Hoping to be new cruisers-Need your wisdom!

[Jim Cate]

[quote=Sam Plan B;249392]
1. Cumfort is more important than speed. That is because, on average, 100 miles made good per day is rule of thumb for all boats regardless of size. That comes to a bit less than 5kn constant speed.-end quote

G'Day,

While I don't want to get the whole speed vs comfort thing going again, I must disagree with the above statement. In our 125k miles of cruising, in boats of 30, then 36, and now 46 feet overall, we've NEVER had a passage where we didn't AVERAGE more than 100 miles per day. That number (100 mpd) has been lurking about for years, but it just doesn't seem to hold up in reality.

"Nuff said!

In general, it seems to me that you are approaching the issues very well, and I reckon that you will succeed in your quite reasonable plans. We hope to see you out there someday (if you make it to the South Pacific) where we hang out!

Good luck,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Gladstone, Qld, Oz

[Livia]

Assuming you are N. American, which side of the country are you leaving from in 2010? We are on the W Coast and are "leaving" in June 2010 (leaving may start with full time cruising around Vancouver Island).

[Lady Circumnavi]

The old Hughes 38 is a good boat. You might consider a Luders 33, the boat I cricumnavigated on. I just saw one for sale in the low 20'. probably needsa lot of work, but a sea kindly, well built, go anywhere boat who will take care of you. Someone else mentioned a gas genorator- consider a couple solar panels to trickle charge your batteries. They will make life a lot easier.

[Lady Circumnavi]

Mark,
Probably the most important question for you and your lady to consider before purchasing a boat is where do you want to sail? I tend to assume the tropics beckon, but that may not be what you have in mind. Marina-hopping is different from crossing oceans. If you can give people more details of your plans, you'll get better advice. You also need to start with educating yourselves: reading books, taking navigation classes, crewing for someone else, etc. When you're in the middle of an ocean., there's no one to rely on but yourself. Getting yourself prepared is the most important part of the trip. Your life depends on it. Buying the right boat is important, but it shouldn't be the first thing on your to do list. The more YOU prepare, the better boat choice you'll make.

[MAG1]

I've been reading about cruising for years now and my sister has done a fair bit of water sailing">blue water sailing with her hubby including a couple of atlantic crossings. Our Bible is Beth Leonards "The Voyageurs Handbook". I'm a pilot so weather isn't a problem for me and we'll soon be taking several courses on navigation with guidence from my brother inlaw who's a certified internation first mate(I think that's how it's put). I've sailed and raced my whole life, but nothing in the ocean. I can't afford a bareboat charter, so we plan on doing a solid shakedown cruise befor we go. Depending on when I can leave my job, fall 09 or spring 10, will determine where we go from the east coast. One option if we leave in the fall it to finish our outfitting in the caribbean. Our basic plan is the milk run for now until we see and learn more about everything! We really feel that if we take things one step at a time, learn as much as we can about each decision we make and err on the side of coservatism, we should be alright. OUr boat hunt has been narrowed down to a bristol 32' 35' and 40', the niagra 35, an endeavour 37, the robert 38 and hughes 38, a tayana 37, horizon ketch and the irwin citation 40 which I'm already unsure of as they seem to be made on the cheap. We are also looking at a couple of 33' cat ketches, but I don't know if they would make good cruising boats. My girlfriend just posted a question about that. Critical equipment for the boat will be wind vane, life raft, epirb, all basic safety gear, full med kit and two handheld gps. We plan on having solar or wind generation and would like SSB and AIS instead of radar. That's all I can think of right now. We love all the tips! Keep em' coming!

[Sea Wolf]

You've received some really good advice. We're in Miami and there are a lot of boats for sale in South Florida, so you could get yourself a good buy down here. Down Island is another fertile place. A lot of would be cruisers head out and find out the hard way that the cruising life just isn't for them. They then choose to leave their boat with a broker and head back home. After a couple of months the selling prices plummet, so keep your eyes open.

Don't just restrict yourself to monohulls. Take a look at the multi's, too. We cruised on a 33' Gemini (PerformanceCruising.com) for 5 years and were thrilled with it. It's a tough little boat that brought us through some pretty rough weather. The new ones would be out of your reach, but an older boat can be had for low $$$. There's one for sale in Apollo Beach for under $30,000. Needs some work (mostly cleanup), but the structure is sound.

That's about it. If you have any questions about cruising on a multihull (with children), drop me a line.

Loree
Aboard SeaWolf
cruiserslife.com

[Safari Tu]

Hi Mag1,

I think you and I have been reading the same magazines! We bought our first boat 3 years ago (a 1980 Hunter 37 cutter). It is a great boat set up for coastal cruising and despite the Hunter name, is a solid sailor in big winds/waves (was designed by Cherubini).

We're planning to head off on a 1 yr trip this fall, and my "wish list" looked a lot like yours: autopilot and/or windvane, SSB, solar or wind, davits for the dinghy, windlass. In addition to these upgrades, there will be 4 of us on the trip, so in the end we decided to upgrade to a Gulfstar 44 so we'd have more room, the critical safety equipment, and the conveniences that will make cruising more fun. We paid about $110k for the Gulfstar (not including what we are spending this winter...)

In case anyone is interested in the Hunter, here is a link. We hate to see her go but she will be perfect as is for someone who wants to do coastal cruising, or with the right upgrades she could work for a cruiser.

This is by far the best site out there for cruisers - enjoy it.

-Safari Tu

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1980/Hunter-Cherubini-Cutter-1905660/North-Kingstown/RI/United-States