Small sailing yachts... and open water

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[Stuart2007]

Thanks KerNeli.

Thats a fin keel yacht, if I remember? Designed for a fair bit of speed and rougher weather. What sort of speeds did you manage to get out of the boat, in a good wind?

Faster than the speeds I'm told I could expect out of this bilge keeled boat I'm looking at...

[Agent|Austin]

I don't agree with that.

You are saying it like you are an expert but you obviously don't know a thing about it.

A sailing ship has what they call a keel.
A big steel or lead weight that hangs 1.50m-2.50m under the ship.
Even if the wind would capsize the ship, it will pull itself back up straight biceaus the weight of the keel is around 30-40% of the weight of the whole ship.
Even 22ft ships have keels.

I even think that sailing ships are the most stable vessels to go into a storm with.
A motorvessel can capsize, a sailboat can't! (unless if the keel breaks  )

And, I think it would certeignly be big enough.
Even a sunday sailor (with a little bit of experience) can cross the channel in a 22ft sailingboat.

I crossed the channel a few times on my parents 32ft sailboat.
And two years ago people with a 25ft boat joined us.

I think there even are races across the atlantic with sailingboats not much bigger then 22ft.

I find it disrespectfull to call people who do something like that nuts!
You should look up to those people. Biceaus it is amasing what they do.

I do not know anything, that is why I was just assuming, so it is almost like a self righting system if I am correct?

I guess that also answers my question on how they can lean so far and not have the weight of the mast tip the vessel over.

[Stuart2007]

The mast of most small boats built in the last 30 years are made of light weight aluminium (hollow). There's very little weight in them.

[IRI5HJ4CK]

Following on from a discussion in another topic, would anyone here (where is Capt. Traddles? ) offer an opinion on whether a 22ft yacht- when crewed by someone competent is big enough to take to open water, such as the Straits of Dover?

I've heard people have taken them across the Atlantic but, if this is true, then they're surely clinically insane. Certainly this isn't for me!

Any advice from boat owners or retired mariners (hint, hint, Capt. Traddles   ) would be appreciated.

Just my opinion here, since I do have a background:

When I used to live in North Wales, many of us would set off as a "Convoy" to the Isle Of Man TT, there were boats of all shapes and sizes, Yachts, Charter boats, Fishing boats, Dive boats. And yes, there were several yachts which were 22 Ft, and even under. But mainly, there were yachts - As it was a nice run over for them.

There would also be many which would travel down the Menai Straits off the Island of Anglesey, North Wales. And those Straits have got a really bad reputation. Many sailors avoid them, since, you have severe under-currents down that way. We never went down there, if we could help it. But some people did, in whatever size of boat/yacht!

So, to sum it up, I think, if you've got a good sturdy boat, you shouldn't have a problem. But I like nice, wide boats, myself.

This was our old boat (Colvic Watson 24 Motor Cruiser):



Jack.