A pocket cruiser, microcruiser or pocket yacht is a small, often lightweight sailboat with a cabin, which is intended for recreational cruising (either overnight or for extended periods) of the owner's chosen waterways. Pocket cruisers often can readily be loaded on a trailer and towed by most passenger automobiles. Both commercially made and designs for home built pocket cruisers are readily available. Diagram of Sailboat, in this case a typical monohull sloop with a bermuda or marconi rig. ... A cabin is an enclosed room in a ship. ... “Car” and “Cars” redirect here. ...

Description

A Savage Nautilus, "Bullwinkle"

Pocket cruisers range in length from 10 feet (3 m) to about 26 feet (8 m), with some variation, depending on individual requirements. Most are in the range of 15 feet (5 m) to 20 feet (6 m) long, with a beam around 6 feet (2 m). Commercial models generally have either a short, ballasted shoal draft keel or a weighted centerboard, while home-built designs often use water ballast and leeboards. The short length and low weight of most pocket cruisers (and short keels on models with fixed keels) allow them to be trailered easily. Image File history File links Savage_Nautilus. ... Image File history File links Savage_Nautilus. ... Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. ... For other uses, see Keel (disambiguation). ... A leeboard is a lifting foil used by a sailboat, much like a centerboard, but located on the leeward side of the boat. ...

While the short overall length keeps most of these boats to inland waters or onshore sailing, many have keels or other forms of ballast (often water ballast) that allow them to be self-righting from angles of 90 degrees or more, which is usually not the case for similarly sized day sailers. Many people have sailed pocket cruisers long distances across open ocean, including a number of Atlantic crossings. There has been at least one circumnavigation of the globe by a pocket cruiser^{[citation needed]}. A day sailer is a small sailboat without sleeping accommodations. ...

The cabin also makes it possible to keep the pocket cruiser out for extended periods of time. They will generally provide enough space to sleep two adults, with the larger examples sleeping up to six--though at that point two of the berths are generally under the cockpit seats (and known as "quarter berths" and are often only suited for children. The ability to sleep aboard makes weekend outings popular.

Fanatics

Pocket cruisers are quite often fanatics about their boats. There are a number of reasons for this:

• They are inexpensive; popular designs such as the Montgomery 15 or West Wight Potter 15 sell new, with trailer, for around US$10,000 or less.
• They are easy to build out of easily obtained materials such as plywood, using stitch and glue or more traditional methods.
• When working on smaller boats the inevitable tinkering away on various modification projects is often cheaper and more quickly gratifying.
• They are small enough to sail single handed, yet the wide beam gives them the capacity to hold more people.
• They usually weigh less than 2000 pounds (900 kg). This is light enough to be towed behind most cars.
• They are suitable for overnight trips.
• The wide beam and common use of ballast makes them very stable.
• The small size means they can be stored out of the water, which negates the need to rent expensive marina slips.
• Their small size and easy single handedness means that they are often used far more frequently than many larger and more expensive recreational sailing vessels.
• Many of the small cruisers have highly active make specific chat groups on the Web where tips, ideas, and sailing stories are freely shared even to the extent that friendships are formed and members may travel hundreds of miles to meet for group sailing events.

The West Wight Potter 15 or Potter 15 is a small trailerable boat that is loved by its owners who maintain a near cult like following for the boat. ... Toy constructed from plywood. ... The terms stitch and glue, tack and tape, and stitch and tape all refer to a construction method used by many amateur boat builders. ...

Performance

Pocket cruisers are, in general, not fast boats; the short waterline and wide beam required to provide the basic accommodations generally limit the speed that the hulls are capable of. Since the short, beamy hull of the pocket cruiser is not suited to speed, designers are willing to sacrifice some performance for ease of use. Traditional rigs, like gaff rigs, are not uncommon, compared to the nearly universal high aspect Bermuda rigs found on other modern sailboats. The lower aspect rigs lose some windward abilities, but make up for it in superior downwind performance and ease of use. The West Wight Potter 15, for example, uses a unique sail design that is a cross between a gaff sail and a Bermuda sail, which gives it more sail area on a shorter mast than would be possible with a true Bermuda sail; this gives a greater sail area with less heeling force than a taller, narrower sail. Still, it is not a performance craft, as evidenced by the fact that it has the lowest Portsmouth handicap (138.1) of any production centerboard boat listed. The Sunfish, which is by far the most popular day sailer ever made, has a Portsmouth handicap of 99.6. This means that the Potter 15 would take nearly 1.4 hours to sail the same distance under the same conditions as a Sunfish could in 1 hour. Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the mainsail is a four-cornered fore-and-aft rigged sail controlled at its head by a spar called the gaff. ... In sailing, a bermuda rig is: A rig of mainsail or course that consists of a triangular sail set aft of the mast, with its head raised to the top of the mast, its luff running down the mast and normally attached to it for all its length, its tack... The Portsmouth handicap or Portsmouth yardstick is a handicapping system for sailboats. ... The Sunfish is a popular one-design class of sailboat which was developed in the 1950s. ...

Pocket Cruisers, though not generally considered especially fast compared to longer waterline boats, however are still quite exciting to sail much in the same sense that a go cart "feels" faster when riding on it when compared to a longer wheelbase automobile going the same speed. Closeness to the water, smaller relative size compared to the wave height, and (as is in the case of some trailer sailors) a lighter ballast to dispacement ratio can combine to make for a thrilling sailing experience nonetheless. Some selected small cruisers are designed with flat profiled aft bottom sections and are capable of actually coming up on a plane in breezy to marginal wind conditions in which case they may become quite fast indeed even when directly compared to somewhat longer displacement hulls under the same conditions.

Examples

Line drawing of Guppy 13 pocket cruiser

One of the smaller commercial pocket cruisers was the Guppy 13, made by Melen Marine Ltd. in California. They made about 300 of them in the period between 1974 and 1975. The Guppy was a fiberglass boat with a shoal draft keel, and would sleep 2 adults in a 6 ft 8 in (2.0 m) cabin. Overall length was 12 ft 6 in (3.8 m), beam was 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m); displacement was 480 lb (218 kg) with 150 lb (68 kg) of ballast in the keel. It drew 1 ft 7 in (480 mm) empty, and flew a Bermuda rig consisting of a 32 square feet (3 m²) high aspect main sail and a 48 square feet (4.5 m²) jib (technically a genoa since it overlapped the main). Length at waterline was 11 ft 10 in (3.6 m), giving a hull speed of just under 4.5 knots (8 km/h). The shallow V hull was not designed to plane, but is generally considered very capable at cutting through choppy water. Image File history File links Guppy_13_line. ... Image File history File links Guppy_13_line. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bundle of fiberglass Fiberglass (also called fibreglass and glass fibre) is material made from extremely fine fibers of glass. ... For other uses, see Keel (disambiguation). ... Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. ... A gaff-rigged cutter flying a mainsail, staysail and genoa jib For other uses, see Sail (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Jib (disambiguation). ... A genoa (pronounced like the city, or as jenny) is a type of large headsail used on bermuda rigged craft, commonly the single-masted sloop and twin-masted boats such as yawl and ketch. ... Hull speed is a common rule of thumb based on the speed/length ratio of a displacement hull, used to provide the approximate speed potential of the hull. ... A knot is a unit of speed abbreviated kt or kn. ... A Musto Skiff, planing on a fast reach A planing boats hull skims across the surface of the water rather than pushing through the water in the way a traditional displacement hull works. ...

In Australia, the best known and most popular pocket cruiser is the locally produced Savage Nautilus, a shoal draft yacht of 19 ft 4 in length overall with a 7 ft 10 in beam and a full length keel that draws only 2 ft 9 in. Fitted with an 8 hp Yanmar diesel inboard motor (an unusual feature in a boat so small) and capable of sleeping four adults, they were produced in large numbers and have proved incredibly popular with Australian pocket cruising enthusiasts. Loosely based on a lifeboat design, they are sufficiently stable and heavily constructed to sail offshore and some have made long distance blue water crossings, such as the notorious waters of Bass Strait, between mainland Australia and the island state of Tasmania (including the pictured example, "Bullwinkle", which was sailed from Brisbane to Hobart). You find more about the SAVAGE Nautilus at http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/dearall42.html . This article is about a unit of measurement. ... Yanmar Co. ... This article is about the fuel. ... An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. ... For the 1944 movie, see Lifeboat (film). ... Map of Australia with Bass Strait marked in light blue Bass Strait (IPA: ) is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland (Victoria in particular). ... Slogan or Nickname: The Apple Isle; Holiday Isle Motto(s): Ubertas et Fidelitas (Fertility and Faithfulness) Other Australian states and territories Capital Hobart Government Constitutional monarchy Governor William Cox Premier Paul Lennon (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 5  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $16,114... For other uses, see Brisbane (disambiguation). ... Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. ...

See also

• Cruising (maritime)
• Newport 16
• Sandpiper 565

A cruising sailboat anchored in the San Blas Islands, in Panama. ... The Newport 16 (N-16) is a yacht that was originally designed by William Lapworth as a daysailer, and called the Columbia 15. ... // The Sandpiper 565 is a sailing sloop with four berth accomodation. ...

External links

• Contessa 26 a popular, heavy displacement cruiser with three circumnavigations to its name.
• West Wight Potter West Wight Potter owner's group.
• N-16 Newport/Neptune/Gloucester 16 owners group
• Montgomery Sailboats owner's group.
• Guppy 13 owner's group.
• A webpage documenting one sailor's search for the ideal pocket cruiser.
• Stevenson's Projects pocket yacht designs for the home builder.
• Shorty Pen's Pocket Cruiser Guide, a list of most commercial cabin sailboats from 12 to 20 feet in length.
• Selaway Fisher Pocket yacht and larger designs from England.
• Woods Designs Plans for home build catamarans, some in the pocket cruiser class.
• Micro Cruiser's SubGroup Come learn & chat about small Pocket Cruisers with the Folks who enjoy sailing these fine little boats.
• Mirror Offshore pocket cruiser with volvo penta MD1
• Sandpiper 565 critique
• CL sailboats forum