4 Trailersailers Went to Sea
Which of these 4 boats would most likely get into trouble first?
“What are those boats doing out there?” yells someone from the rain-soaked dockside gallery. “It’s nearly a full gale!”
Yes, it’s time again to speculate on the relative seaworthiness of several popular small sailboat designs. Vote in the poll below and feel free to share your comments.
Clockwise from Top Left: The Hunter 18.5, the Compac 16, the Precision 165, and the San Juan 23.
I think your surveys asking which boat is more likely to get in trouble does a disservice to your followers. In my opinion seaworthiness is NOT a function or result of a particular boat design and its parameters, in and of itself. You can take the same design, whether thought to be generally seaworthy or not, put it in the hands of two different skippers and have very different results where safety is concerned. To me, seaworthiness does not and should not take the boat, alone into account. It has to also take the human factor into consideration. This would be things like the experience of the skipper, how well or not a boat is maintained, and how well it may be equipped to deal with an emergency.
I enjoy these exercises, makes me check out various boats and ask myself , if I had to which one would I choose to face a angry sea! I’m looking to down size from a SJ24 to a smaller more manageable craft as I approach 80. This exercise is helping me go through this process. Thanks Josjh!