Go for a blast!
Rupert Holmes rounds up 16 small, fast and fun cruisers – new, second-hand and home-build
In our search for comfort and convenience it’s easy to forget that sailing ought to be a lot of fun. Who doesn’t sometimes hanker after a fast, small boat that’s a blast to sail, yet easy to maintain and doesn’t have the hassles that go with larger craft?
Many of the following designs were originally sold as trailer-sailers, but a more accurate description would be ‘trailable boats’. These are not ideal boats for keeping in the front garden and sailing in a different destination every weekend. It would take an exceptionally well organised and practiced owner to get most of these boats sailing in much less than half a day.
However, those boats that have a lifting keel can take advantage of inexpensive drying moorings. And if you live in the Midlands, for instance, then it would be possible to keep the boat in Devon for one summer, south Wales the next and on the East Coast rivers after that.
Equally, any trailable boat opens up the possibilities of sailing in a completely different location for a summer holiday. This was exactly the approach Vernon Stratton, an Olympic sailor and three times British Olympic sailing team manager, took for his F24 trimaran (see page 24). Although his boat’s primary purpose was racing on the MOCRA circuit, he also did a long annual summer cruise among Scotland’s Western Islands – a long day’s drive from his home on the Isle of Wight – with a couple of friends.
In his later years Stratton told me this was the best sailing he ever did. The boat’s blistering performance under sail was a great advantage in getting around the islands, as well as being brilliant fun. But what about the logistics of living on board? Although a pragmatic man in many ways, Stratton was no stranger to luxury – the advertising agency he founded retained high end clothing brands Jaeger and Daks as clients.
His solution? Whenever feasible (ie most nights) two of the team slept ashore in hotels or guest houses. It’s an option that’s simultaneously far less expensive, and considerably more comfortable, than buying a bigger boat. That said, today’s technical clothing and other advances means spending a few days on the smallest of boats bears little resemblance to a 1960s camping experience.