Understood. Just not possible to get it checked when it's not not mine yet and the owner is oveseas.

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Jarcat 6. Trailerable 20' Catamaran.
https://jarcat6.blogspot.com.au/

Good morning all,

Quick introduction, I'm currently not a TS, indeed I'm still a dark side sailor. I have a Top Hat 25, however due to a change in family circumstances (birth of my son) and an unfortunate realisation that because of how often we move a yacht requiring a mooring is no longer suitable for us. So we are slowly trying to sell our Top Hat and downsize a little to a large trailer sailor (currently have our eyes on a court 650).

Alas my wife doesn't like the idea of sleeping aboard so we are looking for something that I and my son (eventually) can go adventuring in and something that is equally at home doing a day trip and pulling into a bay and being able to wade ashore to set up camp for my wife.
When we upgraded the car, we already had the plan of moving to a trailer sailor so we bought a Pajero so towing weight isn't a huge concern.

As far as my sailing experience goes, I work at sea in the maritime industry so have an extremely good grounding in navigation and seamanship and I've been sailing on and off since my early teens.

Hopefully I've proved I'm not a bot and I look forward to being part of the conversation

Welcome to the forum. You will find a wealth of information on here and most of it will be helpful.

Had a Top hat myself once. One of the first ones made of diagonal ply. Great sailing boat.

Coops.

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Some people are like clouds. When they go away it makes the day seem brighter.

Welcome Alyosius,
This is a good site for any sailing person, be they beginners or old salts like yourself.

In a way you are starting again as my guess is that you have lots of experience in every type of sailing boat except "trailer sailers".

Going back to your stage of life when I had a 6 month old daughter and got the desire to go sailing, my long term ambition was also to take the family for some adventures and to camp on board one day. My spouse was not over keen but came to like it as long as things didn't get too frantic. It is quite hard if your wife doesn't like the idea, but as you say, short adventures should still be OK as your family grows.

For families the availability of a toilet and a stable boat are big pluses especially if sleeping on board is planned. A medium sized boat such as Court 650 should fit the bill in that regard.

If you don't want to be the fastest boat on the water, aim for a stable, dry boat instil confidence in your family members. No TS will be as stable as the Tophat but some are very solid. Look at the ballast ratios.

I ended up owning over a dozen TS from 14' to 25' and you may find, as I did that your needs change as the years go by. If you are really keen and strong enough, the really big boats like the South Coast 25 and RL28 are superb cruisers but very heavy to tow and take a long time to rig and launch. There are folk on TSP who manage these 3 tonne rigs happily and use some clever devices and some patience to drag them around. But in general boats in the 18' to 22' range might be better for starters.

I could go on (as I tend to) but as you refine your thoughts, just ask the questions and you will get plenty of advice here which you can filter yourself.

Good luck,

Peter

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Peter Y
CAL 14 "Gypsy"
Investigator 563 "Tricksy"

Hi! I gather I need to introduce myself, so...

I live in Adelaide where I'm stuck teaching at UniSA. I've been around boats for most of my life, but wouldn't claim to be particularly skilled as a sailor. I still remember my father bring home an NS 14 when I was young, after taking us out on beach cats he used to hire and crewing out of the Pt Adelaide yacht club. After a couple of seasons with the NS, he purchased an Austral 20 which we sailed for about three-four seasons. That was sold, and he returned to crewing, while I picked up my first boat - an aluminium OTB cat I used to sail out of Brighton.

A few years ago my family purchased a 34 ft keelboat, which they mainly use for sailing the gulf. I crewed for a while, but I've been wanting to go further afield than we were doing in her - we never really had the time to do more than 2-5 day cruises, limiting us to Gulf St Vincent. Thus I've been looking for a couple of months, and finally gave in with a Matilda 20. Not one of the boats on my shortlist, but for various reasons it's been on the radar while I've been looking, and I like the condition of this one. I guess I'll see how she goes.

So that's it. I'm picking her up over the next two days, and hope to be in the water before long. I'm incredibly appreciative of this forum, in part because whenever I spotted a boat I hadn't heard of before there was always an old post discussing it, and in part because the "for sale" thread was invaluable in making sure I hadn't missed anything.

Welcome Bilby - presumably you bought the Matilda from Murray Bridge? Look forward to some reports from you as you get to know your new baby.

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Peter Y
CAL 14 "Gypsy"
Investigator 563 "Tricksy"

That was the one. There was also the one in Pt Lincoln recently. That said, it won't feel like I've purchased her until she's in the water, or at least parked outside the house.

I was originally looking at a couple of different models, but the Matilda fits what I'm looking for, and hopefully will be forgiving enough. Very different to the family's Columbia 34, with the massive freeboard the Columbia has. The Investigators were my first choice, but I've swapped that for a bit more length, a galley and separate head, which made my wife very happy.

Hi,

I live in Port Douglas and have just been fortunate enough to be given a seaway 25 which myself and a mate are in the process of cleaning up.

Boat has been unused for around 14 years but 12 of those years it was in a shed and 2 of the years in a paddock only having fresh rain water fall on it.

I was sent here from the seabreeze forum as they said this was a better place to be asking questions about my trailer sailer.

This is my first move into the world of owning a sailing boat of size as previously I have only owned a hobie cat.

Because of this I'm sure I will be asking a lot of questions about how to replace and repair things.

I look forward to getting to know you all.

Hi Lachie,
Welcome, your in the right place for answers as there are some very knowledgeable yachties here so ask away.

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Sonata 6 Mango

If you'd like some inspiration, have a look at Geoff's restorations of Volcano and Callisto, both Seaway 25s which got rather close to being scrapped:

Volcano



Callisto

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A man's boat is his Castle. The Gippsland Lakes are my moat. Castle 650 #10, Roller Coaster.

Hi all, just a quick hello. Justin Sinclair here from Scarboroug Qld, two young daughters and an understanding wife.
We have just bought a Dancer 19 from Kiama and it’s now home at Scarborough. I was really limited in boat choice due to our very narrow driveway of 2400mm. Really wanted Ben coles blazer but it wouldn’t fit, nearly every desirable TS is too beamy for us, So we changed our thinking and bought a cheaper yacht The dancer has a 2300 beam so it’s tight but it fits.
We paid $5000 for it.
It came with a ok trailer, the Gal is wearing off and a little corrosion is on one of the stringers but it will be fine. it had near new johno 9.9, ok sails, Main, Genoa, spinnaker, storm gib, small and Large Gib. The hull is good with a few gel coat cracks. It was a fresh water boat so The plan is to give it a polish and get it wet. Hopefully my daughters and wife will enjoy it and we can upgrade in a few years to a better boat.

My other main passion is Soaring up at Kingaroy, I instruct up there and have a glider as well.

Anyway hello and standby for lots of stupid questions.

Justin

We are John and Pam. We live on the Sunshine Coast in QLD near Pumistone Passage.
Pam doesn't mind sailing as method to get somewhere and do something. While I share this outlook I also get gratification from the jouney. We are more travellers than sailors.

We have had a succession of small sail craft and still need to find homes for the Laser and Caper Cat. My favourite vessel for family use was the Young 6.7. It also taught me a lot about maintenance.

We have had an aluminium version of the Adams 6 for the past decade which has suited local environment and our family /work situation with its competing time priorities but now, being retired and a fair bit less nimble we are considering a larger TS that we can use in conjunction with our land based travels. We may keep the Adams for day use on the passage. We will see.

John

Hi. my wife and I are hobiecat sailors and looking to move to a TS in the next year. We camp/sail off our cat but would love a bit more comfort. Looking at a Farr 6000 or 7500 or boomerang 23 or similar... thanks for the join. Looking at all the advice and posts here will help a lot in making a decision. cheers. We're located in Brisbane on the bayside. cheers Jezza

Welcome Jezza,
If your preferences include a Farr 7500, then I assume you must have a decent tow vehicle. Anything in that size range will weigh over 2 tonnes on their trailers and some more like 3 tonnes.

If you are after a bit of comfort, you might want a pop-top for headroom and perhaps space for a porta-potti so to get these features you are starting at 18-20 footers which will typically weigh 1,000kgs to 2,000kg on their trailers.

Most people on TSP will tell you that the condition of the trailer is probably as important as the condition of the boat and a good trailer can cost as much as the boat. You should also allow some cash on top of the purchase price as we all end up finding things we need to fix or improve.

Lots of good info on TSP. If you want any guidance regarding which TS to get, then perhaps give us a bit more info about your needs. For example do you envisage racing or cruising? What are your towing and storage limits if any? Are you handy enough to do basic repairs and upgrades?

People here are only too happy to pass on their experiences with most types of TS, so just ask.

Good luck

Peter

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Peter Y
CAL 14 "Gypsy"
Investigator 563 "Tricksy"