with its trailer. The first trailer sailers were built in the 1950s. They were light,
marine plywood boats designed for home builders.
Robert Tucker in the UK designed the
Silhouette, in the early 1950s. His concept was to build a small boat suitable for overnight camping, which could be trailed to different locations behind a small car. It is thought that over 3000 of this type have been built. In the mid-1950s, Richard Hartley of
New Zealand designed the
Hartley TS16, a 16 ft long trailer sailer with a towing weight of . The TS16 was built in large numbers in New Zealand and Australia, spurring the popularity of trailer sailers in these countries. Over 12,000 boats of this type have been built. The advent of mass production fibreglass boats in the mid 1960s saw an expansion of trailer sailer designs, such as the
Aquarius 21 Boomerang 20,
Cal 21,
Careel 18,
Neptune 16, and Pearson 22. Timeline of popular models: • 1950s: Boomerang 20,
Dolphin 24. • 1960s:
Venture 21, Careel 18,
Aquarius 23. Introduced in 1969, the
Catalina 22 has sold 16000 units as of 2023. • 1970s:
O'Day 22,
West Wight Potter 19,
Edel 540,
Paceship PY 23. • 1980s:
Precision 21,
MacGregor 26 (also a
motorsailer, sold more than 7,000 units). • 1990s:
Beneteau First 210,
Hunter 23.5. • Since 2000: Jeanneau
Sun 2000, Beneteau First 24SE. == Characteristics ==