Hello from Oregon

[Rick Lucrezi]

Great to find this site. My wife and I have made a commitment to purchase a cruiser and make the leap. We both have some sailing experience. I crewed in Tortola back in the late 80's and she grew up with small boats. We planned to buy a motor yacht originally and almost bought a 90' tug but decided to wait a bit longer. Now our kids are grown and our youngest will benefit greatly from the experience so we are putting our plan back into high gear and have a 3 year dead line. We have been talking about this for 15 years and finally the time has come. We are now being more realistic in that we want freedom to move about but we are not so wealthy that we can buy what ever we want. Our budget for a boat is around 100k. We both want to take some sailing classes for the refresher, and we are looking at heading to Florida to buy a boat. The choices are too mind boggling. I spent time on a 125' Brigantine which spoiled me for comfort but that was a slow boat. Trying to make the real world comparisons on 40 foot range cat and monohulls now. Too many options, considerations, expectancies, trade offs etc. I have been reading through these forums and gleaming info for a while in hopes of helping me make a better more informed decision. Anyway, glad I found this place, it is very beneficial for folks like myself who a considering such a life changing decision. Live the dream

[captain58sailin]

Welcome aboard! This is a great site for getting information, and most posters are not shy about their opinions regarding vessels. Myself included. Have you looked at Skookums? I am biased of course, but there are several 47's in the yacht configuration up around Seattle/Puget sound way. I think there may even be a couple for sale in Oregon as well.

[Rick Lucrezi]

I do like the skookum. I have gone back and forth with the motor sailor. If we stayed up in the Pacific Northwest, it would be a done deal. Perfect for this environment. We want to stay in the Caribbeans and south. I really like that you can have so much more amenities on equal size motor sailors but not sure if that's a good idea for living and sailing around the Caribbean. Maybe some one here will chime in and convince me otherwise. I am a carpenter by trade and wood is my favorite, with pros and cons aside, a big heavy wooden motor sailor is much more my "style" but that old saying, right tool for the job keeps nagging at me and making me look at lighter faster boats.

[captain58sailin]

Skookum is more of a blue water cruiser, the one I sailed on as a young man, drew 6' and that was a 47' center cockpit, cutter rigged unit. I think she might even be up for sale again, her name was "Rodonis" and the people my Mom sold her to were down on Orcas island somewhere. Anyway I think you might be right; for the Caribbean a shallower draft vessel would let you explore more areas. I once bought a 35' Piver trimaran, that I never did get into the water, I did like the big cockpit area and deck space. At that time my goal was to cruise the Caribbean and deliver yachts and be a beach bum; something went wrong and I got a real job and things just went down hill from there. I still toy with that idea now and then.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and Welcome aboard!
Kind regards,
JohnL

[Ocean Girl]

Welcome, good luck on your boat search. Be sure to tell your wife we'd love to hear from her too (there is a great womens forum).
Erika