The Beachcomber 25 is an American trailerable

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminolo ...

that was designed by

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

as a cruiser and first built in 1979.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 170-171. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

Production

The design was built by Marine Innovators in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The company built 70 examples starting in 1979, but it is now out of production.

Design

The Beachcomber 25 is a recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

, built predominantly of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

, with wood trim. It has an unstayed

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

or, optionally, a sloop rig, a

plumb stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up t ...

, raked transom, a transom-hung

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

and a retractable centerboard. It displaces and carries of ballast in its grounding shoe. The cat ketch rig uses wishbone booms and unstayed, rotating, deck-mounted masts. The sails furl around the rotating masts and have sheets,

outhaul An outhaul is a control line found on a sailboat. It is an element of the running rigging, used to attach the mainsail clew to the boom and tensions the foot of the sail. It commonly uses a block at the boom end and a cleat on the boom, closer ...

s and

topping lift The topping lift (more rarely known as an uphaul) is a line which applies upward force on a boom on a sailboat. Part of the running rigging, topping lifts are primarily used to hold a boom up when the sail is lowered. This line would run from nea ...

s. There are no

mainsheet traveler A traveller is a part of the rigging of a boat or ship that provides a moving attachment point for a rope, sail or yard to a fixed part of the vessel. It may take the form of anything from a simple ring on a metal bar or a spar to, especially in a ...

s or

boom vang A boom vang (US) or kicking strap (UK) (often shortened to "vang" or "kicker") is a line or piston system on a sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape of the sail. The Collins English Dictionary defines it ...

s fitted. The boat two centerboard configurations. One has a fixed keel and centerboard and it has a draft of with the centerboard extended and with it retracted. The other has a centerboard that retracts into a trunk and it has a draft of with the centreboard extended and with it retracted, allowing beaching or ground transportation on a trailer. The centerboard is retracted with a 4:1 tackle. The boat can be fitted with an

inboard An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. As opposed to an outboard motor where an engine is mounted outside the hull of the craft, an ''inboard motor'' is an engine enclosed within the hull of the boat, usually connected to a pr ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

or a small

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

for docking and maneuvering. The fuel tank holds . Accommodation consists of a forward "V"-berth, plus a cabin quarter berth and "L"-shaped settee. The galley is located on the port side forward, just behind the "V"-berth. The head is a portable type and includes ventilation and a

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

door for privacy. The design has a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

of . The designer noted, "The main advantages of the cat ketch sail plan of the BEACHCOMBER 25 are its simplicity and ease of handling combined with good performance. The sails unfurl from the masts like window shades, controlled from the cockpit, with no need to go forward except to release mooring lines or haul up the anchor. Once the sails have been unfurled, you set up on the clew outhauls which also lead to the cockpit. A small winch is required in the case of the mainsail in order to obtain the desired degree of sail flatness. This is the last time you will have to touch the winch unless you reef or for the refinement of easing the outhaul for more sail draft off the wind."

Operational history

In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote of the design, "best features: The Beachcomber has a 1,400 pound grounding shoe and an extremely shallow, 15-inch draft, so she can be run up on a beach or mud flats—plus a high-efficiency centerboard for going to windward. The cabin is large and comfortable with a poptop for tall sailors. Worst features: Learning the knack of sailing this type of craft may take a while; quite different from a standard sloop. The long grounding shoe acts like a long keel; increasing directional stability but reducing the ability to tack quickly."Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 322.

International Marine S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financ ...

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, 2010.

References

{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Keelboats 1970s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by Walter Scott Sailboat types built by Marine Innovators

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References