Boat Recommendations

[nauticalmile]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are looking for a 50-60 foot blue water cruiser and I wonder if anyone on the site can offer their recommendations.

We are looking predominantly at Cheoy Lee or Alaskans but also considering a Trader. We prefer a trawler pilot house style and want something that will withstand some serious boating but we have to get our skill sets up first so we are looking for a robust boat but one that relatively inexperienced people can manoeuvre.

Any recommendations gratefully received.

Thanks a lot
Andrea

[Adelie]

Power or Sail?

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Power or Sail?

Posted under powered boats and looking at power boats with trawler pilot houses......

[nauticalmile]

Definitely power boat. We have considered motor/sailors but as I only have my day skipper and my husband has only sailed 36 foot power boats, we think we are safer with power than sail.

Thanks

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by nauticalmile

Definitely power boat. We have considered motor/sailors but as I only have my day skipper and my husband has only sailed 36 foot power boats, we think we are safer with power than sail.

Thanks

Your location and cruising plans would be helpful.
Budget will also help focus advice.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Posted under powered boats and looking at power boats with trawler pilot houses......

Well PoweredBoats forum was really the only for sure giveaway if I'd noticed.

She didn't say powerboat in the post or title.

CheoyLee built plenty of sailboats. (http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=7863). Heck, even ChrisCraft built sailboats so discussing makers is not really indicative. (http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=2045)

And the trawler pilothouse, there are a number of makers that put them on sailboats or motorsailors. For example: http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=8062

[nauticalmile]

Thanks very much for advice so far.

Budget is approx £300k and ultimately we would like to sail around New Zealand although we might start in the Bay Of Islands where it is calmer waters.

We have been looking at boats in the US so I guess boating will start in these waters.

I appreciate there are loads of boatmakers to choose from but was just wondering if anyone had any particular experiences of these types of boats, good or bad to help with our purchasing choice.

Apologies for not making the Power boat bit clear! I am new to this site and will get the hang of it!

[BandB]

You need to start by defining "blue water". As the waters of the world aren't color coded, everyone interprets differently. You need to discuss all the cruising areas you're anticipating. Do you expect to be able to cruise coastal waters or expect to be an expedition yacht or a passagemaker crossing oceans? If it's the former all the boats you've mentioned could work. If it's a passagemaker and crossing oceans, then Marine Trader and Alaskans definitely are not and the majority of Cheoy Lees are not.

[ranger58sb]

You might consider posting the same questions on trawlerforum.com (sister site).

[Steadman Uhlich]

It is not clear whether you want a pilothouse styled sailboat (motor sailor) or a trawler (motoring only).

Perhaps what you really want is the "inside steering station" so you can enjoy the boat while steering from a protected, warm, dry position inside the pilothouse.

Here are two that are "motor sailor" or "sailboats with pilothouses" and traditional styling.

The Fisher 46 is a nice looking Pilothouse boat.

Here is one for sale in Med. Built in 2007 and in steel.

2007 Fisher 46 MKII Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Another boat that has somewhat similar design is the Hans Christian 39 and 48 Pilothouse versions.

I will send you a Private Message with some more tips.

Good luck on your boat search. I hope this helps.
________________

You wrote:

"Budget is approx £300k and ultimately we would like to sail around New Zealand although we might start in the Bay Of Islands where it is calmer waters.

We have been looking at boats in the US so I guess boating will start in these waters. "

Given your post statement that you may purchase in the USA and want to sail it around New Zealand, make sure that when looking at motor yachts ("trawlers") that you consider these two important issues that are important given you would need to move the boat from the USA to New Zealand:

1. Range of motoring (dependent on fuel tankage).
Put simply, many typical "trawler" styled motor yachts are not designed to travel very far (across the Pacific or Atlantic). They simply don't carry enough fuel to make a 4,000 nm passage.

2. Comfort (and stability) of the boat in open ocean (possible need for stabilizers) due to rolling with waves.
Put simply, many "trawler" motor yachts are not designed to travel in high seas, and may be either very uncomfortable or even unsafe in high seas offshore, especially without some type of stabilizers.

3. A third issue is important, but highly debatable, and that is the need for a "get home engine" or some redundancy for propelling the boat (a second engine or sails).

These issues are discussed at length in the Trawlerforum.com forums, less so here in the CF forum, though some CF members are members of both groups.

For these reasons, I think a "Motorsailor" (looks like a sailboat, with a larger engine) is the optimum combination of range, redundancy, comfort in open ocean, protected inside steering station, and used models will fit within your budget.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

It is not clear whether you want a pilothouse styled sailboat (motor sailor) or a trawler (motoring only).

OP You should move over to Trawler forum, no matter how may times you try to make yourself clear these guys are going to sell you something with a stick and bed sheets .... it's the nature of the beast

[BandB]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

OP You should move over to Trawler forum, no matter how may times you try to make yourself clear these guys are going to sell you something with a stick and bed sheets .... it's the nature of the beast

It's odd how some of the sail boaters try to treat this as a sailing only forum and yet when polls have been conducted here we've found a very sizable percentage of participants to be motor boaters.

[Zven]

My primary requirement would be "2 engines"...
Unless, of course, you have absolutely all the spare parts that might be needed, and matching mechanical skills.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by Zven

My primary requirement would be "2 engines"...
Unless, of course, you have absolutely all the spare parts that might be needed, and matching mechanical skills.

Dual engines makes sense from a redundancy point of view but you take a bit hit in fuel economy by operating them both.

Originally Posted by boatpoker

OP You should move over to Trawler forum, no matter how may times you try to make yourself clear these guys are going to sell you something with a stick and bed sheets .... it's the nature of the beast

I agree about checking out TF, but don't abandon CF, post in both forums.

Originally Posted by BandB

It's odd how some of the sail boaters try to treat this as a sailing only forum and yet when polls have been conducted here we've found a very sizable percentage of participants to be motor boaters.

I agree to a certain extent that people assume you are going in a sailboat if you are going cruising.
For coastal cruising or even cruising thru the Caribbean power boats are probably more common than sail boats.
For long distance cruising, most vessels are sailboats. It's tough to make passages on a power boat, fuel tankage and fuel costs are too big a problem for most folks. As an example I have acquaintances that took a power boat around the world. They spent $59k just for fuel. Their boat cost in the range $900k-$1M.
If you want to go offshore in a power boat you are going to have to be able to afford the upfront costs of a powerboat that can go offshore and the running costs for fuel.
As an aside, my acquaintances that went RTW chose to have a single engine vessel.

[Sea Life]

I have a single engine, on 8000miles in 2 yrs this trip. I spend more on insurance or booze and food or etc. then I do in fuel! I will agree with the upfront costs though. Blue water power boats aren't cheap compared to a sailboat.

OP, you could always look at a Kadey Krogen in that size range, the 58' have been around awhile, so decent used market depending on budget.

I joined this forum, because trawler forum was mostly about boat repairs and limited cruising in the US. Another trawler forum memeber actually referred me here, due to the information I was seeking.