Plan to Cruise

[daddle]

Do the Baja Ha-Ha on a cat as crew. A 2 week investment of cruising that will return a wealth of info to you. It's fun too. Next November.

[sww914]

Those are some really big questions and more than I can answer with my limited typing skills. I bought a boat on the West Coast because I am here. A trip to see the boat cost me $80.00 in gas rather than $1000.00 airfare & hotel, but there aren't many cats on the W coast because most of them come from charters and from Europe & South Africa so Miami is a lot closer than San Diego. My broker is a nice guy but he was not likely to do things unless he had no other choice so I don't have any real recommendations.
How long to learn to sail to Chile? Depends on you. You do know that the southern tip of Chile is some of the most difficult sailing on the planet, don't you?
You've got a lot of studying to do yet.

[k-bob]

can you give me some more info on that or tell me where to get it? Thanks.

[racing8989]

1973 Parker Dawson Center Cockpit sailboat for sale in Florida this boat is capable to cruise the Atlatanticvor even going south to Chile?

[Mark Johnson]

Geminis and the like have their place for sure, but NOT for serious water sailing">blue water sailing. THEY WERE NOT DESIGNED OR BUILT FOR THIS! Sure, some folks do it. It's just like when "as a teenager", I used to stand on the seat of my motorcycle with no hands. You can do it, but it ain't smart!

At the bottom, I will cut n paste from a previous post on this subject...
In your case, you could get a REALLY good design in about 35', for less than $150,000 by going with a custom built...
It just takes doing your homework and learning what to look for.


My previous post:

The "best" designs and by far the best deals, are frequently in custom built "one offs".
You would have to do a LOT of research into design, and also learn how to tell a good apple from a bad apple, but a qualified "custom multihull" surveyor could help you here.

This "custom" boat is an example, and was designed and built by friends of mine in Portugal. (The boat is NOT currently for sale).

This 43'er was built strong but "light". It has good ventilation, a LOT of wing clearance, modest cabin, low COG, modest windage, appropriate length to width ratio, speed, seaworthiness, windward ability, easy walkways forward, and full visibility from the helm.

Most production cats fall short on many of these counts...

Mark
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