General Info: FP Good for Circumnavigation with Kids ?

[Jimbo485]

My sister and family just completed a trip on their Venezia from California to Australia in 10 months with 2toddlers. Their blog relates all the ups and downs. www.elixirpacific.com

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[Rivers2Seas]

thanks for the blog post. always good to hear about people actually using the boat like we want to do.

why go for the 1996 specifically? seems like we are trying to figure if it is better to have a newer lavezzi or older belize

[Dragon Lady]

I think you will find all the well known brands will be up to the job.
As you are probably on a budget like me you will find the ex charter boats give the most value and as such you will be buying in the 6 to 10 year old range.
Sure there will be well set up bargains in the older boats but watch the size and layouts of the interior.
Maintenance is big issue with older boats too, if the boat has been well cared for it will be fine but some owners just use their boats and ignore the maintenance.
There is a lot of competition in the market and the designs have evolved a lot in the last decade.

[Pete7]

Lindsey, why don't you fly down to the carrib and charter an FP for a week. This time of year the temperature will be very pleasant, with a good trade wind breezes for sailing. You will all have a great holiday and get the chance to sail your own cat.

Look upon it as part of the purchasing experience and search for information.

Others on here will know more about the various organisations who offer cats for charter but here is one we saw last time we were their.

Sunsail Yacht Charter & Flotilla Sailing Vacations | Sunsail USA


Pete

[Rivers2Seas]

I have sailed the FP Belize in the Bahamas and liked it. Our broker told us they were all "fast and cheaply made" which gave us concern

[Palarran]

I doubt that anyone who owns a FP will claim that it's build quality is equal to a Privilege. But, they are faster and about half the price. Cheaply made? In the areas that really need to be strongly built, they are good. In some areas, their built like a mass production charter boat.

[islandguy5]

That link doesn't work for me. No page found. Interested.

[islandguy5]

here is another story.
Venezia 42

[Rivers2Seas]

Jimbo485, thanks for the link. I very much enjoyed your sister's story and the pictures of the kids. It is nice to see people with kids out there actually doing it! Everyone around here thinks we are crazy and they could NEVER do that with their kids, Yadda, yadda, yadda....Did your sister keep the boat? Will they continue with a circumnavigation or are they done?

[Jimbo485]

Rivers2Seas, Yes, they still have the boat with them in Darwin while they go back to work. We are currently cruising on a Kelsall 12 with our 9 y.o. son who actually does night watches alone. My sister did half a circumnavigation between the ages of 3 months and 3 years old. I was between 9 and 12 during that trip in the early 80s with a sextant and no watermaker. Times change but there are still plenty of kids out there. Where and when are you heading off?

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[Jimbo485]

Sorry, Lindsey, you already answered my question in your original post. Take the kids, they will grow so much from the experience and will grateful to you for opening their eyes to the world. I speak as a 1980s cruising kid and now as a cruising parent.

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[sailingaway221]

Lindsey..... I had the same idea as you. I wanted a strong catamaran, didn't care about the interior at all, but wanted something very reliable and seaworthy. I sailed on several different catamarans in exactly the same price range. It took me almost 5 years to find a boat I liked personally. You can sail almost anything around the world...... but the day you get unlucky and either hit something or run into some serious weather, especially with your family on board, you will be very glad you have the correct boat. I have seen several Fp that look very tired in that age and price range. Be very careful with selecting your boat and just a little side note... You may be handy at putting things on the boat you will need.... But you will need a water maker, wind generator and solar panels on the Fps as the Fuel and water tanks are small. If you brought a boat today now...... and spent 200k on a bare boat FP and wanted to get it ready to go sail around the world you would probably need to start working on it soon and have another 50k minimum minimum minimum to prepare and install the things you need.....Good hunting. Remember it takes a long time to get a boat ready to go long distance if it isn't already set up for it.

[Doe818]

sailingaway makes a good point, fitting boats out after the fact gets expensive. A good supply of water and a decent watermaker are imperative in my mind. Don't know about the other FP's but my bahia has over 800 lts of water cap and with the 200 lt / hr watermaker, we have long showers and the boat is always washed with fresh water. Another often overlooked piece of kit I would never do long passages into out of the way places without is a fuel polisher.

[Rivers2Seas]

We have definitely set our budgets to include those "essentials." Hopefully 'SailingAway', it won't take five years as our daughter will be close to "teenager" and thats just scary! We are both excited for this adventure and can't wait to begin. We have friends that wanted to do the same thing, found the perfect boat, then spent five years putting EVERYTHING on the boat only to sell it and move inland without ever taking her out into the blue. We don't want to fall victim to that same fate. I think our kids are at a perfect age and we've both decided we want "boat kids." We've also found some Priviledges and Voyagers as well as some R & C's so we are not ruling anything out. We've chartered several times in the Caribbean so we know what we do and don't like.

Jimbo485, we are hoping to start in the Caribbean and then head West. Doe818, Haven't heard of a "fuel polisher" but everything else was definitely on the list (watermaker, wind generator, solar, GPS, liferaft-which strangely doesn't appear to be a necessity for some, necessary kid-safety things, rigging, sails etc).

We appreciate all of the input, and we look forward to meeting some of you "out there."

Cheers

[Dragon Lady]

The Lavezzi 40 has 560 liters of water capacity and 250 liters of diesel. It depends on how many you have on board whether this is adequate.
In my opinion the two things the FPs have going for them is their light weight and the cabin lay out.
The layout is personal thing but few will argue that the more comfortable a boat is the better it is to be on board.
Combine that with reasonable performance and you have the boat I want.

As for the crankers from the flat earth society that keep bagging the FPs, I have looked all over the internet and asked anyone I could find for evidence of FPs having structural failure or other problems.
The only issue is the osmosis which is easy to find on a survey and can be fixed.