Best 2-up beercan racer

T

The great unwashed

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Hawaii
I enjoy beercan races and the occasional weekend series, but I'm not interested in hunting up crew.  I'd value some suggestions for boats fitting these parameters: monohull, stored in the water, 27' or less, easily and effectively doublehanded, used/inexpensive.  Thanks!

 
12 metre

12 metre

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English Bay
PurpleOnion said:
Ultimate 20 does well with 2 reasonably capable sailors.
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Hotfoot 20 might be better for Hawaii conditions - basically the same boat but non-turboed.

Hotfoot 27 - only because there is or was one in Hawaii (Squad Car). Did an early 80's double handed Pac Cup (which was dual purpose as it also served as the delivery to the owner in Hawaii).  Allegedly had a 3 min LORAN average of 23 kts coming down some big waves into Hawaii.

Early 80's lightweight frac. Decent HF 27 can be had for under $7k.  Good double hander, but not so much for singlehanding.

 
B

Bristol-Cruiser

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Depends on how serious you are about going fast and what inexpensive is for you. Hear me out on this, these suggestions are serious and give you pretty good accommodations to boot - Nonsuch 26 or even 22. You only need one person to say the boat the other person can be the wine (or beer) steward and occasionally get to pull a string. 

 
stumblingthunder

stumblingthunder

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First, have to scope where you are.   I see that your advertised location is Hawaii.    I just took a look through the Hawaii CL and saw what was being offered in the islands.   Most all of the suggestions are for boats that are probably not a lot of in the islands, meaning that shipping would be involved in one that is not typically there.

Two, what are the boats that are beer canning in your 27ish range?   Are they double handing with  no downwind sails, or with.   Are they more classic plastic or ranging more towards light/sled-ish?  

Likewise, what are your own skills/experience?   Just casual sailing or former rockstars looking to keep the juices flowing on a boat?

There look to be a number of affordable classic plastic, ie what would have raced in MORC in the 70s in the market.   Most of these also double as cruising boats, which is how the majority got there.   Unfortunately, these are not ones that are going to jump up on a plane, catch a wave and hook in at 15kts for an hour on a wave.

There is a Cal 28 on the hard for 2500.   Will most definitely need a refit to race.   A Yamaha 25 for 3500.   There is also a Cal 2-30 for 10850, but that would need a little more muscle to sheet in the mast head genoa on a lighter air day.   Now looking on Yachtworld, a Cal-25, which was a hot little number in her day is $2500, definitely a fixer-upper.   There are more of the old classic plastics on there, but nothing in the 27foot range that you are specifying.

- Stumbling

 
T

The great unwashed

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Hawaii
Without Mac 25s, what would people on SA have to joke about?

Some good suggestions so far.  Yeah, I’m in the islands, so if the boat isn’t here (and I’ve looked at a few here), I’d need to either sail the boat over or put it on a trailer and Matson it.  27’ is the max length for the slip I have.  Can’t do more than 10’ beam, so cats and tris (unless they fold) are out.  Cost—let’s cap it at 35k.  I’d like to fly a chute, and I’d rather have a prod than a pole for double handing on short courses, but the pole wouldn’t be a deal breaker.  Our beer can races have everything from ratted-out old IOR boats and waterlogged J24s to some pretty new and tricked out 45-50 footers.  PHRF has a white sail division, but as I say, spinnakers are much more fun.

A boat that can get up and plane would be nice—so sorry, the Nonsuch isn’t in the cards.  The Moore 24 looks nice, as do the Ultimate and Hotfoot 20.  I’d jump a the chance to sail the JS900–a cool take on a meter boat style—but it’s too big, expensive, and obviously isn’t a planing hull.

Never seen a Wabbit in the flesh.  Is that really just a daggerboard boat, with no bulb?  Love the trapeze, but I may be too old for a boat the doesn’t have a ballast keel.

Couple of J80 suggestions.  Never sailed one.  PHRF#, according to J Boats, is 114 / 117.  Does the boat sail to that rating?

Then there’s always something like this, although I think 2 guys would have a tough time with it:  https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2006/judel-vrolijk-pro-25-2669144/?refSource=standard%20listing

 
stumblingthunder

stumblingthunder

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The great unwashed said:
Without Mac 25s, what would people on SA have to joke about?

Some good suggestions so far.  Yeah, I’m in the islands, so if the boat isn’t here (and I’ve looked at a few here), I’d need to either sail the boat over or put it on a trailer and Matson it.  27’ is the max length for the slip I have.  Can’t do more than 10’ beam, so cats and tris (unless they fold) are out.  Cost—let’s cap it at 35k.  I’d like to fly a chute, and I’d rather have a prod than a pole for double handing on short courses, but the pole wouldn’t be a deal breaker.  Our beer can races have everything from ratted-out old IOR boats and waterlogged J24s to some pretty new and tricked out 45-50 footers.  PHRF has a white sail division, but as I say, spinnakers are much more fun.

A boat that can get up and plane would be nice—so sorry, the Nonsuch isn’t in the cards.  The Moore 24 looks nice, as do the Ultimate and Hotfoot 20.  I’d jump a the chance to sail the JS900–a cool take on a meter boat style—but it’s too big, expensive, and obviously isn’t a planing hull.

Never seen a Wabbit in the flesh.  Is that really just a daggerboard boat, with no bulb?  Love the trapeze, but I may be too old for a boat the doesn’t have a ballast keel.

Couple of J80 suggestions.  Never sailed one.  PHRF#, according to J Boats, is 114 / 117.  Does the boat sail to that rating?

Then there’s always something like this, although I think 2 guys would have a tough time with it:  https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2006/judel-vrolijk-pro-25-2669144/?refSource=standard%20listing
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You could take a look at a J27.   Ticks most of the boxes: affordable, capable of planing, most are trailer sailed (so core should be dry,) can sail to its rating and fits your available docking.   Yes, it is a symmetric chute, but it is a fractional rig, so loads are less.

- Stumbling

 
darth reapius

darth reapius

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Straya
solosailor said:
JS9000, Moore 24, Express 27, J80
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JS9000 was so close to being a great boat.

They just fucked it up and it really doesn't work that well.

My old man took me to the factory like 20 years ago to look at them and test sail one, and whilst the hospitality was great, and it was a nice day, it is absolutely not what we thought would be a good boat to own and sail.

It needed to be a tiny bit wider, have a little bit of form stability and not be as much of a canoe, needed a lifting keel because that boat sat like 2.5m off the ground and a few of them blew over when on the hardstand. With all of that you could have dropped a little weight out of the keel and the thing would have gone both upwind and downwind.

Also they really needed to mock up the deck layout before building the moulds, though that is typical of Swarbrick's boats. You need to be a fucking gymnast to get in and out of the damn boat, and the way the positions on board worked wasn't quite right.

A bit like his S97 and S80 boats, while actually good boats in many ways, they had some really serious downfalls which really should have been flushed out at the pre-mould building stage. Like the S97 having only 5'9" headroom, literally no one would have noticed that being upped to 6' to 6'2" or something and yet the boat missed out on having a much bigger market of "standing headroom" cruiser/racer boats. And the S80 broached like all fuckery and needed the keel moved back 1 bolt to fix it (tested and confirmed, the class even voted to do the change, and the "not-change" voters slightly edged out the "change" voters and ruined the class, so they left it as a boat which sucks to sail downwind.

 
T

The great unwashed

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Hawaii
VX would be a total hoot off of Diamond Head.  Not sure 2 people could hold one down in a blow.  In-water storage might be an issue.  We have zero available dry storage at the waterfront, and I can’t store a boat at my house either.

 
M

Moore Play

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Hawaii
Are you new to the Islands? If you are on Oahu there are the Wednesday nights @ Keehi, I think they still have Thursdays @ Kaneohe & there are the Fridays @ HYC/WYC. Best way to find something that fits your parameters might be to crew for a bit. You have to hunt for what you are looking for over here. A friend of mine "found" his Express 27 by searching all the boatyards on all the islands for over a year. It might be the only one still here. A young military guy had another shipped here but, I haven't seen or heard of it for awhile. There are 2 Antrim 27's in Kaneohe, a guy who crews on one,  occasionally sails with me, and word is a new special order / or build  upgraded Antrium 27 maybe headed here in the next PAC-Cup but that gets away from short handed and inexpensive. After selling my old Yamaha MK II quater ton replica in 2013 it took my buddy & I almost 5 years to find our current boat. What I believe may the only Moore 24 now here. It was a for real barn find, stored on a trailer, plastic rapped, in a wharehouse, but we paid top dollar. 

On the other end of the scale there is a J-29 "Reactor" MHIB, I think,that is being condemended (along with Hydroptere, AAHHHHH the humanity!!!!) @ Keehi boat harbor right now, looks really rough but the stck & boom are still in it, first boat I flew a kite and won a Friday night in our class. It has been riden hard and put away drippen wet. but maybe worth a look

 
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