Hello from Massachusetts

[Galroc]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

You sound pretty much were we were about five years ago. I’m 60 and we have been on the boat for two years full time.
What you describe may be better in a trawler, but in open water they will roll your guts out, a “real” trawler is better though than what is often sold as trawlers now.
If it has twin big engines and will plane, to me it’s not a trawler, to me a trawler is single engine and a keel so you can run aground and not hurt the prop, it has a big rudder sort of like a sailboat for good slow speed handling and is a pure displacement hull.
But trawler is about as descriptive a name as blue water, if we go Trawler I like the looks of a Kady Krogen 42 myself.
However a good sailboat can do pretty much anything a Trawler can and is much more stable in open water.

Thanks for information. As of now, I am not enthusiastic about trawler. I think sailing, even if it is mild, will be an incredible learning experience and a challenge and I think it will be for my wife as well. I think being challenged is key in retirement. This is one of the reasons I am pushing for a sailboat over an RV.

Anyway nothing wrong with the boats your looking at, but if you don’t mind a few years older you can for the same or less money get a boat that may be better suited for full time liveabord and traveling the ICW and scooting over to the Bahamas etc.

I am open to looking at any age boat. What I have noticed about boats is that they don't change that much over the years, and their designs tend to be fairly conservative, interior and exterior. 10-20 year old RVs show their age, boats not so much.

Monohulls seem to be stable in their designs, especially production boats, but there have been some changes, like speed became less emphasized, and living space became more emphasized. I am not sure when that happened but boats became wider, and their cockpit space became higher and higher above the water line. I think a slow fat cruiser would be better for us, rather than a slender fast sailboat. Comfort over speed.

Cat design seem to mature later than monohulls...like they were still trying to optimize their design through the 90s, and finally in the early 2000s, they settled on good designs.

I have a preference for fiberglass hulls, and non-wood decks just for maintenance considerations.

When you start out, do a lot of time in the ICW etc. and let the wife acclimate, then slowly start easing out into rougher water, but do so slowly.
Nothing kills the dream like a good severe case of seasickness, avoid that like the plague.

I 100% agree. I just learned about the ICW about 2 months ago and if we go through with the plan, I plan to stick to the ICW as much as possible. My fear is taking her on a sailboat out on Boston harbor in rough conditions, and doing 10+ knots with the boat heeled way over..with water lapping the deck and then she gets seasick on top of that...I have been there and done that, except the sea sickness part

[Galroc]

We picked up tickets for the Rhode Island boat show for this Saturday.

We are just going to walk around and just see what is available, new and used. Just research at this point.