Production Boats Fit For Blue Water

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

Ok. What is meant by Blue Water Boat?

Coming from NZ I assume its a boat thats comfortable in Forces 10 and 10m high waves and with a drogue will do OK with Force 12.

????

Its a myth....
A Unicorn.....
A BS narrative some folks use because they have a "real boat" and you don't.
So far that's about all I can figure out.

[dbostrom]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Its a myth....
A Unicorn.....
A BS narrative some folks use because they have a "real boat" and you don't.
So far that's about all I can figure out.

Maybe the same as "Enterprise Grade" in the IT world. Sounds grand, is infinitely elastic but impossible to falsify.

[smackdaddy]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Its a myth....
A Unicorn.....
A BS narrative some folks use because they have a "real boat" and you don't.
So far that's about all I can figure out.

Bingo III.

[TacomaSailor]

SV Third Day said:
"My son wants the two of us to make a trip back to Mexico after he graduates from High School and he wants to do it on a MacGregor 26x, which would be the perfect Sea of Cortez boat for a young guy for a season or two. There is a big part of me that wants to buy one and sail down Baja, over to the Mexican mainland, and then all over the Sea of Cortez just to drive the "Blue Water boat Guys" crazy.."

I met two sets of folks doing just that in the Sea of Cortez north of Loreto.

One M26 had five (Yes 5 - count 'em FIVE) full size adults on board. They did it every early spring - tow the boat down from Arizona - launch in San Carlos and cruise for a couple weeks. Then take the boat back to Marina Seca and leave it for a couple months then come back and cruise again. In September they would tow the boat back to AZ.

They had a lot of fun and had been doing it for years.

Another M26 was a pair of guys from Oklahoma or Minnesota - they would bring the boat down every couple years for a couple months cruising. They too had a lot of fun.

Nothing wrong with an M26 and 50HP if you have common sense and good judgement. My Caliber 40 never beat them to the next anchorage.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

SV Third Day said:
"My son wants the two of us to make a trip back to Mexico after he graduates from High School and he wants to do it on a MacGregor 26x, which would be the perfect Sea of Cortez boat for a young guy for a season or two. There is a big part of me that wants to buy one and sail down Baja, over to the Mexican mainland, and then all over the Sea of Cortez just to drive the "Blue Water boat Guys" crazy.."

I met two sets of folks doing just that in the Sea of Cortez north of Loreto.

One M26 had five (Yes 5 - count 'em FIVE) full size adults on board. They did it every early spring - tow the boat down from Arizona - launch in San Carlos and cruise for a couple weeks. Then take the boat back to Marina Seca and leave it for a couple months then come back and cruise again. In September they would tow the boat back to AZ.

They had a lot of fun and had been doing it for years.

Another M26 was a pair of guys from Oklahoma or Minnesota - they would bring the boat down every couple years for a couple months cruising. They too had a lot of fun.

Nothing wrong with an M26 and 50HP if you have common sense and good judgement. My Caliber 40 never beat them to the next anchorage.

I'm sure they make a good choice, smaller boats have more fun! Makes more sense than dropping all that coin on a more expensive production boat that goes 6 knots.

[SimonV]

Hey Smack. I thought you must have been banned or off sailing, actually leaning more to the banned. Happy new year to you and the boys.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Polux]

Blog of the day: An Benetau first 35 doing a circumnavigation:

Ty-yannÂ*/Â*Journal

[chuckr]

Smackdaddy and a few others got it right me thinks.. lots of dockqueens and armchair sailors have for a long time told us we do not have the right boat, equipment, costs, you name it.

i guess going on 8 years now as 24/7 cruisers who have done most of the caribbean, a 2 person atlantic crossing and now year 2 in the med (and by the way did over 3,000nm last year) we should get that perfect bluewater boat -- not.

we love our Jeanneau ds40 and would take her anywhere but then again what do we know.

[Greatketch33]

Finding the perfect blue water boat? Hmmm perfect? Is there such a thing?

Well the boat is part of it and may be more easily acquired than finding the perfect crew. I suspect the perfect blue water boat I could be less desirable with a crew from hell, but that's another topic.

Truly, Is not the crew equally important?

Anyway, I think that the more folks sailing means is better for our group and interest.

Um.. Side note: The way things are going in Florida, -- read about that in the forums here -- I'm surprised we don't have a thread about the perfect Florida Anchoring boat.

[Polux]

Second Blog of the Day, a Bavaria 40 (2003) circumnavigating:

Oda - jorda rundt: S/Y Oda
Around the world? with Oda - Elisabeth Hval & Per Mandt

[colemj]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

The Columbia 36 is a perfect example - cruising since 1999 from Seattle to Turkey via South America. They put their old full keel boat on the hard for several months at a time to return home to see the grandkids. They are now in their seventh year cruising the Med and wintered over in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Sicily. They are the prototypical cruising couple but do spend a lot of time working on their old boat.

Is it a Columbia 36 or 38? Very different boats, and neither a full-keel, although the 38 comes closest.

I owned a Columbia 40 for 11 years. The 38 was the exact boat as the 40, with the exception that they modified the keel to make a cutout bite with a separate skeg. These were very seaworthy stick-built boats produced early in Columbia's life, and before they started making larger numbers of cheaper built boats.

The 36 was a later design using different build methods. While a decent boat, it is not in the same class as the 40/38.

Mark

[boatman61]

Are we talking production boats for 'Blue Water'...
Or 'Mobile Homes' for blue water here...

[Strait Shooter]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Are we talking production boats for 'Blue Water'...
Or 'Mobile Homes' for blue water here...

Some mobile homes are better built than some of the "production boats for blue water" being mentioned here.

We've already arrived at the point where 5 people in a 26' McGregor out cruise, out anchor, and out bs other cruising boats.

[robert sailor]

If a sailor can cross an ocean sailing an inflatable 4.5 Meter boat, if you can sail a little Contessa 32 against the wind and currents around the great capes, if a Vega 27 can cross oceans and a 21 foot plywood ketch can circumnavigate via the great capes as well what stops you from jumping into your Hunter 28 and heading offshore. Nothing actually, just your skills as a sailor, that of course and some balls. Web Chiles has proved that over and over even sailing a completely open sailboat offshore. We crossed the Atlantic this year and it was as easy a passage as I have ever sailed. While I hardly recommend this as a test of someone's seamanship even in these easy peasy conditions some sailors got themselves in a bit of trouble. I would not be making my decisions to cross oceans based on my boat but based on my skills and its not really that hard unless something goes wrong. Absolutely any production sailboat or homemade sailboat for that matter can cross an ocean, there is no debate. The better built boats can simply keep doing it much longer with less problems along the way.

[Julie Mor]

So is the question, "Can a production boat handle the same sea conditions, for its lifetime, as a boat built for ocean passages can for its lifetime?"

Or is it, "Can a production boat make an ocean passage safely?"