Anonymous wrote:
Through the chance reading of a thread on the Woodenboat forum it seems I have found my next boat and it's a Hartley TS16. It's been in storage for a number of years and needs the centreboard case refitting but the price is right. Or at least will be when I have the $$$.
Going small has a lot going for it. We now have our little 6 meter catamaran in the water and have so far spent a two night weekend on board. The mast went up yesterday and hopefully sailing next weekend. Now that the boat is in the water I am going through a sort of 'oh my god, what have I done?' stage. The boat is small, but big for the 6 meters. I guess not the level of comfort I have been used to for the last 30 odd years. But so easy to handle and hopefully maintain. I have been sorting out the rig for the past couple of days so have parked the boat on the beach. So easy, you cannot do that with a big boat. Once we have her sailing in the next week or so we will get away for a few days, so I guess time will tell as to how the little boat works out for us. But so far, the negatives is a lack of space and comfort compared to what we are used to with our previous bigger boats. Positives so far, ease of handling, light weight which translates into every thing done with the boat, relative low cost of any components needed, hopefully ongoing low cost of maintenance in that everything is designed to be maintenance free, and if any hull work is needed the boat can easily be parked on the beach.
So a Hartley 16, or similar could work out well. I seem to remember a forum entry sometime in the past couple of years of someone in Australia converting a TS 16 to junk rig.