Accommodation on a 800

For all those DF800 issues which do not fit into any of the categories below.
Post Reply
Christine
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon 19 Nov 07, 22:44
Your Country: UK, South Coast

Accommodation on a 800

Post by Christine »

We are a family of two adults and two small children, looking to use a Dragonfly 800 for weekend sailing, and perhaps a weeks holiday in the summer.

How do people find the storage on a Dragonfly? I'm not too worried about the living accommodation, as I believe the cockpit tent will be invaluable. I'm just worried we won't fit everything on her.

Looking forward to hearing how others have managed.

thanks

Christine

:D
tpaliwoda
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri 03 Nov 06, 3:05
Your Country: USA, Raritan YC, Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Post by tpaliwoda »

I had the same size family when we had our 25, weekends overnighting were never a problem. The kids really liked the V-berth. The cockpit tent will be a help.
If you get an outdoor grill for cooking that will also be a plus.
Ted Paliwoda
D'Fly 1000 ; HN #1
Nice Tri
Raritan YC, Perth Amboy, NJ, USA
Jacob Blom
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun 05 Nov 06, 20:37
Your Country: The Netherlands, Harlingen

Re: Accommodation on a 800

Post by Jacob Blom »

Dear
It is very much possible sailing the 800 with four. We made trips up to 4 weeks, even carried our small dog with us, and not always at sunny wheather conditions. Our advise: go to a good outdoor centre and buy clothes, towels and sleeping stuff as if you go on vacation with your bike. Keep a good regime on board: wet clothes behind the mainsheet-track,shoes of in the cabin when you are at a harbour. Because our sons were 9 and 14 when we bought our 800 we had a pre bended tent (type Una, made by Hilleberg, not cheap), which we placed on the trampoline at the harbour. (As you already suggested, the cockpittent cann’t be missed!)

Christine wrote:We are a family of two adults and two small children, looking to use a Dragonfly 800 for weekend sailing, and perhaps a weeks holiday in the summer.

How do people find the storage on a Dragonfly? I'm not too worried about the living accommodation, as I believe the cockpit tent will be invaluable. I'm just worried we won't fit everything on her.

Looking forward to hearing how others have managed.

thanks

Christine

:D
Nille
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed 01 Nov 06, 13:03
Your Country: Sweden, Stockholm

Post by Nille »

As said earlier. Just get everything organized and you will be all right. I regularly go weekends with 4 grown up men. In daytime we keep everything in bags in front since all the weight of the crew will be aft. In the nighttime just throw out all the bags in the cockpit (tent up of course). Waterproof kayak bags are practical since they fit well in the lockers.

When family cruising we often use a portable two-burner gas-cooker so we can cook in the cockpit or preferably on shore. This is a real improvement even if I really like the default spirit-cooker which is much more useful than I expected.
Niko
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri 13 Apr 07, 0:53
Your Country: Switzerland, Zurich Area

Post by Niko »

Our guideline: Four adults for a weekend, three for an extended weekend or up to a week (?), two unlimited.

In the case of four people and a long trip, the restriction might be rather weight than volume. For our six-week trip from the Netherlands to Oslo and back (well, two people) we found that sea charts and guides alone had a weight of 15 kgs. Toolbox, anchor(s), may be cool box, kitchen equipment, fire-extinguisher, fresh water, food/drinks, gasoline -- everything adds some kgs so that the boat is faster overloaded than one might think.

Niko
DF 800/279
Post Reply