[QUOTE=larkinja;2206990]This is great help. Thank you for sharing your experiences! These are the types of things we like to do as well. We made a trip from
Holland to Ludington over Labor day, and it again reminded me that we need a bigger more comfortable
boat.
So given a typical day on the big lake, how does she sit in what I would call an average day? My
express cruiser bobs all over the place on
anchor. We always throw an aft
anchor to keep her facing into the waves, but still, no one can sit on the
boat as they would be throwing up over the sides eventually. This happens even in slow 1 foot rollers.
RESPONSE JUNE 2022 from
Bahamas couple on BW 51': My partner & I can only speak from our experiences with seakindliness and ride (as off and onshore long experienced ocean 2 boat sailboat owners) to compare 51' BW cruiser ride with one trip on ~50' Nordhaven in the Gulf Islands BC on a week's
cruise with friends, and aboard 2 houseboat type boats at docks and our
current several day trip on our 51' BW in the
Bahamas.
We are currently taking our BW 1986 51' in Bahamas from S
Long Island to N
Abaco now (in June) with care in good Wx windows. We are towing our 40' old sailboat, which is following like a Duchess with her tiller lashed amidships. Enroute our newly purchased 1986 BW 51' rides comfortably and quietly under
power on gentle protected and open (good Wx 1-2ft) seas steadily stable like a squat, comfortable duck! What a difference in motion compared to our normally comfortably stable, heavily- loaded-for-liveaboard
cruising sailboat following. During when the seas picked up slightly, the BW 51' powerboat never gave indication of any seas, while our heavy, stable sailboat in tow we watched really rocking and pitching! Normally on Fla and Bahs coastal ocean jaunts in old heavy
liveaboard cruising 40' sailboat (jib only does 5-8 kn comfortably; we are old and in no hurry) I needed to constantly chew fresh ginger root to not get nauseated....on the BW 51', I did not need ginger and felt not even a twinge of seasickness, and our ride at 5 kn was smooth and quiet (except for all that
engine noise "downstairs"!).
When boat-shopping, we compared a couple of 45 '
"houseboat type" powerboats....which sat noisily and uncomfortably at docks in downtown
Fort Myers and FM beach!
Would love to hear from other BW cruiser owners re their experiences with their boats!
email me at myc.l.p.1057at gmail dot com.
Thoughts?[/QU