor boat the Enterprise made a fine little craft. Very easily driven hull. It was a plywood one and with the rudder unshipped the outboards clamped on to the transom without any problems. I would not have been so happy with a Century due to the extra weight and the loading on the transom. Left a little bit of keel down to give directional stability. Better suited to calm waters due to the lack of sheer and flare but we loaded her with a tent and camping gear and did coastal hops along the North Irish coast dragging the boat up the beach at the end of each day to camp. The light hull made this do able whereas a heavier grp boat would not have been so handy. Also did the River Bann and Lough Neagh - great fun and cheap boating. The Enterprise was a bit too big for a roofrack so trailer needed. I imagine any of the similar dingies would be equally as good - Wayfarer, Mirror Miracles, Bosuns etc
With a 102 or Century I think you should carefully inspect the transom to see where the load will be taken - the rudder pintles area is usually only reinforced slightly to take rudder loads so with a 102 I would recommend cutting up some marine ply to make backing pads and reinforcing the transom and quarters in case you pull the transom off with all the power on tap
Robin

[phil]

One of Drascombe boats might meet your needs.

[david doyle]

Phil, do you see any of the Churchouse built Drascombes out east? The lugger, coaster etc would be perfect but all I found so far were UK and european refrences to them, they do not come cheap though. If this is still around next month I might go see how cheap he'd sell it for. He is at 12 bills now which is about the trailer cost around here. The only trouble is that I probabley could'nt resist keeping it sailable....... and you know that is a fool's errand.



http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/pml/b ... 51163.html

[phil]

I'm not familiar enough with the Drascombes to know who their builders might be. Notice one for sale occasionally out here. $1200 sounds like a great deal to me, especially if it's in reasonable condition. Of course, Macgregors usually don't command high prices. I'm a sailor so it would be difficult for me to not sail it. The last one I saw advertised was a few years back, it had a Seagull 170 on it, if I recall, it was advertized
for 6-7 k as I remember.
I'm quite sure that some were built lapstrake, and that was what I was thinking of when I posted. Happy hunting.

It's certainly a buyers market these days.

[phil]

Just checked Kijiji noticed a Nordica 20 with yard trailer and sails for $2 k sounds like a great deal to me.

I picked up a 21 foot Ted Brewer designed plywood boat a few years ago for 500 they were asking $2500 but accepted my offer quickly.
Sailed it for 2-3 years and did ok when I sold it.

[Oyster 49]

Personally as a yachtsman I would suggest if you want a small motor boat buy one, if you want a yacht buy one of those. Using a yacht as a motor boat is not going to give you what you need in terms of deck space etc.