Plus-size skipper needs advice.

[N1EYO]

S'Okay. After all, its the commentary and opinions of the community on the myriad of boats available that I'm after. Personally, I don't mind if my feet hang off the berth and I'm diagonal, as long as there is room enough for the #1. As the saying goes; If mama's not happy, NOBODY gonna be happy.

[JPA Cate]

N1EYO,

Mate, you're going to have to try out some boats for feel for you. It is important that you, as well as your partner feel comfortable on board. Passage making is different from daysailing, and you will find that your requirements will be different, as well.

[Badsanta]

Finding a head you can use is the problem. Figure out how to drop wet weather gear, find a hand hold and do your buisness can be a problem.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by N1EYO

I also should add that I will trade my time, sweat and blood for a better vessel in the long run. I don't mind turning a wrench or grinding the itchy stuff.

You will find life easier aboard if you drop a few pounds. I've dropped 40 or so and find it lately a lot easier to simply not get hooked on stuff going through the boat. Fewer parts of me touch hot engine bits, too!

At 6' 7", you can probably go for 240 lbs. or so, but height isn't going to give you a pass here, as you know. It's like my size 13 EEEEEE feet (yeah, six Es)...stairs are never deep enough!

If I were you, I would be less worried about head clearance...because you are likely used to ducking and hunching...and more worried about sleeping arrangements. I have never, to my knowledge, seen a berth longer than 6' 6".

I have a custom 41 footer in steel and the saloon has seven feet of headroom. Even on this "tall guy's boat", however, my hat brushes the pilothouse roof if I wear it at the helm...so I feel your pain!

[N1EYO]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

I have a custom 41 footer in steel and the saloon has seven feet of headroom. Even on this "tall guy's boat", however, my hat brushes the pilothouse roof if I wear it at the helm...so I feel your pain!

I guess that is what it boils down to then. The search for the ultimate "tall guy's boat".

[S/V Alchemy]

Aim for "liveable". I've never seen a boat where the word "ultimate" wasn't used ironically, as in "ultimate hole in the water into which you've shovelled money".

The point about the head is indeed a valuable, if comic to picture, one. Certain places you just have to fit without courting disaster. I would suspect, if you are proportional, that the steep companionway steps with insufficiently deep and too close together step tops are also an issue. I don't know about your upper body strength, but I find the tactic of just grabbing a bathtub-style SS rail (properly knurled for grip) placed on the cabin roof is a lot easier than actually using the steps. I basically just hang-drop to the cabin sole instead of trying to balance with half my (excessive) foot hanging over the step.

Overhead bars or even straps, as on a bus, might be something to consider for a guy with as much angular momentum as yourself. Counter-intuitively, perhaps, if you find a boat with sufficient headroom, you want the main saloon pretty narrow on the basis of "a shorter distance to fall". I've found that even a three-foot drop onto solid teak cabinet made my shoulder feel like the hardest of rugby scrum hits.

[zboss]

I'm also a little large. Not as tall but a bit wide.

Make sure you can fit into all the areas needed to turn seacocks and other critical stuff on/off and work on critical systems. I just barely can sneak under my steering cables on my back to reach some thru hulls.

Also, no one seems to make bosuns chairs for the over 220 crowd.

So, its not all about living space.

[Teknav]

A boat with a stern's low snorkeling platform can be used for a porta-potty add-on. Not the best solution, but doable!

Mauritz

[K_V_B]

Originally Posted by scoobert

1977 Tayana Tayana sailboat for sale in Florida

A Fiberglas hull with plank stripes moulded in? What were they smoking?

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by zboss

I'm also a little large. Not as tall but a bit wide.

Make sure you can fit into all the areas needed to turn seacocks and other critical stuff on/off and work on critical systems. I just barely can sneak under my steering cables on my back to reach some thru hulls.

Also, no one seems to make bosuns chairs for the over 220 crowd.

So, its not all about living space.

Good points. At six-seven, you can carry more weight than the rest of us, but that doesn't change that access to weird little nooks and crannies of critical importance might have been predicated on a five ten, 175 pounder.

So one thing to consider would be a seawater intake and outlet manifold/standpipe that consolidates all the holes in the bottom of boats that, in an emergency, you may not be able to plug because even if you were thinner...your shoulders and chest will never be.

The upside is that your arms are probably eight inches longer than most...something a lot of sailors would envy!

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Teknav

A boat with a stern's low snorkeling platform can be used for a porta-potty add-on. Not the best solution, but doable!

Mauritz

Of course, others in the anchorage will complain about "the full moon every damn evening".

[Geoduck]

Your biggest problem will be finding a boat with bunks long enough for you to stretch out in. Head room might be a problem as well. What ever you do, don't compromise on these issues or you'll be sorry! Oh yeah, don't forget about the head, make sure you try it on for size!
Good luck on the search!

[svseachange]

I'm 6'3" and about 210 living aboard a PSC 34. I think you just need to get on a few boats and try out the berths and the heads. The quarter berth on my 22' Starwind 223 was 6'8", for example, more spacious and easier to get into than the quarter berth I sleep in now.

Good points about access to through hulls. You also need good access to the engine room because you are going to spend time maintaining that little bugger.

Make sure your wife is willing to fix stuff in places you cannot get to. Access to the engine room on our boat is a wonderful but my wife adjusts the packing nut, for example.

Our boat has 6'3" head room at the highest point but I still find myself stooping. The head is a squeeze. Some boats have real long quarter berths. The quarter berth I sleep in is about 6'8" but it is a squeeze to get into and narrow at the feet.

Consider broadening your search to the Benes, Hunters and Catalinas. The newer boats tend to have bigger heads and berths.

[S/V Alchemy]

I keep thinking about new stuff here, possibly because my situation is somewhat similar.

I'm one foot taller than my wife. I wanted a 45 footer for world travel, but we went with a 41 foot pilothouse cutter because we had to size the boat for her strength and leverage...not mine. She's strong and positively young compared to most in the cruising community...but she's never going to get longer arms or a lengthier spine. And yet she alone has to be capable of sailing the boat and handling all winches, cleats and lines up to, say, 30 knots. I can't be getting called in the off-watch because I'm comparatively longer and stronger.

So we sized the deck gear to what she could safely and effectively reach and handle solo. The reason is that couples do not cruise "together" on passage...they are two solo sailors on the same boat, with periods, usually during the daylight, when one is navigating or doing engine or galley or plumbing stuff, and the other one is keeping a proper watch, checking out the weather, trimming the sails, etc.

So don't consider which boats will fit your 6'7" without considering what boat your 5' 5" wife can drive in a half-gale by herself. At the point where the autopilot is getting overwhelmed or you should be considering heaving to, you'll both be awake and on deck, but you have to sleep sometime, and that means sizing the boat to the smallest crew, not yourself.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I always found Valiant 40/42 very easy to get in/out and about. Good layout for a big person, I think.

b.

I unno about that. The headroom is 6'5" and while the double bunk in the aft cabin is long someone 6'7" would have a hell of a time actually getting into it given the layout. The standard length for the v-berths is 75" down the midline. I'm 6'1"/200 lb. and if I were much bigger I'd be looking for another boat.

The pullman berth on the 42 would probably be perfect but you'll be hard pressed to find a 42 for under $200k I think.