Hi all - a potential BRe owner here. Matt, Laura, and Nick have been very helpful with my direct questions to date, so perhaps I could ask you owners for some more advice from your experience. I'm looking for a boat around 20' for sailing in the Chichester Harbour area (a drying mooring is a possibility) plus occasional trailering elsewhere. I'd rarely overnight in the boat, but on the other hand, I'd like some modest shelter from the British summer - so it looks like the BRe would be the most suitable Swallow boat. Here are some questions that occur to me:
1) How is sitting headroom in the BRe cabin? I'm 6'0"with short legs, so I sit the same height as someone 2-3" taller.
2) The sprayhood in the BRe YouTube vids looks big. Is it OK to sail with it up, or does it obstruct the view a lot?
2) Is the BRe available in either wood epoxy or all GRP? If so, are the hull shapes identical, and is wood epoxy as resistant to the odd minor bump and scrape, and beaching or drying, as GRP?
3) Are the buoyancy tanks effectively hull voids, or are they separate plastic units?
4) How is the current BRe with bowsprit for leaving on a mooring and/or anchoring in shallow water, and what optional fittings help with that?
5) I assume the jib halyard tensions the mast. How is this and main halyard tension achieved - do you 'sweat up' the halyards against a jammer, or is there a winch (perhaps optional?) that can be used for tensioning? Is there a separate forestay to prevent the mast falling backwards if the jib luff wire breaks (which saved my bacon when that happened in a Hawk 20)?
6) Can the BRe be satisfactorily fitted with a 'cassette' style chemiloo that neither leaps across the cabin nor leaks at extreme angles of inclination, and doesn't render the cuddy so chemically perfumed as to be uninhabitable?
7) Is a carbon boom and mizzen sprit available for the BRe? If not, what are the wooden parts finished with please - conventional varnish, or Sikens or similar?
7+1) Electrics etc - I'd as soon avoid installed wiring, house batteries, etc, and I don't intend to sail at night. So, I have in mind handheld pad/GPS and paper chart navigation, and rechargeable battery units for anything else. Are adequate battery operated LED nav lights available if say I occasionally end up returning at dusk?
9) Heating water for tea etc.: gas makes me nervous in a boat. Is there a simple alternative solution for heating water etc. that one can use at rest, maybe under the sprayhood, then stow safely?
10) If you get water in the cuddy, how does it get out?
11) Will a BRe on trailer fit in my garage? No problem at all with length or width, but the 'up and over' door is 186 cm / 6'1" high.
Any other recommendations or comments welcome!
Thanks, Max