Saturday, July 6, 2013

Skippering a Harbor 20 Sailboat

 Sean and I had the opportunity to try out a new Harbor 20 sailboat Friday in Annapolis.  The Harbor 20 is a small racing class (20 feet long - hence the name) boat that designed to be very easy to sail single handed or with a crew of 2.  The day was perfect for testing a boat as we had strong winds (a steady15-20 knots) and light chop.
The chop meant that I got pretty wet (ok, soaked) but since it was a hot day on the water that wasn't all that troublesome.  The boat was very easy to drive.  It doesn't point as well as a J-boat but it's a real pleasure to sail.  The lines are superbly organized and very easy to understand.  It's just a really well designed boat.



The design of the hull is a standard keel structure and theres a tiny cabin for storage.  There are currently 16 harbor's 20 in the Annapolis racing fleet and the group has some very "genteel" racing rules - no hiking out and all seat cushions must be installed to race.

I like this boat a lot more than a J-70 or Comet-class.  It's a great boat to race or just putter around in.

5 comments:

James Brewerton said...

Fantastic looking sailboat, I learnt to sail in a Lazer and the family owned a Topper. There is nothing better than a lazy afternoon under sail.
Peace James

jmilesr said...

My son's a certified sailing instructor and his summer job is a Laser coach at a Sailing camp. Lasers are a lot of fun sail and it's a tight race between gaming and sailing which activity is the funnest for me (hint it's seasonal). Cold weather sailing isn't as fun as one might think!

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Nice looking boat, similar lines to Hawk 20 except fixed keel... so are you tempted?? :o)

jmilesr said...

Well I'm a bit tempted - it's a really nice boat but a bit small for cruising. Then again, it was a blast to take out.

We'll see what happens when the Sailboat shows comes around net October...

Itinerant said...

Man, I miss sailing. Someday.