NEW MEMBER FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA

[zerubb]

Hi

I am a new member and also new to ocean cruising. I have had a variety of boats over the years, both sail and power, but my sea time has to this point been restricted to sheltered waters. I have an awful lot to learn and unfortunately long past the spring of my youth, in fact my winter is fast approaching. Now for more years than I care to remember I have held a dream to cross at least one ocean in my own boat. It is only now that circumstances allow me to hopefully realise this dream. My kids think I am crazy, my friends probably think the same, but are too polite to say so! But the only thing I fear about growing old is my capacity to dream!

In order to realise this dream I have decided upon a plan of attack. I am currently in the very early stages of studying for a yacht-master off shore qualification and I hope to get some additional offshore sea time either as crew or on one of the offshore ocean courses I have seen advertised on the web. I do not own a boat at the moment and don’t intend buying one until I am a bit clearer in my thinking with regard to size, style etc. My medium (two year) plan is to buy a boat in the USA, hopefully find a crew and sail back to Australia. It is hoped this boat will be my home for the foreseeable future, so in this case size is important. It is also important that I can handle this boat on my own, so I am totally unsure as to optimum size. I know with modern reefing systems, including in-boom reefing, reducing sail can be relatively easy but in-boom systems are expensive and I am not sure as to their suitability for sustained offshore work. My biggest concern is when it comes to docking, I have always felt the bigger the boat the bigger the problem very close to land, this can only be compounded when single handing!

I prefer moderate to heavy displacement, they are more pleasing to my eye and the load carrying capacity is a big plus. My thinking at the moment is a minimum of 30ft up to possibly 36ft, so I guess this means Baba/Tashiba, Mason, Cape Dory etc. I also like the look of the Aloha 32’ and some of the Ericson and Endeavours, but I am not sure of the suitability of these last three for crossing oceans. I know some people have crossed the Pacific in little more then bath tubs with sails, but I want a boat I can have confidence in and one that will at least understand if occasionally I do something stupid!. My budget would be around US$75k for the boat and about US$30k in reserve to prepare her for cruising. Any thoughts and/or ideas regarding any of my plans, size/type of boat etc would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the length of this post.