Journey begins

Welcome to our new blog about our adventures of trailer sailor Dalpol's Phobos 21.

It all begun two years ago we found out that we don't want to get stuck on the Labe river in Czech Republic forever so we decided to sell our pretty heavy keel sailboat Catalina 25 "High Anxiety" (hull #701, 1987) and buy something smaller.

We defined some priorities for a new boat:

• it must be lightweight with retractable keel so we can launch it from the trailer easily
• enough head room for my wife
• enclosed toilet room
• simple preparation before launch and low maintenance
• comfortably sleeps for two adults and two children
• cruiser rather than racer

From all that after long discussion and market research, we found our boat - it's Dalpol Phobos 21.

At the beginning, we thought that we will buy the used one, but I don't want to fix numerous issues anymore like I had to with my previous sailboat and I wanted to sail more than doing a maintenance. So we decided to rather buy a new one. Another fact is that Dalpol started the production of this boat in 2011 so there are no used one yet.


From this decision, it all begins to escalate pretty quickly.  I had to undertake the driver's lessons to upgrade my driver's license to B+E (trailer up to 3500kg), buy a trailer and a car capable of towing such boat with launching capability.

Part 1 - Trailer

I bought used trailer from year 2009 dual-axle trailer with 2600kg total weight. It's pretty overkill for this small boat (1300kg), but its a robust construction and I have an additional space for heavy baggage.

This trailer was already used for a sailboat so I hope it will be ok and there will be no need for massive adjustments.

Part 2 - Towing car

We had Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, but it's capable of towing only 1500kg. It was a great 7 seat car, but we had to sell it. I wanted some car that is suitable for boat launching, but also for a daily use. So we ended up with 4x4 Kia Sorento 2.5CRDi with automatic transmission from 2007, which is capable of towing 3500kg on the hook and pretty popular in the caravan world.
Another advantage of this 4x4 car is that it has a reduction transmission, so the launching from the beach or steep ramps will not be an issue (I hope).


Part 3 - Sailboat

It took us over two years going to boat shows and checking pros and cons, but when we decided for one particular type it was pretty straight forward.
When we wanted to buy the boat directly from the Poland shipyard they forwarded us to the local Czech dealer Lodní servis Linhart. They showed us demo boat several times and we finally signed the deal.

Proposed delivery is the end of December 2013. Great Christmas present, isn't it? ;-)