Is there such a thing as a rigid sea sailboat (for leisure calm day sailing) that is possible for an adult male to wheel a few streets along the footpath to the beach. Or is this simply an impossibility?
I know there are a few basic boats eg walker bay, super snark, but I understand these are only designed for lakes and bays.
Thanks for your reply, I would have the cross one set of lights on a main road, would this be an issue?
A Sabre on a beach trolley no problems. Sabres only weigh 42kg ish.....easy to sail and very very popular now days in most States.
Thanks, looking for something slightly cheaper about $1500 or less. I suppose this limits options a lot. Also the Sabre says max weight 80kg, am slightly more atm :)
what is the carrying capacity of the laser?
Also is there any sort of catamaran that can be wheeled down and assembled in a reasonable amount of time? Or any other options?
It is completely flat except for the boat ramp that goes onto the beach which is sort of steepish I recall. I just use the expression 'down to the beach' not like down a hill :)
But there might be about 6-7 blocks including one main road.
Probably the lightest boat I have seen is the super snark / sea snark (which is thin) and the walker bay 8 but I can't really see any examples of people using them in the sea (only lakes, bays etc and I don't live near any) except for the name sea snark, so I would have to find out more. At the moment I am only thinking about leisurely summer sailing on the sort of days that I might go swimming but in the future maybe I'd want something more capable.
The laser has the advantage the mast comes apart so its a more compact unit to be pulling along. However this is the only advantage to a Laser, they are heavy, uncomfortable to sail and not at all pleasant to sail. There are plenty about, they will carry two people. They were never actually built as a singlehander, prior to their selection as an Olympic class they used to have two people onboard for title events in countries of people of small stature. The class rules never stated how many people to be carried, the design was for a fun lake boat. Spiral and Tasman Tiger are similar to the Laser in concept. Real dinghies will have longer masts that may make it awkward to pull along the road. There will be a need to have a front support to keep the tip of the mast well clear of pedestrians.
Tough time to be buying. Even the rubbish boats on eBay[dinghies] are selling for lots of money. Only good buy at the moment and its a two man boat is the classic Fireball.http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190731871838?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649.
Thanks for your reply, very informative, is it a bad time to buy because of the time of year or because everyone's thinking about sailing after the olympics?
Btw I live in Adelaide so I guess that's where any boat would have to be located.
Plenty of cheap Sabre's in SA, class is strong there, as many have moved into newer boats....ask around the clubs there.
Doubt your going to find these Snarks or Walker Bay 8s around in Australia much, the Snark looks similar to a Sunfish....and by your description your getting into Sailing Canoe territory.
There were these things called Fold a boats or Porta Boats some years back that had a mast n sail combo, that may be the sort of potability your after.....wouldn't take one onto the Gulf in a Breeze though.
Unfortunately $9000 for a Sabre sailboat is a bit above the budget. I might consider an outrigger kayak that could sail, there is a Hobie adventure island but its also a bit much at $3200.
ohhh ok, I typed sabre sail boat into classifieds and got $8900. Actually now I see it is a new build high gloss timber version.
I saw the flying 11 on there unfortunately it would be too big and heavy to ever wheel to the beach by hand which is what I hope to be able to do.
There is no need to look further than Seabreeze - www.seabreeze.com.au/Classifieds/Sail-Boats/~aaima/Hobie-Holder-14--14-0.aspx That's a lot of boat for a $3k asking price and I'm sure you could wheel the trailer by hand especially if you removed the lights and mudguards to make it lighter.
A second hand Spiral would be good value too. Lots for sale on the association website at http://www.spiralsailing.org/Page7.html
They range from $1,000 to $4,750 but this looks like a good option: Spiral 280, Good dry boat, Yellow. Completely re-rigged including a TURBO vang. A reasonable sail. Brand new Alloy dolly. Ready to race. An excellent boat for starters. Selling due to health reasons. $1,500.
Flying 11 would be small and light enough for what you need....pretty sure they come in under 50 kilos....not sure how they sail cat rigged though, and boom is fairly low if your an adult.
The weight seems ok for the flying 11, I was just watching a video of someone lifting the 22kg super snark over his head (by no means a muscle builder) but the width would be the problem having to wheel it on the footpath it wouldn't fit. I thought about the possibility of building a trolley where it could be mounted sideways but then it would be heavier on one side and might catch the wind etc. Could be a big problem, although I'm not really sure.
The spirals look very nice and thin, Id prefer closer to 1 or 1.2k than 1.5 but could stretch. It would have to be in Adelaide though as I'm sure it would cost a fortune to have anything delivered from interstate.
Spirals are very heavy and would require a trolley. Very popular locally and some older ones go cheaply [$400] They have the advantage of being able to use different sail makers. Scaled down Laser with most of the Lasers faults corrected, sort of. All age groups and an excellent association. They only hold their travelling events where camping is allowed.
Flying Eleven hull is light, I can carry one a short distance. Had two over the years to teach my kids to sail. I used to sail it with one kid as crew but they are easy to sail singlehanded with full rig.
Ohh there is another big problem now and this time it looks like it makes the whole idea impossible, at the lights there is a 'turn left at any time with care' lane before the lights with an island which probably nothing would fit.
Well there is still the slightly less exciting sport of box kite flying lol.
Not sure if there is any out here but I grew up when the Topper Dinghy came out,made of plastic and light as hell.
Sounds like your options are limited, in reality you should be looking at windsurf boards, there are some around where you can go out in very little wind, they are very light, a resonable second hand set up will cost you between $500 and $1000 and its sailing, your standing up though which is the only diffarance.
Its the only sailing gear I would want to drag around several blocks, up and down a boat ramp.
Besides kite surfing gear which you can carry down to your local beach and dare I say it...go sailing
I agree your better off wind surfing or kitesurfing.although your windsurfer will end up under your house.so kitesurfing would be your answer.unless you want to go back in time when windsurfing was cool.like 1980.
