Association Forum - 250 WK to WB? (Henk, Carl...)?

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

250 WK to WB? (Henk, Carl...)?

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

csmcg
1st Mate

Member Avatar

96 Posts

Initially Posted - 12/27/2021 : 11:01:37

Hello All,

My wife and I own a C250WK "Danu". Danu fits how we live very well in that we are lucky enough to live on the shore of Flathead Lake in MT. Danu is on a mooring about 150' off the end of our dock in the summer.

The C250 allows us to launch in the spring, retrieve in the fall, and store the boat all on our own, which saves a significant amount of money on fees.

We do a strap-launch for launch and retrieval which works ok, but I'm glad we only do the cycle once a year.

The lake level is controlled and we miss out on some early spring and late fall sailing as the water level isn't sufficient.

We have been kicking around the idea of travelling during those spring and fall times to other waters for 1-2 week adventures. We both work full time and aren't sure how much travelling we would actually do for a while.

My wife recently found a nice 2003 C250WB for sale and we recently took a trip and looked at the boat. The boat is in good shape and has most of the improvements that I would want (balanced kick-up rudder, self-tailing winches on the coaming, etc...)

Lastly, I worry about Danu when storms hit our area. She is on a mooring that I built. We have not had major issues in the 10+ years that we have used the mooring, but it is still worrisome.

I am a first responder Fire/SAR/EMS in our small town and am _never_ at home when the big storms hit due to being called out.

A C250WB would fit on a boat lift that we have at the dock. This would alleviate some of my worries.

We trailered Danu 1000+ miles to Lake Havasu for the trailer-sailor convention in 2014? so we have some experience towing the WK version. I can't say that it was a relaxing towing experience. Everything worked out OK and we didn't experience any major issues, but we where quite careful.

I know that Henk & Johanna have extensive experience towing a C250WB and now own a WK version. I would love to know more about the difference in sailing, living, and towing characteristics. If this has been covered in another thread, I was unable to find it so a link would be greatly appreciated.

I also guess that Carl has towed his C250WK some distance and would love to hear about towing and launching. We strap launch and I see that he has a trailer extension on his setup. He also has bunks instead of pads plus a support under the bow on his trailer. Our trailer has pads without a bow support and we do experience some "bouncing" of the bow, so Carl's trailer design looks like it would be helpful to make similar changes to our setup.

For example, how limiting is the additional depth and slope ramp requirements for the WK?

We are very interested in the flotilla cruising that we see on these boards and would love to participate.

Thanks in advance for thoughts that any of you may wish to share.

Lastly, I have been remiss in posting some projects that others may find interesting or helpful. I will use some of the winter downtime to get them posted. They include:

1) Forced-air diesel heater install.
2) No-drill bimini with 200w of solar.
3) Victron solar with inverter tied to a DIY lithium house battery.
4) Raspberry Pi nav with integration to tillerpilot.

Regards, Chris

Edited by - csmcg on 12/27/2021 12:41:40

csmcg
1st Mate

Members Avatar

96 Posts

Response Posted - 12/27/2021 : 11:10:36

I found the thread the Henk & Johanna started with their impressions of WK vs WB. Thank you so much for the info.

Any additional thoughts beyond those expressed in https://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32175 would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Chris

DavidCrosby
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
236 Posts

Response Posted - 12/27/2021 : 22:55:28

Chris,

I own a C250Wk and have traveled quite a bit with this boat. For the first 10 years that I owned the boat, I dry sailed at a local sailing club. The boat was kept on its trailer, fully rigged and ready to go. I could be in the water and ready to sail within 20-30 minutes of arrival at the club. Pulling it and putting it away was similar. Last year, we decided to move to a marina and keep it in the water at a slip from April to November. Having to launch and retrieve each weekend was not a problem, but I will certainly say it is so much nicer to be able to step on and go.

Regarding traveling. We have been going on at least one trip each year for the past several years. We usually travel with some friends. C250wk, C250wb, Hunter 260 and a Santana 2023. The closest destination was about four hours away. The typical summer trip is a 10 hour drive (each way). 2019 was our most adventurous trip. We drove the boat from St. Louis, MO to Midland, Ontario. Launched the boat at the bottom of Georgian Bay and then traveled two weeks by boat to Little Current, Ontario. We pulled the boat there and then drove about 22 hours to get back home.

I understand the working full time and have limited vacation. I definitely save a week for an annual sailing trip. Every now and then I stretch the trip into a two week trip. Most trips we base out of a marina and just explore the area returning to the same slip each night. Although, I have had a few one way trips covering 200 - 300 miles. The logistics on this type of trip becomes fairly complex. I have posted reports about some of these trips in the Cruising Forum.

2022 we have even bigger plans. My wife and I, on our own, will first go to the 1,000 Islands area of Lake Ontario in June. And then as part of a three or four boat flotilla, we plan to sail the Apostle Islands (Lake Superior) in mid July.

So far, I have not had any problems launching or retrieving the boat on any of these trips. Although, I do invest some time making calls to gather information regarding ramp conditions. I typically look for a ramp that the concrete extends out at least 30 feet from the water line and has a depth of 5 feet at that point.

Below are some videos I posted on YouTube of my boat being launched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCNgBC0P11Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsa3Qi5sU2o

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

csmcg
1st Mate

Members Avatar

96 Posts

Response Posted - 12/28/2021 : 01:32:21

Thank you very much David for taking the time to respond.

I know that the WK/WB? question has been considered many times on this forum and others. I just wanted to know if any particular aspects of each model had bearing upon my specific circumstances.

Thanks again. Safe journeys.

Regards, Chris.

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.