Swallow Boats have come a long way since setting up their boatbuilding business; they are now into cabin sailboats up to 23 feet in length. I particularly like their BayCruiser20, which is full of attractive features. She’s a 20ft 3ins water ballasted trailer sailer with a ketch rig for ease of reefing – simply drop the mainsail, but a better performance can be obtained by reefing the mainsail.
The boat has sitting headroom and a central folding table that disguises her centreboard. Up forward there’s a large double ‘v’ berth and two quarter berths. She has bags of storage space, despite having two separate compartments under the floor of the boat for water ballast – 880 lbs in all. She can be sailed in light winds without water ballast. All the sail handling can be done from the cockpit. The latest version of the mainsail looks to be very efficient, along with the standard carbon mast. In addition to marine plywood, fairly high-tech materials are used in her construction, including Airex® closed cell cross linked polymer foam between glass laminates and Dyneema rigging.
Some would consider being able to have their boat transported on an un-braked trailer, a great advantage, since maintaining brakes on a trailer can be a bit of a bind. Swallow Boats’ demonstration BayCruiser 20 meets that requirement, i.e., the total weight of the boat and her trailer comes out at 650 kilograms, giving a 100 kilogram reserve for margin of error. Bear in mind that braked trailers are cheaper to buy.
I believe at least 3 BayCruiser 20s have been launched, and there is a very good Blog about ‘Daisy Grace’ with several photos of the boat. (See link below.)
Statistics
Length: 20ft 3ins (6.17m) Beam: 7ft 6ins (2.3m) All up weight: 990 lbs (451kg). Weight of water ballast tanks: 880lbs (400kg)
Note: All photos are courtesy of Swallow Boats – see links below.
Links
Swallow Boats BayCruiser 20
http://www.swallowboats.co.uk/content/view/148/118/
Daisy Grace
http://daisygracebaycruiser20no1.blogspot.com/
BayCruiser 20 Construction Photos
http://www.swallowboats.co.uk/content/view/156/
BayCruiser 20 Capsize Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy1HOhLGnHU&feature=player_embedded
BayCruiser Launch at Cardigan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPdcZ7B4t-E&feature=player_embedded
2 comments:
Bill - I really like these too, I've been corresponding with Julian 'Daisy Grace' who keeps his bay cruiser on the Solent - Looking forward to seeing one close up and he's keen to compare with the Drascombe Coaster I've just bought.
Max
Max, You have spurred me on to research the Coaster, and as a result I did an article about her on Saturday,18th Dec.
I hope your Drascombe will give you bags of fun, and that you will fill us in concerning your meetings with Julian and comparisons of your boats.
Bill
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