I have a Hood 23 shoal draft plus trailer that I'd like to trail from northern NSW to the Whitsundays. My present vehicle is a Nissan Xtrail, but I'm presuming this is not adequate to tow the Hood plus trailer. I've been trying to find what the boat weighs. According to specifications i found on line, the shoal draft Hood weighs 2850 lbs while the deep keel version weighs about 3700 lb. Both versions have 50% ballast ratio. But the weight difference is puzzling since they are supposed to be same boat, just with a different keel configuration.
Can anyone tell me whether the quoted displacement figures are accurate? Also any advice on a suitable towing vehicle for someone with limited funds would be appreciated.

The specifications would be correct. There are a few differences between the two such as 400 lbs. less in ballast with a swing keel and smaller sail area. The xtrail should be OK if one rated at 2000kgs. I would ask the guys on trailer sailerplace forum .
eg extract from forum
'I use an Xtrail to tow my 23 foot NIS. The weight of boat and trailer is claimed to be 1500kg. I need to confirm this with a weighbridge.

I haven't towed it far at all, only a few times and short distances, but it does seem to cope OK. I wouldn't want to pull anything much bigger, and would really like the boat to be smaller (or the car bigger!) But it does it ok without labouring too much as long as you keep the speed down and use a lower gear than normal. Seems to have the power and braking to handle this weight OK. The xtrail pulled it up the ramp with no issues so far.'

Take it to a weigh bride. My local tip in WA dose not charge a fee if you go at the weekend.

You have probably seen the links below. There are errors in the Crawford data as regards kg to lbs conversion so maybe leave that alone.

There is a geocities link which has a virus so I won't post it - it is found by googling "Hood 23' shoal draft swing keel sloop specifications". It has total displacement 1315kg (2900lb), ballast 636kg so ratio 48.4%

The fixed keel at sailboat data has 1678kg (3700lb) and 839kg so 50% as you say.

sailboatdata.com/sailboat/hood-23

Hood 23 - Specification sheet.pdf (johncrawfordmarine.com.au)

Depends what year model the x trail is; needs a braked trailer. Some websites suggest take 80% of the suggested towing maximum to give a comfortable margin.

www.carsguide.com.au/nissan/x-trail/towing-capacity

The diesel Outlander has a good review here;

www.racv.com.au/royalauto/transport/best-cars-to-tow-caravan.html

Put the trailer boat combo on a weigh bridge, the laden weight of the trailer cannot exceed the weight of the tow vehicle. Bt50s are a popular choice with caravaners

Selkie owns a shoal draft Hood 23. There are shoal draft Hood 23s that do not have the swing keel and I should imagine they weigh the same as the normal keel version. There was a shoal draft Hood 23 hull only for sale in Bomaderry for $50 awhile back I was trying to get people to save!

Their spec. Data is a bit confusing.

Thanks to the people who responded with their advice.

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woko said..
Put the trailer boat combo on a weigh bridge, the laden weight of the trailer cannot exceed the GVM weight of the tow vehicle. Bt50s are a popular choice with caravaners

My addition in bold.

Unfortunately, with the possible exception of the larger F Trucks, Rams and maybe the 300 series Cruiser, there are not many cars on the road that will legally tow their advertised towing capacity. In the case of an X-Trail, even the latest model advertising a 2,000 kg towing capacity will
really only just tow the unlaiden boat trailer. And that will depend on what mods have been put on the car or how many people are in it (a vehicles Tare weight only considers 1 occupant -the driver).

Edit 1500kg braked

Sorry I must be misinterpreting the text. See links below re GVM, GCM, towed mass, towball vertical downwards loads. My 2012 Subaru is 1500kg braked tow mass, 750kg unbraked.

www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-02/RMS-12.047-Transporting-yachts-on-trailers-Standards-Information-No-62-September-2012.pdf

www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/subaru-outback-2012-tow-test-31819/

www.whichcar.com.au/gear/4x4-vehicle-loading-and-gvm-explained

^^^ No it was my error, I meant GCM. But my rather sweeping statement still stands

The issue of allowable vehicle tow weights is something of a trigger for me. It is a stinking shame that the ordinary customer in Australia cannot get a straightforward answer to the question "which car should I buy to tow a xxx kg caravan/boat/trailer"? It is near impossible to get the numbers on-line, then you have to do your own complex calculations to work it out, and hope you have not made a mistake. I have seen some calculations showing that the only way to get to the advertised tow weight is to have no-one in the car, not even the driver. The manufacturers are incentivised to obscure the information, as far as possible, so you cannot make like-for-like comparisons. In the end, you have to make your best guess, hoping that you have not under-estimated, which is a unacceptable for the amount of money you will be spending.

This is such a difficult, obscure, arcane issue that several spreadsheet calculations have been attempted on TrailerSailerPlace. Whether or not those calculations are right, it tells you that it is insanely difficult to find the right information.

What is needed is a national standard for calculating tow weights, so that consumers can make informed choices.

Unless cars have a different ruling in nsw, I was driving a unladen boogie tipper towing a tag trailer with an excavator on it the combo weight of the trailer exceeded the truck by 2tonne, I had to put a couple of tonne on the truck to be legal. This was at the direction of the scaleies. So load the vehicle up ( don't exceed the gvm) and keep the boat light. Weigh bridges usually only charge a couple of bucks unless you want a docket. Has anyone actually heard of a caravaner or a boat trailerer being booked for trailer exceeding tow vehicle weight ?

Yep.

Woko I bet you weren't exceeding the Max Combination Weight though. You can't exceed the GVM nor the ATM and combined they can't exceed the GCM

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Toph said..
Yep.

Woko I bet you weren't exceeding the Max Combination Weight though. You can't exceed the GVM nor the ATM and combined they can't exceed the GCM

That's correct, in nsw a three axle boogie drive gvm is 22500 kg, the truck was unladen, from memory it tared 10 t, so I had plenty of squiggle room. The fine was $800 + and I had to disconnect the trailer and bust it to get to the quarry and get a couple of tonne on a Friday arvo, I could have jumped the digger off and dug a random hole on the side of the road and tossed that on the truck. Guess who got the Friday FWit award that week !

Gross combined mass = vehicle gvm x 2 ie truck 22500 + trailer 22500 = 45t. quad dogs and the like require suspension and brake upgrades. Back to the op if your tow vehicle is not loaded beyond its gvm then the trailer can be of equal or less weight than the tow vehicle, as long as it is within its own design parameters

Hi does anyone know where I can buy a lower mast fitting for a hood 23, hope some one can help, thanks Phil

Whats a lower mast fitting?

Keeley Marine may have what your after. He is very helpful once you get hold of him.
keeleymarine.com.au/product/mast_boom_fitting.php