Please recommend the best
boat to buy per the following parameters:
1. Please only comment if you have first hand experience sailing the Channel Islands National Park.
2.
Budget $200K ($150K for
purchase of
boat + $50K to have in reserve for the expected unexpected, any refitting to suit me, etc.)
3.
Newbie sailor. Age 61. Previous experience includes limited
small boat /
day sailing experience as a kid. Several bare boat charters with friends as crew for 1-2 weeks spread out over 35 years. Recently
ASA certified to bare boat
charter. To start out, and until my skills and confidence are up to snuff I will have a very experienced crew
member with me.
4.
Game Plan: Sail 6-8 weeks a year, 1 week at a time, based in Channel islands Harbor (Oxnard, California) in order to explore and sail the Channel islands National Park.
5. Typically will be double handed. My wife does not sail. Maybe she will sail with me 1-2 times a year only as passenger, maybe not at all.
6. I am not local to Southern
California. I will be flying into LAX 6-8 times a year to go sailing for 1 week, evenly spread out over the year. That means I will be doing some sailing with temps in the 50's F.
7. I want to spend as much time sailing as possible(not at the
dock doing repairs), and a lot of
repairs,
maintenance I will have done by others since I am not local. I want basic comforts, but I am definitely, firmly in the less is more camp. Definitely, no
generator, no air conditioning(but ventilation is important), must have hot
water, will wait to see if
water maker makes sense, prefer as little
teak as possible.
8. Each week will be scheduled in advance. Therefore, I won't know what the
weather will be. I understand that means that it is possible in order to be safe I won't be able to leave the
dock or my itinerary will be limited. But I want a
seaworthy boat that I will be safe, that I can have confidence in, and be comfortable in if conditions get a bit rough, so I can do as much sailing as is safely possible, not sitting at the dock waiting for conditions to improve.
9. Since I will need to catch a flight at the end of each week of sailing, having at least decent performance under sail and motoring matters so I can have more flexibility in my itinerary. Having decent light air performance matters since there are a lot of light
wind days in Southern
Cal.
10. I am happiest when under sail in a responsive, fun to
sail boat.
11. If I missed an important parameter ask me and I will provide.