Trailer sailer for cruising Marlborough sounds

[Theseus 1]

I recently fitted brakes to my 25ft trailer yacht. I had been towing it around for 15 years with no problems and the cost and the maintenance troubles with brakes had put me off. It is 140km to where I usually sail on Manapouri and Te Anau and the trip has recently got more dangerous with the increase it the foreign self drive tourists. After a recent experience where I nearly tee boned a tourist that had not given way I bit the bullet. It cost me 3 grand but because of my old ball rims I had to replace both axials and 5 rims.

We have windy gusty conditions on the lakes which I understand is similar to the sounds. The young trailer yachts all have a large sail area for their size which makes them less suitable for inexperienced sailers in our conditions. There is a reason why Noelex trailer yachts with their easily driven hulls and smaller sail areas are popular in the south Island.

[Damienmumu 0]

So yes farr is the ine no matter what...

[Bobbybro. 0]

If your handy and keen on bit of work the Dahl 780 on trade me (bounty hunter) in rotavagas is a very stable good sailing boat with good amount of room my mates dad use to tow it with a 3ltr commy or a 2ltr blue bird as 13 year olds me and my mates were let loose for a summer in it very forgiving boat tested its limits and never once was worried about it not sure about weight but there's lead to take out of the floor!!!!

[Damienmumu 0]

Thatvis a lot of work and as much as I'd keen to refurbish a yacht I am far from having time to do this...

I am definitely looking for somwthing in good ready to sail. Cheers

[Abel Seaman 11]

The young trailer yachts all have a large sail area for their size which makes them less suitable for inexperienced sailers in our conditions. There is a reason why Noelex trailer yachts with their easily driven hulls and smaller sail areas are popular in the south Island.

To answer your earlier question Damien, as a Young 780 owner, I would actually agree 100% with Theseus.

At the time i bought my 780, I couldn't stretch to a Noelex 25.

Now i could and choose not to.

I have however been sailing for many years and took care to ensure the reefing systems on my boat are well rigged and functional. As Theseus says, Youngs do have large sail areas so you need to be prepared to reef early and reef often.

 

If you can stretch your finances a Noelex 25 would be ideal for your needs. They also seem to be holding their value better than any other TS or Keeler i am aware of. 

If the sailing thing doesn't work out then you have a boat that is re-sellable whereas many boats including my own seem to be worth almost nothing on the market.

Good luck.

 

 

 

[Damienmumu 0]

This one seems a nice option:

https://preview.trademe.co.nz/motors/trade-me-motors/boats-marine/yachts/trailersailer/1146458461

Not too sure if it is well equiped what more it would need. Outboard excluded so woul have to count this.

Any thought?

[Island Time 786]

Trailer looks good, but no brakes. Hull looks good, but paint especially new paint, can hide a lot...

[Damienmumu 0]

So actually the one in Nelson seems best option. It may pay to be patient I guess... meanwhile I shoukd better get on board of someone's yacht at Waikawa Yacht Club to learn the ropes.

Anybody had any thought of suggesting to do the Day Skipper course from Boating Eucation to get all the safety tips?

[Island Time 786]

Day skipper course is a good start. Won't teach you anything about sailing, but the basic "rules of the road" and pilotage. Iirc it's a pre requisite for the more advanced courses anyway ( could be wrong here, it's a *^%# long time since I did mine!)

Good luck

[grant 17]

Day skipper course is a good start. Won't teach you anything about sailing, but the basic "rules of the road" and pilotage. Iirc it's a pre requisite for the more advanced courses anyway ( could be wrong here, it's a *^%# long time since I did mine!)

Good luck

its not a pre-req for anything else.  For pretty basic knowledge it s a good course, relatively quick and easy,  Next one up is boatmaster, if you are thinking about doing the boatmaster then just do that, don't worry about Day skipper.  Day skipper is enough to keep you out of trouble in reasonably confined and not too busy waters.

 

a lot of insurance companies will give a discount if you have boat master, not sure about day skipper.