Seawind or Woods

[snort]

All things being equal regarding condition and gear, would you choose a Seawind 1000 or a Woods Flica?
I know the first boat, but only know the second by what's written about it online.
I don't imagine many people knowing both boats intimately, but you never know.
Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[Morph]

I had a Woods Wizard years ago and it was a fantastic little boat--he designs great boats that sail well and packs a lot into a small boat with clever design. I'm guessing one of the differences is if the Woods boat has daggerboards which gives it far superior windward performance. The other thing will be weight--again the lighter boat will be better. I would assume the seawind will have better resale value and people have sailed them all over the place.

[Sos]

We have a Flica and love it. I haven't sailed a Seawind 1000 but I would guess they are lighter and quicker. We have twin diesels which in the English channel tides are well worth the extra weight. I don't think the Flica is one of Richard's quicker designs but it is spacious and even though it has low bridge deck clearance we do not have a problem with slapping, and this is in the Solent chop . Because of the lower clearance it has a lot less windage and just looks "seaworthy" which so far we have found to be true. Great boats.

[Sand crab]

The Flica started as a 34' and grew to a 37' and the Seawind went from about 32' 8" to 35' 5" for the XL2 model. I would take a larger Flica over a smaller Seawind. But the Seawind XL and the XL2 are really cool with the extended sterns, self tacking jib and other features but will probably cost (a lot) more than the big Flica.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by snort

All things being equal regarding condition and gear, would you choose a Seawind 1000 or a Woods Flica?
I know the first boat, but only know the second by what's written about it online.
I don't imagine many people knowing both boats intimately, but you never know.
Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Hard to understand how you can say 'All things being equal". The Seawind is built by a well established builder of known quality while the Woods is either home built or a few were professionally built. It is almost impossible to know the quality of the Woods build. Not trying to dis them as Woods is an established designer; just that one is a production boat while the other is not quite a one off.


The Seawind is what I call an open deck boat with either a Bimini or an attached hard top which can be removed. In any case the open salon/cockpit area on the Seawind has been described as a dance floor while the bulkhead between the salon and cockpit on the woods is a much different layout. The sugar scoops on the Seawind provide a much more sea kindly ride in addition to easy entrance and exit; not to mention a great place to take a salt water bath and then rinse off with a small amount of fresh water.


There is also a large difference in the price of the two boats; the Seawind would be more expensive, but also demand a higher price if you tried to resell it.



For cruising in the tropics the Seawind with it great open design would be much cooler while the Woods would be a better cold weather boat. I have no idea which boat would be faster but I have easily single handed my Seawind.


For the different price points I suspect the Woods would provide better bang for the buck.

[sailjumanji]

Cruised and raced a Seawind 1000 we owned for 12 years. Was super happy with it, but wife wanted something a bit larger for having guests onboard in Bahama, etc. This year we took delivery of new Seawind 1160 Lite, which as equipped with outboards and solar - and even larger "dancefloor" - is basically the 1000 on steroids!

Don't know width of the Woods, but I think the Seawind 1000 is just shy of 20 ft. That - and all of the windows - makes the boat feel much larger than LOA would suggest.

There are reasons the Seawind fetches a strong resale value.

[jmh2002]

In my opinion the open plan layout of the Seawind is much better.

It never made sense to me why on smaller cats this already limited main deck floor space was permanently split into two even smaller spaces (bridgedeck cabin & cockpit), and then divided further again by fitting two tables (both of which too small) in each area, finally leaving almost no usable space at all!

On a smaller cat I think it's better to have an open plan layout with one larger more usable folding table and the flexibility to rearrange the whole space as necessary for different uses and different amounts of people that may be onboard during different occasions.

With budget in mind, I guess a Woods Flica could be modified to somewhat mimic an open plan layout but I don't think there is standing headroom in the bridgedeck cabin is there? Perhaps a 'pop top' could be fitted to help.

For tropical cruising, and again with budget in mind, a complete alternative could be a good Wharram, where you can get the large open main deck floor space in this same type of length and then fit a large hardtop with removable curtains for flexible shelter as required. In fact this is my general plan for the future.

If budget is not an issue though, just buy a Seawind in the first place.

[Sos]

I don't think making a Flica into an open layout is feasible or worth the effort. Just get the Seawind! There is standing headroom in the Flica and the two saloon tables are on vertical poles which allow them to be raised up to the ceiling and out of the way. We keep one up unless we have more people on board , so very versatile. Also there are a couple of steps down into the saloon. I lived on a Wharram and loved it but the Flica is a different boat altogether

[jmh2002]

Thanks for clarifying re the standing headroom in the bridgedeck

To clarify from my side, about the two tables I meant on other designs where there is often a table in the bridgedeck as well as in the cockpit, separated by only a metre or so, and neither of which is big enough, but both of which are taking up too much valuable floor space.

This makes the boat seem even smaller than it already is, but as is very noticeable from the Seawind, the open plan and one table design does the opposite and makes the boat feel even bigger than it actually is.

I think one correct sized table is enough on a small to medium cat.

The split and raisable design on the Flica seems useful All tables on small to medium sized cats should be resizable and moveable somehow, and if possible lowerable too to make an extra bed.

[Boatguy30]

They are quite a bit different. The Flica is one of Richards older designs and especially with inboards far slower than a Seawind or my Vardo. Sailed from Exumas to Nassau with a Flica this year and we're about 2 hours faster on a 30 mile sail in 8-10 knot winds.

[jmh2002]

@Boatguy30 just for interest, what point of sail was that and what boatspeed did you average?

[Boatguy30]

It was a broad reach in flat water. We were doing around 6 knots and as we approached Nassau the breeze built and we're probably doing 7-8 the last house or so. Sailed all the way to the bridge to Paradise Island

[smj]

We’ve owned 2 Seawind 1000’s and sailed on a Flicka once.
First thing I would say is the Seawind 1000xl or a Seawind 1000 with stern extensions sails much better than the original Seawind and has a much improved motion.
It’s been almost 20 years since we sailed on the Flicka, but if I recall it was a light wind day and she sailed well.
As someone else said they are very different boats. The Seawind is a fantastic tropical cruiser with its open layout and is a joy to sail with the twin helms. The Flicka on the other hand would be a much better cold weather boat or more suited to full time live aboard at the docks.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

It was a broad reach in flat water. We were doing around 6 knots and as we approached Nassau the breeze built and we're probably doing 7-8 the last house or so. Sailed all the way to the bridge to Paradise Island

Thanks for the info

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by smj

We’ve owned 2 Seawind 1000’s and sailed on a Flicka once.
First thing I would say is the Seawind 1000xl or a Seawind 1000 with stern extensions sails much better than the original Seawind and has a much improved motion.
It’s been almost 20 years since we sailed on the Flicka, but if I recall it was a light wind day and she sailed well.
As someone else said they are very different boats. The Seawind is a fantastic tropical cruiser with its open layout and is a joy to sail with the twin helms. The Flicka on the other hand would be a much better cold weather boat or more suited to full time live aboard at the docks.

I would second that. The OP doesn't give any indication of intended use, this would have a big influence on the choice between these two very different boats.