# Sailboats with floatation



## scherazade (May 22, 2011)

Hi community: My real name is David and I have been sailing off and on for 30 plus years! I am down sizing from a Morgan 25 and a Etap 22.

I had a Seapearl 21 for 4 years but missed having a cuddy cabin . I mainly sail the NE USA around Ithaca, NY and 1000 Islands.

I am looking at boats in the 18- 20 ft range with positive floatation and displacement under 2000 lbs. The Sandpiper 565 is interesting except i don't
like the crank up keel (similar to the Etap) It could cause problems if you hit a rock at 7 knots!!

I can't find any info on the Edel 540 with respect to mfg installed floatation or
some being retro-fitted. RSVP if you have info.

Also, the SEAward Fox II with carbon mast is interesting, but I haven't found any lately.

Canada has some very nice boats so I am also wondering if anyone has had experience with bringing a boat thru customs. Thanks in advance

P.S. My first boat was named Scherazade.


----------



## olson34 (Oct 13, 2000)

*Rare, but such things do exist...*

You're a long ways from their main sales area, the West Coast, but Ranger Boats (in Kent, WA) built about 600+ Ranger 20's in the 70's ad 80's with positive floatation.
I owned one for a number of years. A Ray Richards design, it was a terrific small cruiser for a couple. Fast in light air and easily trailerable with a displacement of 1550#. There is still a small but active OD fleet of them in Portland, OR.

I'll bet that that there might be some similar boats from the East or SE, but it will take some searching. (There was kind of a "golden age" for small trailerable cruisers in those decades, besides the Catalina 22.)

Good luck and fair winds,
L


----------



## SlowButSteady (Feb 17, 2010)

My old Victory 21 had a foam-filled buoyancy tank in the bow, and some foam under the cockpit sole. Whether it actually had positive buoyancy or not, I don't know. However, since fiberglass is only marginally more dense than sea water, and wood is a bit less dense, you really only have to worry about providing buoyancy for the ballast (be it lead, iron, or whatever). Generally speaking, for a 2000 lb boat, you probably only need a few hundred lbs of floatation. Five cubic feet of closed-cell foam should provide about 250 pounds of floation, which may well be enough for most boats of that size (but, you would have to work out the actual numbers of course).


----------



## scherazade (May 22, 2011)

Thanks for the info, once I see a used boat I will be looking for areas where floatation could be applied.


----------



## scherazade (May 22, 2011)

Thanks for info on Ranger 20 I will add it to my search list. I've only seeen larger Rangers (23), nice boats but too big for me now.


----------

