Towing a BayCruiser 23

[Tony]

Towing a BayCruiser 23

Readers of PBO must have noticed Dave Selbys Promotional Feature - swanning around with a Land Rover and a BayCruiser 23, extolling the many virtues of each.  Nice work, Dave !

I would like to point out, though at risk of stating the Bl***ing Obvious, (to current Swallow Boat owners, at least) that you dont actually NEED a dirty great 4X4 – or even a nice little V6 Disco 4 – to tow a BC23.  Your Grannys Nissan Micra might find the Welsh mountains a bit of a struggle but yer average rep-mobile  would have no problem.  (Think Astra, Mondeo, Megane, etc.) The BC23, tanks empty, checks in at  only 700kg for towing.

[Matt Newland]

Sorry Tony - its actually 750kg, tanks empty.

[Tony]

Whoops!   My mistake!
The BC23 is 750kg, tanks empty, eh?     
Not 700kg* ?
I stand corrected.
(Foolish of me.  I must have been using my bathroom scales, habitually tuned to report my weight as 7% less than it actually is.)

Well,  750 kg is still light enough to be towed by a  bloke on a bicycle,  innit?  If you still think it too heavy for the old family banger there is  the BC20 at only 451kg. That s more or less the same as a car load of my Mums friends going to the Bingo. ..... Calculated as  5 x  14 stones =  70 stone or 444.5kg, not counting  jewellery.   
Remember.  The value of Mothers weight can go DOWN as well as UP. (...but its normally more stable than the stock market)

*(To be honest,  I was quoting Matts own figures for the Epoxy-Ply version. Lighter by 6.7% but costs a bit more I expect, if still available to order.)

[Rob Johnstone]

As a "newbie to this group, may I add some personal experience about towing a Bay Crusier 23. I picked Vagabond up from Matt last week and towed her home to Bucks behind a Passat Estate (2 litre Diesel). The winding road from Cardigan to the M4 was no problem and we cruised at 60 ish most of the way home. A 12% gradient in Bucks proved no problem either, despite having to stop to squeeze past a truck, so you don't need a large 4 x 4 to tow one. The clever computer gizmo on the car said that fuel consumption was 30 mpg for the journey, compared with 48 on the way down to get her.

Rob J

[Colin Morley]

Excuse me gentlemen but I think you are being a bit conservative with your weights.

You are not towing a weight of just the boat at 750kg. You also have the trailer and spare at about 150 kg, probably an outboard at 25 kg, cover, gear, fuel etc, adds about another 25 Kg. So you are more likely to be towing not much short of 1000 kg.

This could be towed by most cars the size of a Mondeo but would need a braked trailer.

[Andy Dingle]

The same thoughts crossed my mind Colin when I have been looking at the stats for the BayCruiser 23. I'm actually off to Cardigan in a couple of weeks time for a test sail on one so will ask Matt what his thoughts are on this...

Even with the engine and as much as you can get into the towing vehicle then I'm of the opinion it will still be too heavy for an unbraked trailer and quite probably illegal if you haven't passed a trailer test (probably doesn't apply to us oldies who held a licence before I think 1997).

Andy BR12 Psalter