Thread: Yachts

Hi,

I just had 3 weeks sailing the whitsundays in aug/sep, we hired a 50' baveria (i think it was called). I'm not (or wasn't before) that into sailing but one of the best holidays ever! We have booked for next year already.

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Great fun!

The yacht races were happening at hamilton island as well:

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

OK

John

Can I be helmsman pleeeese


Mrs ho har

Originally Posted by JDNSW

OK

John

all the sails I've ever seen are triangular,,

whats with the square one and the red one?

Nice schooner John!

Trout, the Martzcraft is a nice boat. We'll look at all our options when the time comes, hopefully early next year some time.

I know the S&S has less space than similar length boats, but it's reputation as an offshore cruiser is exceptional. There's only the three of us, one of whom is under 90cm tall, so we should fit OK.

I suppose it all depends on what's available when we make the move.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

all the sails I've ever seen are triangular,,

whats with the square one and the red one?

The first sails fitted to any boats or ships over four thousand years ago were square, or at least quadrilateral. Triangular sails first appeared only in the last couple of thousand years. These were what is called lateen rig, where the sail is supported by a very long yard along the top, supported on the mast about a third of the way from the lower end. These were used in the Mediterranean and Arab areas of influence, and were adopted together with traditional square sails to give a combined rig on northern European ships starting in the fifteenth century. By the seventeenth century the part of the lateen sail in front of the mast was dropped to give a quadrilateral sail called a "gaff" sail, and triangular sails disappeared from European vessels until well into the eighteenth century when staysails, that is sails set on sails between the masts and from the mast to the bowsprit, were introduced. The gaff topsail was introduced to fill the space above the gaff sail in the seventeenth century and was widely used into the 20th century. Of course, most ships of any size remained square rigged well into the 20th century, similar to Cook's Endeavour (which, however had one gaff sail as well as did most).

The mainsails (called Marconi or Bermudan) you are familiar with need to be much taller to give sufficient area in comparison, and these did not become feasible until wire rope was introduced in the nineteenth century, but they do, by having a higher aspect ratio, give more efficient lift when working to windward, and so, encouraged by the layout of racing circuits to favour boats that go well to windward, began to be preferred for racing yachts. But the problems with them made them very uncommon even for racing offshore until after WW2. The availability of extruded masts and continuing emphasis on windward performance has led to their becoming almost universal on mass produced yachts, and gaff rigs have become very uncommon as "one off" boats have become rare. Despite this, cruising yachts very rarely had Bermudan rigs until the late 1950s.

The advantage of gaff rig compared to Bermudan is that the rigging is less stressed, the masts are lower, giving the ability to reduce windage in extreme conditions, and making mast breakages virtually unheard of.

John

Originally Posted by Jamo

Nice schooner John!

Trout, the Martzcraft is a nice boat. We'll look at all our options when the time comes, hopefully early next year some time.

I know the S&S has less space than similar length boats, but it's reputation as an offshore cruiser is exceptional. There's only the three of us, one of whom is under 90cm tall, so we should fit OK.

I suppose it all depends on what's available when we make the move.

We looked at a few boats and didn't set out to get a martzcraft. As soon as we went on board we knew it was the boat for us. As I guess you will be getting an older boat like us be prepared for plenty of maintenance and repairs. I am guessing as a landie owner you will be used to that . I'll submitt a pic when I figure out how to attach one.

We prefer a large trailer sailor, gives quick access a lot more sailing locations, it takes time to sail to the Whitsundays from Sydney.

We have just taken delivery of a Macgregor 26X that we imported from the US.

Specs:
26 ft long
sleeps 6
has an enclosed W/C
40 HP motor (one guy in the US has fitted a 140hp, the average is a 70hp outboard)
plenty of electrics
launches in 9 inches of water
holds about 500 kg of water ballast
has a maximum 5ft 10 in headroom inside

After we have completed the Isuzu to Rangie engine conversion we will prepare the boat trailer to RTA specifications, clean up come scratches in the gelcoat and soda blast the anti-fowling from the hull.






Glenn

I'd love a biggish (say 34-40) ft yacht, but there are limitations involved as mentioned in the previous replies. Maybe i'll retire on one someday.
For now i want a trailer sailer - you can tow them to a preferred destination and have fun for a weekend or couple of weeks, and then take it home. Here on the Gold Coast there are obviously a lot of them and i'm green with envy at "the mutt" for getting such a nice boat. The MacGregor is really spacious and open and goes like the clappers with a decent outboard on - best of both worlds.
Hope to get something next year - i love my defender, but i also love water and sails...