Wayfarer alternative?

[DJFish]

Evening all.
Just back from taking my nipper for her first sail, I think she enjoyed it (certainly more than her mother did!) and so I'm going to start looking for a decent 2nd hand boat that I can take the kids out in from time to time to teach them (all) how to sail.

Is there anything on the market that can touch a Wayfarer for all-round family-boatyness?

[Fishtigua]

A Hunter 18 has a huge cockpit, you could get'em all in at once.

http://marlow-hunter.com/fiberglass-trailerable-da...

[anonymous-user]

The RS venture is a relatively modern take on the wayfarer formula.

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 10th August 20:26

[CubanPete]

wanderer
laser 13
laser 16

[itwasntandy]

GP14 might not be a bad option.

Or perhaps on a smaller end of things a Mirror

[DJFish]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I must say I prefer bigger than smaller, so might have a nose at the Venture.
The other thing the wayfarer has going for it is that there are so many used boats available at all sorts of budgets.....

The only problem with a bigger boat is lugging the bloody thing up the slip at the end of the day when your crew 'mysteriously' disappear!

[CubanPete]

The GP14 is the heaviest boat I've ever pulled!

If you want to go large, what about the Hawk 20?

[Norwegian Blue]

Vision, also from RS. Simply rigged and plastic so family-proof.

For something left-field, how about a Drascombe Lugger?

Edited by Norwegian Blue on Tuesday 11th August 19:02

[anonymous-user]

Heavier boat = powered winch that's the PH way, venture is newish so budgets are very high in comparison to wayfarers unless you're comparing new to new.

[sawman]

in the OP's position I bought a Miracle. its nuch more of a boat than the mirror, byt not heavy and unwieldy on shore


for something a bit bigger, a laser2000 might be worth a look

[telford_mike]

Have a look at a Topper Omega. I tried one a while back and was impressed.

[s2kjock]

When young kids we used to use a Wayfarer for family sea trips, fishing, pottering etc. It was not too bad to launch and recover on a decent, not too steep slip (road trailer only) but my father used the car as much as possible. Not sure I'd be keen to do it on poorer/steeper surfaces with a very young family.

There is a smaller alternative Drascombe to the Lugger, (the Dabber), but it's still too heavy/awkward for my father to recover on his own.

Probably important to include trailer (or launching trolley depending on how you intend to launch)as well as boat weight when making comparisons.

[hantsxlg]

I've sailed a lot in a dabber... with a car trailer it could be recovered single handed (hand winch up onto the trailer) but too heavy to recover with man power alone (3-4 people probably needed to pull easily up a sloped skip).

How about an Enterprise? I learnt to sail on those on the thames. But maybe a little small for this requirement?

[DJFish]

Thanks, some good suggestions there.
I'll pop a pic up if & when I buy something.

[Marcellus]

The father child boat of choice at our club has been the Miracle for a fair few years and then the children have moved on to single handers very successfully with several currently world, national and European champions in several classes..