If you came from sailing, why did you choose a R31 CB

A

AdamJB

New member
Joined
Sep 24, 2026
Messages
2
Fluid Motion Model
R-31 CB
Hello,

62 year old sailor considering a move R 31 S or CB.

If you also went from sail to a Ranger can you tell me about the pros and cons of the switch.

Did the move meet your expectations?

Thank you
 
My wife and I bought an R31 after decades of sailing, and living aboard sailboats for 10 years when we did not own a "dirt" house. We have owned the R31 for six years and bought it with the expectation of trailering it to many places, which we have done. Our prior sailing as a couple was primarily on the West coast between San Francisco and Ensenada Mexico. We both still love sailing, but found that so many of our sailing trips were motoring as we were either traveling "upwind" or had a deadline to be home. I also wanted more speed than our 40+ foot sailboats could manage. And we were both a bit tired of being cold and/or wet and wearing foul weather gear. And the physical aspects of sailing get harder with age.

With our R31, we have done multiple trips along the Pacific Northwest Inside Passage, Southern California (our home waters) and the northern sections of the Great Loop. Trailering lets us see places we could not have easily traveled with our sailboats. We have regularly gone 3 or 4 months on these trips in our R31.

We are in our mid and late seventies and the R31 still offers us the opportunity to boat to new places, in comfort. We are quite happy with our decision to buy a Ranger Tugs and travel the "dark side."
 
While we transitioned to the “dock side” from sailing on an R27 OB, had we made the move earlier in our boating lives we may well have chosen the R31. The accommodations and seaworthiness of R31 added to the design charm.

We knew our boating plans would not include ocean crossings. Yet we kept with our Westsail 42 ketch until we realized we were really a 2 masted trawler. At that point, the R27 OB fit our cruising plans.

However, the quality of the Ranger Tugs product line and the supportive depth of the owners community made our transition from sail to power a happy process.

After 3 years of RT ownership we often wonder why we didn’t evolve sooner!
 
I dont have an R31 so I am not sure my opinion will be valid!

We still absolutely love sailing and have plans for another sailboat as we get older and have more free time. With the sailboat a dinghy is a requirement (here in Florida's shallow waters) where the R27OB can beach and negate hauling a dinghy in alot of places. I have no more worries about wind direction relative to my destination. Climate control while driving is certainly nice. The ability to bring the boat home to work on or when a hurricane is imposing is certainly nice and helped with insurance costs. We typically travel and trawler speeds but since we both still work, 30mph cruising speeds expands our cruising grounds profoundly. We are also in a unique situation in that where we are in Florida is extremely shallow, so our sailboat had to be kept over an hour away for us to use it with any regularity, That drive got old. The tug allows us to keep the boat 15 min from the house so we use it was more frequently.

I will say, though, that the motion is not near is pleasing/comfortable as a sailboat. Also, the hull slap when trying to sleep takes far longer to adjust to than halyards slapping the mast (and cant be fixed like halyard slap can), though we have adjusted.
 
We are 74 and 76, we were sailors for 35 years on inland lakes, Great Lakes and sailed on Chesapeake, Atlantic, ICW, and Pacific also chartered in the BVI!
We loved sailing but we decided that we wanted to change our plans but still wanted to live the WaterLife. So after 1 1/2 year search we bought a fresh water used Cutwater 30 S LE from Sturgeon Bay, wisc. .It has been and interesting journey.... There are differences but ask me in a year if the differences are major!
We see this as another chapter in our life, still on the water and something new to accomodate to!
We still miss sailing but This is different!
Accept the new learning challange!
 
sgeary said:
My wife and I bought an R31 after decades of sailing, and living aboard sailboats for 10 years when we did not own a "dirt" house. We have owned the R31 for six years and bought it with the expectation of trailering it to many places, which we have done. Our prior sailing as a couple was primarily on the West coast between San Francisco and Ensenada Mexico. We both still love sailing, but found that so many of our sailing trips were motoring as we were either traveling "upwind" or had a deadline to be home. I also wanted more speed than our 40+ foot sailboats could manage. And we were both a bit tired of being cold and/or wet and wearing foul weather gear. And the physical aspects of sailing get harder with age.

With our R31, we have done multiple trips along the Pacific Northwest Inside Passage, Southern California (our home waters) and the northern sections of the Great Loop. Trailering lets us see places we could not have easily traveled with our sailboats. We have regularly gone 3 or 4 months on these trips in our R31.

We are in our mid and late seventies and the R31 still offers us the opportunity to boat to new places, in comfort. We are quite happy with our decision to buy a Ranger Tugs and travel the "dark side."
Click to expand...
Thank you for your response! A few questions that are top of mind.

  • Is your R31 a CB?
  • How does being anchored in a rolly anchorage in your sailboat compare to being in a similar rolly anchorage on your R31?
-How do you manage traveling with your dingy?

Thanks again!
Adam
 
Our Cutwater 30 is the sedan Luxury edition hence LE S
As Far as being anchored, we are on Lake Erie, -the shallowest of the great lakes-hence short period ,steep waves that can build quickly to 10ft in storms.
We Always keep a weather eye out and our selective on spots where we anchor,
We have no dingy at this point.
Hope this helps!
 
AdamJB said:
Thank you for your response! A few questions that are top of mind.

  • Is your R31 a CB?
  • How does being anchored in a rolly anchorage in your sailboat compare to being in a similar rolly anchorage on your R31?
-How do you manage traveling with your dingy?

Thanks again!
Adam
Click to expand...
Ours is a CB. We purchased the boat used and I was led to believe the majority of R31s are CB. Its usefulness is purely a personal decision and would be influenced by the weather where you boat (or plan to boat). It does add a couple hours of disassembly and reassembly when towing the boat. If you have covered moorage, its height could also be a factor. But you are already used to being outside and in the breeze, so a CB could help ease your transition to the dark side. 😀

If we are in a rolly anchorage we screwed up, and it is time to move to the other side of the island. If anchoring in wind, we try to pick a spot that minimizes fetch, but the tugs will "hunt" in wind more than your sailboat does.

Our dinghy is the standard issue Fluid Motion dinghy mounted to the swim platform with Weaver davits. It deploys in seconds and can be retrieved in minutes with the Weaver winch system. I used to pull it aboard myself, but that "exercise" ended a few years ago. When traveling, I pretty much forget it's even there unless we want to improve the cockpit view by deploying it when anchored.
 
Moved from a Catalina 380 to an R29 Classic. Biggest adjustment was the lack of storage compared to a sailboat. We have adjusted, but that was the main thing we had to adjust to. We cruise at sailboat speeds... So no issues there. No issues for us to be inside vice in a cockpit. My wife may disagree.
 
We've added a RT31 CB to our fleet. We have a 50' sailboat on the northern Great Lakes and the RT is in the Bahamas. Our first powerboat. It's a trial in a sense ... do we enjoy powerboating? We have enjoyed one winter season in the Bahamas. We also have a bunch of places we would like to cruise that might be more suited to a powerboat, so we chose the RT31 as it is trailerable, although we don't want to move it ourselves. So the experiment is ongoing, but so far we are enjoying it. Still sailing in the summers, but as a winter escape, it's working so far!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

  • Tugnuts.com is the community hub for Ranger Tug, Cutwater, and Solara owners. Since its inception in 2008, the Tugnuts forum has grown into an active and thriving community of more than 9,000 members. It serves as both a meeting place for the best boating community online, and an invaluable archive of information.

  • User menu
Back
Top