I recently got tons of great advice here on converting my Yachting World 5 Tonner, especially with Arne's fantastic drawings. The time has come for me to make a difficult decision, keep the 5 tonner or keep "my other boat" which is a lovely little Hunter Medina 20 footer, currently on a trailer in our garden.

There are many good reasons to come down on the side of the Hunter. We can keep her at home over the winter, saving a thousand pounds storage fee. She's easier to sail for an old timer like me. She can be left with the mast up, on the trailer at a boat park 7 minutes drive away and dropped in in half an hour. We can creek crawl up the river with the keel up and beach her.

The main downside of the Hunter is that she's small, an oversized dinghy really and a bit tender for coastal cruising. Converting her would presumably be much cheaper, smaller mast, smaller sail, everything much more lightweight. I sailed on David Tyler's Hunter Duette and was extremely impressed but that was 2 or 3 feet bigger. Would junking a 20 foot boat make her more seaworthy or is that really down to just the hull. Would it still be like sailing a dinghy?

Thank you for any advice / opinions. Or should I sell them both and get a Hunter Sonata? I've chickened out a bit with maintaining a 77 year old wooden boat.