Scott,

Before I graduated to cruisers, I had an open boat of a traditional type found in the NE of England, the Yorkshire Coble. It was 17ft long, and weighed about half a ton with a draught of about a foot. I designed and made a custom trailer so that I could launch this easily and quickly off the local slip, wearing waders. The mast was unstayed in a tabernacle. It was possible to spend the weekend aboard, sleeping rough under the sail, with a 'bucket and chuck it' head. This was a "the smaller the boat, the more the fun" kind of operation. If there are beaches in Lake Michigan where a beach boat can spend the night, this kind of heavy, seaworthy dayboat would be a viable halfway point between your puddleduck and and a "boat with a lid".

It would be a step up from that to the Sharpie 550 or the Norwalk Island Sharpies. If you're serious about having enough time to build, that is. If not, then I think that a lifting keel GRP trailer-sailer is going to be easier to find. I quite like the concept of the Sharpie 550, and if you can get the parts cut by CNC, it should be quite quick to throw together.

I will always prefer a five-sided hull like Siblim for seakeeping, over the three-sided sharpies and dories. It gets more of the boat deeper into the water. As you may know, i've been working on a SibLim 7m design, which will be capable of sailing on the exposed NSW coast of Australia. It's the kind of design that I'd like you to have, as it's to be a trailer-sailer with a draught of 0.55m, but it's two tonnes displacement, for an all-up towing weight of 3500Kg. I've sketched still smaller versions, but I don't have time this winter to make detailed drawings, unfortunately. 

But perhaps I don't need to - the Aviateur 5.7 will do quite nicely. Except for the minimum draught of 0.66m. That would make it more of a handful to dry sail.

Scott Yellig wrote:

And now I am in love with L'Aviateur 5,7m.

I had been so tempted by the little L'Aviateur. A junk rig would work on the boat, but possibly intrude with the forward berth. I also drew a little raised cabin top to increase headroom below.. With boats like the full keel, or partially full keel trailer boat you have been looking at, such as the Halman 21, they reflect a very traditional way of looking at sailing boat design, whereas the L'Aviateur is the very modern interpretation of what constitutes a seaworthy, and much quicker sail boat. L'Aviateur is I think modeled after the mini-transat race yachts, which achieve some remarkable sailing feats, although I suspect without much comfort. Like the monohull/multihull debate, the traditional displacement hull form versus light displacement hull form will no doubt go on for decades. Of interest, the money I saved in the cost difference between the Eco 6 plans and the l'Aviateur plans was only a hundred dollars short of paying for all of the framing timber for the catamaran hulls and major superstructure components. Photo below of two slender hulls taking shape.

The Sharpie 550 design looks interesting, as do some other of the designer's boats. There is something very Bolger like in their design, I expect the could be built fairly quickly, but probably more sheltered water boats rather than rough water sailing with those hull forms.

Thank you Phil, David T, David W and Arne.

I contacted the broker and I am trying to setup a time to see the Halman 21. I think I looked at the listing last winter. I was doubting being able to launch with a full keel like that. I will use my depth measurement brick/rope/stick and check the local boat launch out in more detail.

Before coming back here to see the discussion about the Halman 21 I had decided (again) that a monohull was the only way to go and I was back to being 90% sure that building was the way to go. I have spent a lot of time looking at this Sharpie 550 design on duckworks. The designer's calculations suggest that the boat should be self righting and the displacement is 500 kg or about 1100 lbs. This seems to be the exact opposite way to go compared to the Halman. I have no doubt I can trailer and launch a 1100 pound boat. Does anyone have any thoughts on this designer or on this design in particular?

Arne -- I am not sure how to say if the summer winds here are either predictable or moderate. The Chicago to Mackinac race seems to result in some tragic events every other year. But this race is running the longest possible distance across the entire lake. Without knowing how to quantify the idea of 'predictable and moderate' I would say off hand that the winds are forecast reasonably well for about 12 to 20 hours into the future and the range of winds in the summer goes from dead calm to B5 or B6 at the absolutely most. It is rare to see a Gale warning until October or November. The issue, in my experience, is that the wave height builds very quickly and the shape of the waves are very steep. That is -- the waves build to great height after only a few hours of the wind really blowing. There are never any long rolling waves on the lake. The length stays short but the height goes up fast. This would not be too bad except that the narrow channels back to the port are quickly filled with confused waves. I have been out several times when sailing out on the open lake was pure joy, but getting back into the harbor was terrifying. Thank you for your thoughts on the Halman 21 design.

David T -- You said you would not want to launch and recover the Halman 21 every weekend. What is the largest sailboat that you would dry sail off a trailer as far as length, draft and displacement are concerned?

Phil -- Thanks for pointing out the Halman 21 link. I am planning to take a good look at her when the broker can arrange it. It does have a lot of nice finish like the portlights and the trailer seems to be in good condition from the photos. You made the comment that it 'Doesn’t look like either boat will get you there fast'. Even if I went for a very light displacement boat around the same length I still think it would be slow going. When looking around the 21 foot range is there really that big of a difference between a fast sailboat and slow sailboat?

David W -- The Flicka, the BCC and the Dana 24 keep popping up in my searches for boats in this size range. Those are clearly the boats designed and built for passage making. The BCC displaces 14,000 lbs. Big Boat. I would love to own and sail one but it is just not practical for me. Especially considering the going price. The Dana and Flilcka are a little bit lighter but still out of my league. As far as a lifting keel goes I am definitely considering that. I would like to find an S2 6.7 or 6.9 and bring her home. This boat only draws 10 inches of water with the keel up. Definitely made to be a trailer sailer. So far I can't find one close enough and in some sort of reasonable condition.

The search continues.

Phil wrote:

It seems I like to make things difficult -- I also want to have a boat that is 'big' enough that I can sail across Lake Michigan in safety ...

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1988/Sailboat-Halman-21-3177665/#.W6WlNOYpChB

Here’a pic of one for sale in Michigan.

Now that's a proper-looking little ship! I wouldn't want to launch and recover her every weekend, but taking her home for the winter would be OK. The outboard is larger than necessary - sell it and put on the Tohatsu 6HP that Arne and I have. Otherwise, all looks in order - she even has brass portlights, Annie'll love that!

A good review here

Scott,

ballast ratio can be misleading when it comes to stability. What is really important is the righting moment attributed to the ballast. If a ballast keel has a weight of 1000 kg and a depth below the waterline to the center of gravity of 500 mm it will have the same righting moment as a keel of 500 kg with a depth of 1 meter, but it will have half of the ballast ratio of the first example. It will also be 500 kilograms lighter which will improve performance as well. As David Tyler says form stability is also a big factor particularly in shallow draft designs. Where high topsides and shallow draft are combined then the horizontal offset of the center of buoyancy is the main factor in providing righting moment rather than depth of the keel which has to be sacrificed to get the shallow draft. One compromise is to use a retractable ballasted drop keel, I did this on a Warwick Stratus 727 where I installed a drop keel in place of the original solid lead fin keel. This increased the draft, keel down, from 1.5 meters to 2 meters, but reduced the ballast by 75% and increased stability by 20%.

 If you are looking for seaworthiness then designs such as the Flicka by Bruce Bingham provide a good solution.(see http://www.flicka20.com/flickas/flickaid/219/flickaname/Sadiq for one in Cincinatti Ohio, complete with trailer and towing vehicle!!!)Also designs by Lyle Hess such as the Bristol Channel cutter are very seaworthy designs, however these designs are heavy and not easily trailerable as you want. I suggest that some kind of ballasted drop keel boat would suit your needs best. Have a look at my Webb 18 illustrated in Danny Green's book Cruising Sailboat Kinetics and imagine something about 24 feet long and 8 foot beam to a similar design, and junk rigged of course, and I think that would suit you quite well.

All the best with the search, David.