Pocket cruiser

A pocket cruiser, microcruiser, trailer sailer or pocket yacht is a small lightweight sailboat with a cabin, designed for recreational cruising. Pocket cruisers can be readily loaded on a trailer and towed by most passenger automobiles. Both commercially made and designs for home built pocket cruisers are available. In spite of its name, this type of vessel is completely unrelated to the pocket battleship. Each year in Lake Havasu City, AZ there is an international gathering of Pocket Cruisers for a week-long convention. The Havasu Pocket Cruiser Convention takes place each February and includes sailing, racing, seminars, trade show, and social gatherings. In 2012 nearly 200 pocket cruisers from 26 US States and three Canadian Provinces gathered in there to celebrate the art of sailing Pocket Cruisers.

Pocket cruisers range in length from 10 to about 26 feet (3 to about 8 m), with some variation, depending on individual requirements. Most are in the range of 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) long, with a beam around 6 feet (2 m). Commercial models generally have either a short, ballasted shoal draft keel or a weighted centerboard, while home-built designs often use water ballast and leeboards. The short length and low weight of most pocket cruisers (and short keels on models with fixed keels) allow them to be trailered easily.

While the short overall length keeps most of these boats to inland waters or onshore sailing, many have keels or other forms of ballast (often water ballast) that allow them to be self-righting from angles of 90 degrees or more, which is usually not the case for similarly sized day sailers. Many people have sailed pocket cruisers long distances across open ocean, including a number of Atlantic crossings. There has been at least one circumnavigation of the globe by a pocket cruiser.

The cabin also makes it possible to keep the pocket cruiser out for extended periods of time. They will generally provide enough space to sleep two adults, with the larger examples sleeping up to six; although at that point two of the berths (known as "quarter berths") are generally under the cockpit seats and are often only suited for children. The ability to sleep aboard makes weekend outings popular.

Pocket cruisers are popular for a number of reasons:

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