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Help choosing a trailer sailer - big is better right?


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I sent the guy an email with a thousand questions. I also worry a little about a wooden boat for two reasons:

 

one - rot (justified or not that is the perception)

 

two - re sale, like you say people want glass boats so I will be the guy trying to sell a wood boat in a few years.

 

We may travel over to Tauranga for a look at it.

 

Funny a Catalina just popped up on TM, looks ok. What are they like? Stability, speed, people's perceptions? Are they an American boat?

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Glass verses wood

Wood,

easy to fix

Easy to see damage

Needs fixing asap, if left will get worse

Painted so will need reprinting at some point

 

Glass

More robust

Only needs a cut and polish every few years

Damage can be hard to find and fix depending on where it is

Once you paint a gelcoat boat it will be no better than a wooden boat in that respect

 

Hard to beat a well built and maintained wooden boat

Lots of people under maintain glass boats as they generally get away with it but you can't do that with wood so you will soon know when you go and look, if it a 20+ yr old wooden t/y and it is dry and doesn't smell of rot then you will know it's good

As for glass you want the original gelcoat to look good, the chances are there will be stress cracks around the stanchions but you don't want them around chain plates, rudder, centreboard or deck fittings

Generally a wooden boat will be lighter also for its size

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Catalina is an Alan Wright design .Good boats. Stick with glass boats. The decks/cabin tops wear much better and the hull is not prone to a lot of maintenance compared to wood / glassed. However buy  a glass boat that has been looked after....as has been said ,don't buy one that needs doing up. It will cost a lot more than paying a little extra for a good boat.

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Yeah, with our Bonito, we paid ~8k plus a new trailer. Had it four years now, and have easily got that value of entertainment out of it already. The way I see it, it owes us nothing. When we sell it to upsize, any money we get for it will be a bonus.

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Yep I'll second that. As a mate said "the boat is the best investment I have made, just the returns are not in $$$". I wouldn't trade my memories for 2x the money I have spent.

 

Also I own 1/3 of a keeler and that works out really well for us. Maybe you could convince a mate to go halves in a nice nolex 25? I reckon that you get much better value for money when you buy a nice boat that has been really well maintained, and there are very few people who use a boat enough to really justify sole ownership. To be fair the other owners of our boat are really good guys and we seem to have no issues, so maybe we aren't a fair representation of shared ownership.

 

The syndicate recently upgraded and bought a good boat in good condition, and while it did blow the budget a bit, no one seems to care with all the fun we are having.

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Really good points being made again, thanks guys. I've started to come around.

 

I guess I don't want to buy a boat that is a known poor performer and is hard to sell because of it. I am now realizing I don't need a fast yacht at all, and believe the wife and kids will appreciate something more sedate ( happy wife=more sailing trips right)

 

I also enjoy working on boats, currently in the man shed I have a ski boat (sorry is that a sear word on here) I have replaced the rotten transom and just about to glass in the new stringers. I know what you mean about it taking time! I thought 3 months to complete, reality will be 10 months by the time it's ready for the water. I would prefer to not have to do anything that major on a trailer sailer if I can help it.

 

I'll keep looking and checking out the 7m less common boats up to the 15 k Mark. Like it has been mentioned stil plenty of fun to be had, and someone mentioned once the wife sees the right one, then that will be the on.....

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My 2c. Find a TY regatta and go and look at some boats. Take your wife and kids and check them out. Talk to the owners, ask them about rigging up, etc. Most boat owners are happy to talk/show to anyone who takes an interest.  Our first family keeler was a Tasman 20 with a fin keel, when my brother and I weren't much older than your kids. We would head off for a week or 10 days over Xmas and also did long weekends, cruising races, and harbour racing in the winter. This was early 70s. new boats TS and Keelers were being introduced all the time. It was great til Piggy killed it all with his boat tax. A lot of those are still around. The trick is to find a boat that has been in (relatively) continual use and kept maintained. If you are patient the right one will come along.

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Had a Noelex 25 for about 5 years great boat easily sailed used to go to barrier a lot and up to the BOI in it And raced it affair bit.Easy to rig will motors well ( no cavitation with the motor in well) you pay a bit more but they hold their price one if the only boats I sold for more than I paid for.We upgraded to a Chico and I still miss the performance of the Noelex down wind with a kite up you get pretty good speeds.The Trailer is a big one make sure it is braked.A lot of them have done fresh water sailing and trailers in good nick.I made a arm up that used to hook on the winch eye on the boat and put block half way down the trailer to winch the boat backwards down the trailer to make it easier to get off .Great boats

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Going to look at a Catalina 7, Hard to find any info other than what's on NZTYA.

 

The mast is huge! The rating shows as a slow boat, apparently heavily built. It's on trade me.

 

On the way now so any help would be great!

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We have had a couple of Catalina's refurbished and sailing here, they can nip at the heals of N25. There is only about half a  kt difference in hull speeds for TY around 7m length, however the Catalina is more of a displacement hull than a planning one like the Elliot, Ross etc.

 

There is one coming up for sale as the owner has recently died, he was in to process of renovating it. Been a fresh water boat for last 10-15 yrs at least.

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Many hundreds of Alan Wright TS built (and a 1000 or so keel boats). I looked at a Catalina years ago before buying my Harmonic. It seemed like a bigger Tasman (which in essence I suppose it is). Liked the pop-top and the fractional rig was a big improvement on the masthead rig of the Tasman IMO. 

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Hi Weaver_74 I'm not a member.....yet, I messengered through FB a few days ago. haven't heard back as yet.

 

Are you a member?

 

That is an excellent idea, I would really like that.

 

Hi Kiwifish - Yes I'm a member.

The club is very active with plenty of events through the season. (both racing and cruising)

Having mast up storage at Kawakawa bay is huge bonus as you can be sailing in 30 minutes from arrival.

The next club meeting is next Tuesday (27th Sept) at 19:30 at the Hamilton Yacht club. (building next to the Hamilton Lake)

If you want anymore info ping me on 021490415 Paul.

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Exciting news everyone!

 

We bought a boat. Catalina 7 with a ton of extra bits, perfect size even fits the dog. Tows really well behind the Hilux, happily did 90 heading south up the Bombays.

 

Thanks for all your input guys, I'll no doubt have many more questions.....

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Exciting news everyone!

 

We bought a boat. Catalina 7 with a ton of extra bits, perfect size even fits the dog. Toes really well behind the Hilux, happily did 90 heading south up the Bombays.

 

Thanks for all your input guys, I'll no doubt have many more questions.....

Congratulations  :thumbup:

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