Yacht design
would choose a bigger boat designed
with blue-water sailing in mind, such as a
Vertue, a Contessa 26, a Twister or, if they
could afford it, perhaps a Rustler 31.
A typical newcomer to sailing these days
would wince at the thought of spending
more than a day or two aboard anything
less than 35ft (10.5m) long that didn’t have
standing headroom, hot water and a
shower. Expectations have changed.
The industry and its overseers have tried
to turn sailing into a lifestyle choice, which
means making it look appealing and most
definitely glossing over the fact that sailing
can be cold, wet, miserable, exhausting
and expensive. If people will only sail with
hot water, showers, heaters, TVs, standing
headroom, shore power and full-size
double berths, that means bigger boats.Adding up the numbers
Another factor driving up the size of the
average family cruiser is the builders’
economics. A bigger boat is more
expensive to develop and build than a
smaller one. On the other hand, increases
in material and labour costs are on
nowhere near the same scale as those
related to a boat’s weight or volume. What
this means in practice is that a 35-footer
might cost only a few thousand pounds
more to build than a 28-footer but it can
be sold for a lot more: a greater margin forthe builder and, if there is one, for the
dealer. Bear in mind too that builders and
dealers can spend longer selling a
£15,000 boat than one costing £150,000.
That’s one reason why, even when good
small boats exist on the Continent, for
example, you will often find they’re not
represented in the UK.
After several decades when builders
were producing so many small boats,
there’s a good choice of second-hand
models at the fraction of the cost of a new
one. Builders face competition from boats
they or others built years or decades ago,
so they start building bigger ones to move
into less crowded waters.
Those still building small boats have to
establish a niche or produce them as
economically as possible, which usually
means paring the specification to a
minimum. Most small cruisers today are
not the equivalent of boats of similar size
from 30 years ago. Then they were
rugged family cruisers. By and large,
today’s offerings below 25ft are intended
for weekending or coastal cruising in
relatively sheltered waters. If you want an
offshore cruiser you’re expected (and
encouraged) to buy something bigger.
At the risk of courting controversy, I
would suggest that the RCD (Recreational
Craft Directive) hasn’t helped. It has made
it easy for people to believe that anything
with a Category A rating is good to go
anywhere and that a boat rated B, C or D
is not.
To make a 35-footer meet the stability
requirements for Category A is relatively
simple. For a boat under 30ft it’s much
harder. Yet there are plenty of Category‘Builders face competition from boats they
or others built years or decades ago, so
they start building bigger ones’
ABOVE A
Wharram Tiki 21- one has been
sailed single-
handed around
the world
LEFT Katie
Miller started
her offshore
career by sailing
single-handed
around Britain
in a Corribee –
just like Ellen
MacArthur
before her
Mukti Mitchell
designed, built
and tested his
innovative 15ft
Explorer, then
sailed it round
Britain➜Photos: David Harding