When is a boat to big to use by yourself?
 

I have been looking around at different boats, trying to decide what to buy next, one issue that keeps coming up is how big can you go and still practically be able to take the boat out by yourself, I quite often enjoy taking a morning off work and going for a quick blast by myself.

I have had a 32ft but it was kept in a rack, next boat looking to trailer, I'd love to buy a 35-40ft cat, but realistically not sure if it's the type of boat you can take out and run for an hour or two and then just put away, seems like it may be an all day exercise, which is not an option as I am time poor...

No problem. Good docking ability, soap and brush, California squeege and a few towels. Cockpit covers work good enough.

As long as you have a nice long launch ramp that shouldn't be a problem. We also trailer our boat (38' V) everywhere and I go out alone with ours and it's fine. I have a system that works for me and I just take my time and have had no problems. If you're considering that type of boat I would not let this deter you. Good Luck a 40 Cat would be awesome.

I used my 386 sonic by myself all summer.

I used to take my fathers Hinckley sailboat out when I was 15 by myself. He would get calls from his friends saying he was nuts for letting me take it out. It all depends you your comfort level and the layout of the boat. Get things set up so they work for you. I would imagine that a cat would be a little more difficult due to the width? For the most part I don't like much help from the people on the boat as they can often do things that you are not anticipatine and screw you up. The size of the boat has really no relevence untill you get in that one bad situation.....

I trailer a 38 and take it out alone.......the ramp setup will make the difference in how hard it is to launch/retrieve by yourself. With docking, you just need to make sure you have all your lines/fenders already hanging from the proper cleats before you come in.

I run my 38 TG sometimes . No problem launching alone .

wow, never really thought about how convenient rack storage is. Point to the boat and nod... your boating.

I did my 42 Sonic and 50 NT by myself. Just have a good trailer that guides the boat on from more than one place so if it's a little windy you can still load it easy. Even docking isn't much of a problem if you plan it out.

One of a few reasons I got rid of my '33 PowerPlay was the time hassle. We don't have a rack around here that will store and launch a 33' boat so we had to trailer it. I never had problems retrieving and launching myself.

Every time we wanted to go boating we had to unlock the trailer, untie cover lines, uncover and stash, install the props, outfit the boat, trailer it to the launch, launch and go boating. At the end of the day the reverse was true with the added hassle of flushing, washing, and general clean-up, not to mention loading and unloading the truck at the house with all the boat items. It wasn't uncommon to spend 3-4 hours on the pre and post boating and 3-4 running. Got to be too much of a pain and was one of the initial reasons for sellling. There's no substitute for length in our waters but the next boat will probably be a 28 so we can go back into the rack and enjoy boating again. I don't mind messing with the boat but the reason I've had boats is to use them.