Does anyone go from a trawler to sail?

[Bruce B]

Dave, foggy and Bruce B,
Well I misled ya'll quite seriously .. sorry.
Don't know if you sailors are ready for this but I'd probably not sail the McGreggor at all or very little if I kept the rig. May take the whole rig mast sails and all off and substitute a much shorter mast for a very short rig good only as a steadying sail or get me home. I would rig it as a motor sailer very heavy on the motor. I don't have any interest in sailing boats over 20' and then only light boats. A Star may be fun but the keel is too much trouble. I love to row and paddling is OK .. sailing not so much.

And foggy I have no use for the Seagull OB's. I have a 60hp Suzuki that would be perfect for the McGreggor.

When we where building our Sabre, there was a man building one of their 426 sailboats who came to the factory to see it being built. He asked them if he could simply delete the rig as he would never sail it anyway!
I think he was serious...
Bruce

 

[bcam]

I will let you know in 10 days or so how it goes when making the transition. We bought our Nordic Tug last year with the thought that we might get old someday. We decided to keep our Catalina 36.
So, we just spent 30 days on the Nordic. Tomorrow, about 0530, we will head back to Canada in the Catalina. It's going to be interesting.

 

[dhays]

Catalina 36 is, I believe, the most successful production sailboat of its type in the world. Great boat. I still miss mine.

 

[nemier]

Yes, and I miss our C36 too, hull number 2015 I think it was. Ahh,, fond memories.

Btw, we finally made it to FIJI. Will be exploring Fiji for a month, then onto NZ.
Bruce - Aitutaki was awesome,, our latest post is up - as of this afternoon.

 

[Peter B]

Eric,

You would be going from what appears to be a very nice boat (although slow) to an outboard boat with an mast. If you want to go to a sailboat, pick a boat that was designed to actually sail reasonably well.

Not that I'm biased or anything... ;-)

Surely you must be joking. McGreggors? Might as well consider a Seagull kicker for it to really enjoy personal endurance

Hey, guys, before you stomp all over Eric's idea of the MacGregor 26, water ballasted trailer yacht, I would suggest a re-think, and consider the points I myself posted earlier on this thread re this same vessel Eric is referring to...to wit

Post 82, P 5...

....now there is a nice MacGregor 26 trailer yacht for sale right here at our marina, just to rub it in. Because thanks to the fact that model uses water ballast, so, it can not only be roomier than the yacht we had, but it is much lighter to trail, but then once in the water, one can either take on ballast and sail, or drop the water ballast and actually plane at 20kn, because of the much more powerful 50hp outboard they now use on these, compared to the 8hp ones we used to use.
The pic is our Gazelle 26 we had in NZ. The link is to a Macgregor.

http://www.boatsales.com.au/boats-fo...=0&pss=Premium

Because unless anyone on here has personal experience of using a decent sized trailer yacht, you can't really appreciate the sheer practicality of being able to drop your ballast at the ramp, drop the mast, and take what has now become your mobile camper trailer, and go inland, or up or down the coast, to any cruising area you fancied, much faster and more cheaply re fuel than in any larger power boat, and the maintenance savings of never having to anti foul is not to be sneezed at either.

So don't you listen to them Eric. I can absolutely understand your angle, and unlike the naysayers, I have owned a 26' trailer yacht for 5 years, back when the kids were young. When they got older the larger trawler style was great, but, now they have grown up and gone...?
Cruising, when you want to at ~ 20kn...or going slower and more economically under sail has certain attractions.

 

[bcam]

I will let you know in 10 days or so how it goes when making the transition. We bought our Nordic Tug last year with the thought that we might get old someday. We decided to keep our Catalina 36.
So, we just spent 30 days on the Nordic. Tomorrow, about 0530, we will head back to Canada in the Catalina. It's going to be interesting.

So we headed north last Thursday. 15 minutes into the trip, the auopilot packed it in. After a couple of hours hand steering I had a list of 15 or so reasons the Nordic Tug was the better boat.

8 days later, we leave Cadboro Bay for Seattle. Six hours of motoring in dense fog and five hours of fighting foul current after the fog. A pretty good test of the boat and our patience.

And the current vote is sell the tug and buy a larger sailboat. Some people are simply not cut out for power boating, it seems. I'm not sure how fast it will happen, but the day is coming. Maybe when it's time, there will be some sailor on TF who is looking to make the move.

Bruce

 

[Nomad Willy]

Thank's Peter,
Not shopping .. yet .. as we're about ready to take Willy out for perhaps several weeks.

 

[Mach_cat]

Having just recently moved from sail to trawler. There are many thing I will miss from sailing. Like going out in the afternoon to go no where but just to sail. My last boat was a very nice Catalina 36. I had 3 trailer sail boats on the way up to the C 36 including a macgregor 26. The Mac does have a lot going for it. We took ours to desolation sound, yellow stone lake and many places the c36 would never see. It does have issues with storage. You can carry 12 gallons of gas. All drinking water is in jugs. No anchor locker. But it does sail nice. And in the northwest current can be an issue. This little boat can get through current and then go anchor in 3 ft of water. Willy you mention adding a heater. Not sure where you would put the desiel. You would be better off with a propane unit.