Swallow Yachts Forum > General Discussion

Why did you sell your Swallow?

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Sea Simon:
JM _ "This post might have more takers if the question is extended to why *might I eventually* sell my swallow."

At the moment, I'll sell my BRe if/when I can see a way to move up to a BC 23.....

Perhaps more interestingly, I sold a very nice, nearly-new Drascombe Lugger and upgraded to my BRe because I found the Lugger so unsatisfying and boring to sail!
As JM says, it just wouldn't go to windward at all.
I found the Lugger to be sub-optimal, both sailing and motoring...too big a compromise for me.
At the time I was <60, things might be different >70, even as a retired dinghy racer  ;)

Wolfgang:
Regarding the comments from MB about sailing of BC23 requiring 'hand on tiller', I would be interested to hear if this also applies to the BC26.

Nick Orchard:
I wouldn't recommend trying to sail a BC26 solo without a tiller pilot. Given a cooperative wind, not too much in the way of waves and a bit of tweaking of the sails you can get a BC26 to sail without your hand on the tiller, but for the sake of the 5 seconds that it takes to swing the tiller pilot across and press the auto button, what's the point? I mostly sail solo and I think the tiller pilot does 50% of the steering. Upwind I probably do more on the helm, partly because it's fun, partly because I think I can do better, and partly because the TP can be working quite hard, so a bit noisy. Downwind it probably does a better job than I do, especially if you're getting near a dead run when it's less likely to induce an accidental gybe than I am because I'm not paying attention. If I have the asymmetric up then the TP does all the steering as I have my hands full on the sheet. If you really want a boat that sails itself for some time without touching the helm I think you need a good old fashioned long keeler with lots of ballast, but where's the fun in that??

TimLM:
Well that got some very interesting replies, nice one Graham.
Some points though, I sail almost exclusively single handed and although my rig is different from standard I feel the following would still apply.
I use and Autohelm 2000 and it works just fine, I have time enough to hoist the spinnaker, trim the sails, make a cup of tea etc.
Hoisting Papagena out of the water became very easy for this 73 year old thanks to Rob's advice on an electric winch.
Pumping out the ballast takes less than 3 min (nearer 1.5) with an electric bilge pump.
All of these require batteries so I bought security system batteries for the on boat stuff and made a box and put a small car battery for the winch, which charges from the car when towing.
All easy to fit and inexpensive to buy.
If anyone would like details send me an email on timlemare@gmail.com
So absolutely no chance of me selling Papagena!   :D

markbatey:
Hi all,

Very interesting thread, just one extra observation from my experience, and that is about a tillerpilot. Essential, as we all seem to agree, for sailing a BC23 or equivalent single handed. I found it was pretty effective under sail, having to work quite hard, and I felt I needed to be around in case of gusts, but under sail it keeps the boat in the right direction under not very gusty conditions. But motoring, forget it. I think it might be because an outboard engine in an inboard well is so close to the tillerpilot that electrical spikes from the engine interferes with the fluxgate compass too much. Which for me was annoying, having to motor up the Tyne for half an hour to the marina, and unable to rely on the tillerpilot to allow me to get fenders ready etc etc. Maybe others have found a way to suppress the interference, I never succeeded.

Cheers

Mark

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