Hi Jerry, I like your question! I love the way the 23' sails but if you could make the 21 foot sail well with 9' beam I would personally go for the max beam to add interior room and cockpit space. With the weight of 2500lbs plus trailer I think you are fairly well into "half ton" pickup territory so maybe the wide mirrors are not as much of an issue? I think my truck would see around it as it has the extended mirrors already. But our emphasis would be on sailing performance and interior accommodations over towing friendly. You did not talk about the interior you have in mind but my wife votes for a head with a door that closes. Maybe 9' beam help to allow that? She too loves the way your M-23 sails so as long as it sails as great as the 23 she would be on board too, if the boat makes it past hypothetical! This is an intriguing idea! Robbin On 12/19/2012 7:26 PM, jerry montgomery wrote:
If you were interested in buying a new boat of about 21', maybe a 2500 lb boat, what would be the ideal beam for you? keep in mind that all interstate highways now have a 9" max, but some state highways still have an 8' max. even tho I've heard that the 8' limit, where applicable, is not inforced.
Remember that there should be a relationship between beam and freeboard, so more beam is more bigger.
Also keep in mind trailering. A beam of 9' is hard to see around w/o really wide mirrors, even with a pickup truck.. It would probably be a keel/centerboarder so maybe it would sit high enough on the trailer so that your line of vision would be mostly under the widest part. maybe.
This is a hypothetical boat; i've picked 21' mainly because of what I'd want in the interior, and beam really wouldn't be a big factor other than visually.
The Catalina 22, Montgomery 23, probably all of the larger McGregors, etc, are all 8' in beam. Maybe my question should have been "do you want to go wider than these boats"? Within the 9' max there really wouldn't be a big difference in performance that couldn't be controlled with sail area.
I made up an index many years ago on the relationship between length, beam, and freeboard, for trailerable-sized boats, taking into account only sailing qualities and asssuming the market would not be a factor (which never happens), and the beam according to that index comes out to be 8' 3". I don't claim the index to be correct altho I had many hours of input from Lyle Hess and Ron Holder over lunches and beers and there IS a lot of thought into it, for what that's worth.
jerry
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