Quote:
Originally Posted by fgraham
Looking for a better boat for single handed sailing across the Pacific. What kind of boat do you have? Thank you!!
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Well, if you want "better", you might tell us what you do not like about your
current boat?
And a very rough ballpark
budget is always helpful. (I somehow doubt you are looking for +50' but we dont know).
That aside . . . . very very honestly successful
singlehanding is mostly (like 90%) about the
skipper, and the boat does not matter so much. For the boat there is really one quality that stands out above all, and that is that it be well built. You do not want s*&t to be breaking/leaking/flexing all the time. For a
used boat that will in part be down to the original construction, and in part be down to the quality of
work done by prior owners, and in part down to how good you are at keeping the boat up. Higher quality >>> size. The second most important element, but well below the above quality point, is that the boat be well balanced/steer well - you don't want it constantly hunting and turning up in gusts - that is hard on you and hard on the
self steering. Third, resale ease and value - as you learn, you may discover there is another boat that you personally would much prefer. so it is nice if you dont have to take too deep a bath on the first one (and this nicely tends to be consistent with the first high quality point).
Beyond that, again very honestly, there are a lot of compromises and a lot of personal preferences, none of which matter very much at all in the end.
You will learn a ton as you go. You will adapt to somethings and you can adapt the boat to other things, as you realize your preferences. Pretty much no-one who goes short handed
blue water cruising has a clue what they are getting into or what they will like/dislike or what boat will suit them, not even people with a lot of
racing and/or coastal experience.