What's the best Bahamas cruiser?

[clifford sloan]

The best is such a broad term but, if you sift through all your replies you will discover the one commonalty is the shallow draft. I have been cruising there for more than forty years. My "best" is defined as the 36 ft. Westerly I have had for the past ten years. It has been the most sea worthy, comfortable boat we have ever owned. This will be the first year we haven't gone over because of health issues. I am in my early 80's and my bride of fifty two years is three years younger. We do not spend a lot of time at the dock and only stay overnight for fuel, water, and battery charge up. Others prefer a more luxurious lifestyle, but we enjoy the basics, starting with each other's uninterrupted company. Living on the hook, without the noise, lights, and other distractions, makes us appreciate "just being'.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Hah! that could be fun. I almost bought one a few years ago for "Fast Cruising" as a micro cruiser . Man they are lightweight stuff. The hardware and rigging especially!
Interestingly , I found a bargain with a bunch of used and hardly used sails that a 90 year old guy had. It was all blistered in fresh water. He hadn't been to see it for years. Luckily I tilted the boat and immediately below the waterline there were tons of quarter sized blisters. I had to tell him what was going on with his boat.
My guess is the hull is maybe 1/8" thick on the outer skin (cored hull) No way you were going to fix a blister job on one of those.
Another Mega had a wet core, but no holes drill through the core. I guess the skin was so thin the water just went through eventually...?

They are ugly, but fast and almost no draft, could be fun gunkholing in the Bahamas! Oh.. the isolated places you could go in 3 ft of water with lobster under every coral head!

It is light but it has several things going for it.

The retractable keel has 2 sailing positions, 5', 3.75'ish and a 3rd position fully retracted for trailering where it draws 1.75'.

Cheap

Good enough for the Caribbean, but I don't think I would sail much beyond there though.

Standing headroom at the aft end of the cabin.

[mjgill1]

Don't forget the Seaward 32RK. Great for Keys and Bahamas!

[Pegu Club]

As CS said above, shallow draft is important, we draw 4’4”.
We have anchored many many times with two feet and less under the keel. This has allowed us to get into spots others won’t go, or can’t get into. Very handy when needing to shelter from a bit of a blow as it were.

Fair winds,

[Group9]

We’ve taken a five foot draft the last few trips. And, we have found a lot of beautiful anchorages that we were two feet from getting into.

One trip, we kept seeing a guy who was in a 16 foot aluminum skiff, outfitted with canvas and with one outboard and one kicker. He was from Oklahoma if I remember right. He had to have drafted about six inches, tops. I kept thinking how many places he could pull up in and hide every time a front came through.

[onestepcsy37]

once upon a time (1960's, 1970's) sailors used to cruise the bahamas in any boat that would float. i'm talking venture 25's, oday 22's, westerly 26's bristol 27's, and albin 27's. i saw them all. when we retired we opted for comfort and ruggedness. we cruised on a csy 37, b plan. our friends once cruised the bahamas all the way down to the south end in a cal 24.


so here's my take on it. you can cross the gulf stream on a nice day in just about anything. once you've crossed, the bahamas are a piece of cake. you never have to be out of sight of land or too far from a safe anchorage if you plan well.



one of my favorite stories was when i was in marine junk shop in fort lauderdale about 40 years ago. two young guys, in their twenties, were talking to the owner. they were on a home built piver 25 trimaran and wanted to know what they needed to cross to the bahamas. they didn't have much money. he sold them a handbearing compass and a copy of the yachtsmans guide to the bahamas. i would have made the same recommendation, back then.


depending on how comfort-oriented you are, you can cruise very minimally. supplies are widely available, although expensive once you get beyond beans and rice and oatmeal. a solar panel or two i find indispensable,



navigation is simple. get one or two (for backup) handheld gps's - the cheapest one garmin makes works well. carry lot's of spare batteries. and get the explorer series of charts for the area's you will be going. a really good compass and a hand bearing compass as well.


on a smaller boat the biggest problem may be water tankage. our boat held 140 gallons and we still had to learn to economize, although i think water is becoming more available in the remoter places, and probably expensive too.


anchor and chain. you will spend more time in one place than you will in going to another place. the new gen anchors are fabulous - we had a 45 pound manson supreme. get all chain rode. we had 140 feet of 3/8 bbb chain but never put out more than 80 feet.


i could go on and on but i'm sure you will find all the info you need by just searching through this forum.


my only real advice to you, is, GO. GO NOW. i promise you that you will never regret it. it's what hank williams (the father, not the son) called "rocking chair money"......

[a64pilot]

I wouldn’t go now, although many do, I’d wait until November, then go

[Pegu Club]

Tankage is obviously important, although one can purchase, or in-some cases get water for free in the Bahamas. I feel a bit lucky that a boat our size carries sixty-three gallons of water in the bow and keel tanks. We did recently purchased two five gallon jerrycans to carry additional water.

Our diesel tank holds eighteen gallons, and we have three additional diesel jerrycans on the rail for a total of thirty-three gallons of diesel fuel. Our Beta 16 runs at a half gallon per hour.

We will be heading back to the Bahamas For the winter months, it will be our second year of cruising full time.

You don’t need a big boat per say, (although it won’t hurt) you just need a well cared for boat, and as onestepcsy37 said above, quality ground tackle. New generation anchors work very well, we chose a Rocna 15, at thirty-three pounds, and One-hundred-twenty-five feet of chain and the same in rode it serves us very well.

Fair winds,

[Auspicious]

As others have noted you have to define your terms.

Originally Posted by chuthmak

Some of my research claims the Out Island 41 when it comes to space and draft and affordability.

Slow under sail and points poorly. Might as well get a trawler for more space and less draft.


I haven't found draft a significant issue - lots of time with 6' and a few times with 8'. The biggest difference is how close you are to shore when you run aground.

[WSMFP]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

once upon a time (1960's, 1970's) sailors used to cruise the bahamas in any boat that would float. i'm talking venture 25's, oday 22's, westerly 26's bristol 27's, and albin 27's. i saw them all. when we retired we opted for comfort and ruggedness. we cruised on a csy 37, b plan. our friends once cruised the bahamas all the way down to the south end in a cal 24.

so here's my take on it. you can cross the gulf stream on a nice day in just about anything. once you've crossed, the bahamas are a piece of cake. you never have to be out of sight of land or too far from a safe anchorage if you plan well.

one of my favorite stories was when i was in marine junk shop in fort lauderdale about 40 years ago. two young guys, in their twenties, were talking to the owner. they were on a home built piver 25 trimaran and wanted to know what they needed to cross to the bahamas. they didn't have much money. he sold them a handbearing compass and a copy of the yachtsmans guide to the bahamas. i would have made the same recommendation, back then.

depending on how comfort-oriented you are, you can cruise very minimally. supplies are widely available, although expensive once you get beyond beans and rice and oatmeal. a solar panel or two i find indispensable,

navigation is simple. get one or two (for backup) handheld gps's - the cheapest one garmin makes works well. carry lot's of spare batteries. and get the explorer series of charts for the area's you will be going. a really good compass and a hand bearing compass as well.

on a smaller boat the biggest problem may be water tankage. our boat held 140 gallons and we still had to learn to economize, although i think water is becoming more available in the remoter places, and probably expensive too.


anchor and chain. you will spend more time in one place than you will in going to another place. the new gen anchors are fabulous - we had a 45 pound manson supreme. get all chain rode. we had 140 feet of 3/8 bbb chain but never put out more than 80 feet.

i could go on and on but i'm sure you will find all the info you need by just searching through this forum.

my only real advice to you, is, GO. GO NOW. i promise you that you will never regret it. it's what hank williams (the father, not the son) called "rocking chair money"......

This is great advice. Don't over think it, over complicate the boat or over spend on overly complicated stuff.

[Mauruuru]

I took my Hake 32RK through the Bahamas down Exumas to Windward passage to Jamaica and back to FL. The vertically retracting keel made the banks crossing easy while the deep fin keel with lead bulb made deep water heavy wind and seas doable

[Captmatt]

This boat right here. Only 4.5’ draft!

https://www.boats.com/sailing-boats/...ored%20listing

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I wouldn’t go now, although many do, I’d wait until November, then go

you're right, a64. i think i got carried away trying to urge the op to get up and go.


more advice to op -


check the weather first. and don't go in hurricane season.....

[sv Stella Maris]

For a single/couple? Which boat don’t matter:

1. Good engine
2. Good autopilot
3. Simple electrical
4. Great anchor
5. Good windlass

Go.......

[Group9]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

so here's my take on it. you can cross the gulf stream on a nice day in just about anything. once you've crossed, the bahamas are a piece of cake. you never have to be out of sight of land or too far from a safe anchorage if you plan well.

Yep. The first time I crossed to the Bahamas (me and a few of my friends, all in our twenties, were just sitting around one night and decided to go, so we went chartered a 38 foot Morgan bareboat (from he old Hirsch charter company) , kind of like Forrest Gump) our sole navigation set up was a compass, a depth finder, a Loran, and a photocopied chart of the Bahamas that had all the detail of a touristy restaurant place mat. The guy running the place asked us a few sailing questions, which I guess we answered correctly, because he rented us the boat. We sailed over to Bimini, made a loop around the Berry's then to Nassau, then to Andros, then to Cat, and then home, all in two weeks (we were out of money by then).

The Loran, with the TD lines so far out, was often as much as five miles off from actual position. We ddidn't die, and the only time we ran aground, was in Bimini Harbor about fifty feet from the Big Game Club when nobody was looking where we were going. (I ungrounded us by swimming a line to one of their pilings. We used the sheet winch to pull ourselves back to their dock).

And, the crossing was pretty rough. We had heard about the north wind thing, but went anyway with a pretty strong north wind (at night). I remember thinking it was pretty bad, but I don't think I was smart enough to know that we might have been in some danger.

And, the impetus for us doing it, was my brother's girlfriend and several of her girlfriends, sailing over to Bimini the year before, knowing less that we did. In a moment straight out of Captain Ron, she and three girls had booked a sailboat charter. The left at night with "Captain Bill" who passed out drunk about the time they left Fort Lauderdale. Before passing out, he told them to steer east and wake him when they saw land. They had a nice sail over, but couldn't wake him. They had decided they were just going to run the sailboat up onto the beach at Bimini and jump for it, when he woke up a half a mile from Bimini, said, "Oh, great, we're here" and took over.

They befriended Ozzie Brown, whose family owned the Compleat Angler, while they were there, and after telling him their Captain Bill story, he flew them back in his family's private plane.

All these kind of stories and adventures, are what have made me love the Bahamas, and to keep coming back and again and again. It's just a really neat place.