Dinghy cruiser Reloaded: A 20er for two people, with gennaker and lead ballast

The majority of dinghy cruiser owners have an ambivalent relationship with their boat. This may sound like an assumption at first, but the following facts explain the logic of the conclusion. These include the fact that the author of this article owns a 20er himself, and therefore also belongs to the target group with the relevant experience.

Dinghy cruisers are actually brilliant sailing boats. Due to the lack of ballast and therefore low weight and draught, they are very easy to trailer, with a low centre of gravity on the trailer and can be lowered into the water without a crane. In addition, very shallow areas are accessible and falling dry is not an issue. Depending on the superstructure and extension variant, up to four people can sleep on a 20-metre boat with a length of 7.75 metres. Sailing itself is usually great fun due to the very good ratio of sail area to total weight. Dinghy cruisers are large dinghies with minimal comfort, ideal daysailers, weekenders and even holiday boats for some.

However, the dinghy-like sailing characteristics are also the Achilles heel of this type of boat. Dinghy cruisers can capsize due to a lack of ballast. One of the primal fears of sailors is justified.

It is therefore not surprising that there have been repeated attempts to maintain the first-mentioned characteristics and at the same time eliminate the shortcoming. The most recent examples are the Lago 26, LA 28 and JK 28, dinghy cruisers with a ballast centreboard for increased righting moment. All three are new designs and were presented in YACHT.

Swiss sailor Ueli Naef, who has been an active regatta sailor and boat builder for 40 years and is a talented craftsman and decorator by trade, has found a slightly different solution. He has built a dinghy cruiser that minimises the capsize problem and at the same time eliminates other problems of the current generation of 20s.

You can read all about his keel dinghy cruiser in the current issue of YACHT 6/2017.