new and excited about the prospect of voyaging

[HARTY]

hi there
i'm new to this forum...the other half of MAG1
we are trying to narrow down our options for which boat to buy.
Can anybody give us feedback about Cat Ketches? We've found a Hereshoff 33' and 'Walter Scott' 33. But those remain with question marks for us. Also, there's a Murray custom-built Cutter 33', for which there doesn't seem to be much info. We've determined that we should keep Niagara 35 on our list, as well as a couple of Bristols (one Ketch, one Sloop) and Irwin Citations (all between 32-40')
For a circumnavigation journey in a used boat we know that finding a SOLID hull is pretty much the most important thing.
What say you(s) ?
PS this forum is VERY addictive. I could stay on it all day.

[Ex-Calif]

Hi Harty and welcome aboard CF. It certainly is addicting as many can attest. Good luck on your boat search.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Harty,
Welcome! Try Pearsons and Tartans too. Doesn't Freedom have a cat ketch?
Good luck in your search.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[slomotion]

Welcome, Harty

I have never circumnavigated or even crossed an ocean, but I do have experience cruising used sailboats around the Bahamas and Caribbean. FWIW, if I were you, I would not seek to narrow my options at this point. All of the boats you mention are fairly old and therefore affordable. However, with older boats, it’s all about condition. And, unless you have tons of time and money, condition is far more important than design or as-new capability. Look for the best condition boats in your size/price range that might be capable, and then decide whether any of them are really suitable for your intended use and meet your needs/wants/expectations.

[MarkJ]

I would wonder why its necessary to have a cat ketch. Ketches are not really built much anymore and there must be a reason.

If you want to voyage wouldn't it be interesting to see what sort of cats (or mono's) are most widely used sucessfully?

Because of the nature of voyaging if you have stock standard its easier to maintain and replace.

We are in a tiny little town which, actually amazes me, has a small chandlry... yesterday we needed a thing cos ours broke. Yes they had one! The standard size, standard type, standard everything. Fortunately standard everything fits on our standard boat.

Sure this life is 'The road less traveled' but that can mean that Westmarine and UPS don't travel it at all

[rtbates]

My opinion is to forget the rig type and look for well maintained boat with the extras required for crusiing. A full keel would be nice.

[HARTY]

Thanks for the interest and the tips
I might have made it sound like we're simply sticking with certain makes but the point we're at is: we've got a list of 15 specific boats that are in our price range and seem to have suitable features for us. From a list of 20 particular used boats we began researching the brands and crossed 5 off the list based on what we learned about their general reputation with sea-worthiness. This may be the wrong way to go about it but I must say, it is SO overwhelming and you've got to start somewhere right? Also we figure, time and money-wise, that we can't necessarily afford to physically check out more than three or four of the boats in person. So it seems that with some diligent research and asking the current owners as much as we can without actually getting an official survey done of every boat, we might be on the right track(?)
what do you think?

Originally Posted by slomotion

Welcome, Harty

I have never circumnavigated or even crossed an ocean, but I do have experience cruising used sailboats around the Bahamas and Caribbean. FWIW, if I were you, I would not seek to narrow my options at this point. All of the boats you mention are fairly old and therefore affordable. However, with older boats, it’s all about condition. And, unless you have tons of time and money, condition is far more important than design or as-new capability. Look for the best condition boats in your size/price range that might be capable, and then decide whether any of them are really suitable for your intended use and meet your needs/wants/expectations.

[Sea Wolf]

Harty,
If you haven't looked at any of the multihulls, you should make a point of it before you buy. They offer space, stability, speed and comfort. We bought our first boat way back in 1984 and chose a multihull, even though they were poo-pooed by the traditionalists. The monohulls were all gorgeous (love the Tahiti Ketch design) and the multi's looked like clorox bottles, but we chose the multihull anyway because that's where our reasearch led us. Thankfully, they're not quite so ugly now. Our Gemini only drew 18 inches, which was a real benefit in the Bahamas. She had a drop down centerboard which gave us 6 feet so we handled well in blue water, also. For us, a cat was the right decision and we now have a 50' cat and are ready to head out again.

Good Luck

Loree
Aboard SeaWolf
cruiserslife.com