Quote:
Originally Posted by kenisall
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How small is too small. I can definitely say 30' is our personal minimum.
Would we be better off in a monohull?
Can we realistically expect to safely cross the pacific in anything small enough to easily crew ...
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Whether mono or cat,
LOA is not the primary determinant of seaworthyness. I have a friend who has circumnavigated and then some in a Tiki 21. Very
seaworthy little
boat, but probably not your family's idea of a cruising boat.
That said there are some
seaworthy cats out there in the ~35 range. Many already mentioned.
The Wildcats take a lot of crap because of some of their well publisiced quality of build issues, but fundamentally are a strong seaworthy little cat. And a very comfortable layout for cruising and
liveaboard. Many were sailed new on their own bottoms from Durban to the
USA. The biggest issue was their wildly variable quality of build. They built some good boats and they built some flat out junk.
Survey very very carefully if considering one.
A downside you will find is that with decreased
LOA comes decreased load carrying capacity. This is problematic for any cruising vessel (I even see big cats obviously overloaded) but especially so with a
family aboard. This is a more pronounced issue for multihulls than monohulls.
In your
price range I suggest not getting fixated on cats. There are some good old monos out there too which are a lot of bang for the buck. Peruse some of the threads here on
center cockpit monos to see some of the options. Some smaller
center cockpit monos are quite comfortable. Personally, in your
budget range, I would rather put my
money in a good old mono than a tired old project-boat cat or one of questionable quality.