What's your favorite shoal draft boat?

[Hamin' X]

Hear's the best that I've found, so far.

[LOUIS B HOLUB]

WOW....a 4 masted RIG.....or is that a DOUBLE YAWL ??...all it needs are 4 sets of sails....

[Tom Spohn]

Price no object:

http://www.shoalsailer.com/sailphotos.htm

Price an object:

MacGregor 26M

[Chip Hindes]

I like it, though I'm not certain it will remain afloat once you cut the motor. Notice the guy is not wearing his PFD. Is that one in the shadows near his feet?

Reminds me of the time my best friend and I made a scow shaped boat out of some plywood we borrowed from a nearby building site. We were maybe 7th grade, 12 or 13 yrs old at the time. It was only 1/4" though we added some interior cross braces on the ends and bottom with 1x2; and two seats of 1x4; all nails, no screws. 8' long with about 18" beam, no motor, of course. We made paddles from 1x4 as well (also liberated from the building site) shaped with a saber saw.

With both of us aboard, it drew about 6", with maybe 4" freeboard. The amazing part is his mother actually allowed us to load it on the roof of their gigantic Nash and tie it down, then transported us to a nearby stream to try it out. No life jackets of course, but we were both good swimmers and "experienced" Boy Scout Canoeists; of course on a dead calm lake only.

We had our boat out about 10 minutes. We could paddle a few strokes then had to bail furiously with a couple tin cans, because no sealer or caulking, the fit wasn't that good, and if you put weight in the wrong spot on the bottom, it would separate from the sides and the water would pour in. The flat bottomed scow design was quite unstable but we managed not to sink it. The stream was pretty wide but we wisely (?) stayed fairly close to shore, not taking it out into the current, or it would have rolled us for sure.

Took it home with plans for repairs, but after seeing it in action Friend's mom got smart and refused to take us back to the stream again, figuring that was the end of it.

So we put a a lot more nails in it to slow the leaking/ bottom separation problem and waited.

Some weeks later after a pretty heavy rainstorm there was enough water from the storm runoff for us to attempt to shoot the 6' concrete culvert that crossed under my street. We carried the boat to the upstream side, launched and jumped in. The paddles were no good for paddling but we used them to pole and fend off from the sides of the culvert. With the 4" freeboard and the boat again rapidly filling, we got about halfway through when the boat got jammed up on a tree limb stuck in the culvert and began to come apart. We jumped out and waded the rest of the way through to the other end of the culvert, dragging the remains of the boat.

No injuries except bruises and scrapes. At the time we didn't think much of it, but looking back from an adult standpoint, we were extremely fortunate we didn't get hurt or drown. Our parents never knew. We actually salvaged the boat and nailed it back together, but we never put it in the water again.

[Randy Smith]

311,000$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for the Shoalsailor........holy jeez that is one beautiful expensive boat............... Wow, Randy

[Randy Smith]

I was trying to think of boats I might buy that are sailboats with shoal keels. I really like the Seaward, though it isn't a motorsailor. For a used boat, I might consider a Bayliner Buccaneer....pick them up cheep and they have lost of room....they were not a conventional boat and some purists hate them......of course that is on of the reasons I bought a Mac! Randy

[Catigale]

Thats a classic Young Engineer story Chip ...explains a lot...

[Terry]

Yep, that is one expen$ive boat!! $$$
Looks nice though and with a 12'9" beam in a 35' length it is quite beamy relative to other sailboats of that length. The sugarscoop transom seems to have some detrimental effect on usable aft space below though. Only a small two person aft bunk and a fair amount of unusable space around it. Gotta love the way Roger made such great use of it in the . For that kind of money though, there are many options out there to consider.
Maybe when I retire I can sell the house and live on a 40' sailboat.

[Randy Smith]

Terry, I have lived aboard and know it would be great to do again. The ADMIRAL just isn't going for it.....she has this idea that a deck and a yard are important......I fricken hate mowing and think that not doing that chore would be the best part of the whole deal.....I would miss a garage and would need a washer and drier, all else could be negotiated to the point of moot.....Some livaboards say they miss the fact that they go to play on their boat, when living aboard you are usually on the plaything.

There truly is not a boat like the Mac for the price and convenience, it is a niche that we have found which can't be matched. Randy

[argonaut]

The term "shoal draft" always puts me off because it implies a shallow draft yet has no exact meaning. Kinda of like a "grande" size coffee.
A Catalina 30 shoal draft was 4'4" when it first came out, then it became 3'10" later. Shoal really means, "we make a deeper draft boat too".
A shoal draft almost anything has problems in a lot of Florida coastal waters.

Seawards are nice quality Fla built, normal to slower than normal cruisers with amenities. Pricy, heavy.
Rhodes 22s have a nifty stub keel design, some neat features and are built like a tank (9 stays !?) Nice galley too, a bit pricy and space is more chopped up than a Mac. Precision 21s & 23s are Florida built and share a similar keel design that's good in our waters and are also good quality boats with a nice galvanized factory trailer. See, it can be done. No private head though and again it's a displacement hull. Not a lot of headroom either, I can't stand up in one.
Also no standing headroom on the P-boats though, and the Rhodes sports a poptop, but when it rains you're gonna bonk your head or get damp.
The old iron swinging keel boats (Ventures, Cat -22, -25) just rust off their pins in our salt water, they would be fine lake boats though if you're happy going 5. Heavy to drag too.

If I only wanted to sail and didn't care if anyone liked the interior an older Schock or recent vintage Catalina 250 would be fine. Again, only 5mph. Heck even a 26-S. Hate the head location though, so...

OK, my favorite is the X-boat trailer slipped next to my house.
9" draft, roomy interior, private head, 12+ mph under power, water ballast, no slip fees, easily replaceable parts, crappy trailer.
Can't have everything!

[Catigale]

crappy trailer

So dont sail with the trailer...



Seriously ladies and germs, if you are going to cheap out, the trailer is the place to do it in this market.

If you really want to go on 1000 mile jaunts, its worth upgrading, re-axling, etc...

Im just glad Im 90% fresh water sailor - four seasons of sailing and my 2002 trailer is just showing first signs of rust..surface at that.

[Hamin' X]

Chip,

That's an old style metal fuel can. You can just make out the fuel line wrapped around the hooks.

This guy has you all beat.

• Shallower Draft
  More Foot Room In Cockpit
  Larger Table To Eat At
  No Trailer Needed
  Lays More Level At Low Tide...

[Beam's Reach]

$311,000!?

OK. It's a little bigger than the Mac, and obviously finished a lot nicer, more wood (more work!)...but $311,000?! You could buy 10 fully loaded Macs for that and still have enough left to put gas, food and beer in them for several seasons.

As Tom said, money would have to be no object...but even then, I think I could find something bigger and better to spend my $311,000 on.

[Randy Smith]

If I really had 311,000$, I likely would plunk it down on a Nordhaven Trawler(that would be the down payment), especially if I had the money for the fuel and maintenance.....of course it isn't shoal keeled, but money would likely change what I do.....I would use the Mac as my dingy and playboat.........ah, the rich and infamous.......... Randy

[Dan B]

Does anyone have experience with the Seaward Eagle 32?