Silhouette Mk3 vs Corribee Mk2

Robert Tucker-designed cruisers for between £800 and £3,500

- Clive Marsh

Among my favourite low-cost pocket cruisers are the Robert Tucker-designed Silhouette Mk3 and the Corribee Mk2, both bilge keelers.

All yachts designed by Robert Tucker are good looking and I have owned three of them, two built by Hurley Marine and one by Newbridge, both excellent boat builders. These little yachts are now classics and I'd be pleased to own one again should the opportunity arise. The bilge keel versions are ideal for coastal and estuary sailing although some have been much farther afield.

It was Dame Ellen MacArthur who cut her teeth, when a youngster, sailing a fin-keeled Corribee all around the coast of Britain. When Dame Ellen first saw her Corribee-to-be she said it was 'love at first sight'. And that is just how I felt when I saw my Corribee-she was just too pretty for a compulsive buyer like me to miss.

The same goes for the Silhouette, they are very pretty boats. Both were boats that I bought at first sight.

Ballasted boats

Before you rush out to buy one just remember that, like most ballasted boats of that era, both might benefit from improved semi-watertight compartments and lockers. From my own experience, this would give you more time in the unlikely event of a holing below the waterline.

I modify most of my ballasted boats in this way. Just a personal preference.

I also add buoyancy. How to calculate how much buoyancy you need and where to place it is a problem for a naval architect and boatbuilder to resolve properly. It is really a question of risk assessment and where you intend to take the boat.