Buyer's Remorse - What was your experience ?

[12BCruzn]

Hello All,

Welcome to my first thread

Having ditched our 1992 Chris Craft Crowne 252 (a 35 knot express cruiser) and being now in the market for 38' to 44' sailing catamaran we are ready to pull the trigger within the next two months. Summarizing our situation: Family of 3 with an 8 year old, expecting visitors as we cruise the Bahamas, Caribbean and the Med (we plan on getting a captain to get her to the Med) over the next 2 years. We want to be safe, comfortable, not necessarily fast (but will take all the knots we can muster) and deal with a "manageable" amount of repairs and maintenance. Our budget is somewhat flexible and puts us in the range of 5 - 8 year old 40 footers and 7 - 12 year old 42 - 44' cats. I have read many of the threads pertaining to "the perfect boat for me" and am aware that one must decide which boat attributes are most important to him and go from there. What we are interested in hearing is how happy you were with your decision to buy "the bigger boat" or "the smaller boat" and did you ultimately end up wishing you had gone bigger (or smaller).

We are struggling somewhat with the array of available boats out there, thinking how great it would be on a Lagoon 440, but also how great it would be to sail an older smaller boat and keep that extra 100K in reserve for fun, maintenance and repairs.

We look forward to your constructive comments and gird our loins in anticipation of "flames for newbies"
Cheers

[Dulcesuenos]

Funny we are going thru some of this right.now and have struggled.with these same decisions. We have a smaller 32x16.5 cat, twin diesels fully loaded for cruising etc we love, but have ultimately decided for a larger boat in case ( we probably will have more family members w us and we plan on expanding our range.
What we love about the smaller boat
Its manageable, easy to singlehand and dock solo if need be, light enough.that it wont hurt you too bad if you have to push it around a dock. And haul outs
Easier to find slips at good rates! Fuel economy each diesel burns 1/3 gal hour at cruise. So on one engine at 5 knots she getz 15 mpg roughly w no sail up and carries 52 gal + some jugs. So pretty killer range.
Has 3 staterooms and the salon is 15' wide as it is on the Leopard 38 we are buying. So for a 32 it feels as open inside as a much larger cat and still sleeps same number of people. Being smaller she handles large seas better than short vicious choppy seas. You feel more in tune with a smaller boat. Something about large cats just have that giant platform feeling and you lose.something there I think.
Larger Cat, we love the leopard 38 its very solid, still has shaft drives, still in business so good support. Nice helm position and good visibility forward. Large transom steps, easy deck walkways and forward access. Huge galley. What I don't like is each 42hp diesel burns 1.8gph fuel economy is crap. Has only slightly larger fuel tank than our 32'. And sails slower. I have been told.
There have been times we had to motor for 3 days due to weather etc. Heck we hsd to motor 7 days once no wind and were on a schedule. We stopped once for fuel on the small cat. The larger one will require an fuel boat to follow us lol.
I cant compare.heavy weather differences as we havent sailed the leopard yet but I can say I have never felt unsafe in the smaller.cat in bad weather. Most will take more punishment than we can.
We are putting off our cruising another 5+ years now at this point to buy the larger cat
Ask me how I feel about this in another year or two......

[Pelagic]

Welcome to CF.
There is a key difference between Remorse and Hindsight
‘Remorse’ is when you don’t do your homework and fail to see the obvious flaw in your decision thru lack of product study, surveys and tests
‘Hindsight’, is more a function of time where your priorities may change due to actual sailing and live aboard experience.
Given that this will not be a weekend hobby for you, it makes sense to first ‘charter’ the various candidates types you are considering to minimize the hindsight factor of you being a newbie.

Good luck….We’ve all been there.

[Dulcesuenos]

Is there really much difference between between a 38-40 and a 42-44' cat?

[colemj]

There can be huge differences between a 40' cat and a 40' cat. Compare the Manta 40 with the Lagoon 40, for example.

Mark

[12BCruzn]

Thanks for the input, Dulcesuenos. I am sorry to hear that your choice for the Leopard will necessarily put you back 5 years. I have been waiting 30 + years to get this cruise going. If we don't get going now, we may never. My wife is new to the sailing world but became absolutely convinced it was something she wants to do after we bareboat chartered in the BVIs last year. It is because of her inexperience that the smaller cats may have some allure for us. Of course, once she becomes an old hand at it the larger cats may become more desirable.

[12BCruzn]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

Is there really much difference between between a 38-40 and a 42-44' cat?

The difference between a FP 40 and a Lagoon 440 is huge, with the 440 feeling much grander, much more intimidating and offering much more in the way of galley space, freezer space, forward deck space, cockpit space, etc.

[12BCruzn]

Of course the 440 is MUCH more expensive :P

[Dulcesuenos]

I should have asked is there really that big a difference between same two brands. Going up a few feet. I know the Fp have much less spaciousness and creature comfort compared to lagoon leopard. Bit we have seen a lagoon 380 and 420 and the difference to me wasnt enough to justify 100k. Now the 44' was huge but way more expensive. We went on a Fp 40' and a 38 and honestly our 32' has more comfortable accommodations and storage than either. Felt like it was built better too and it was in much better shape in many aspects even though it was 10 years older.

[colemj]

The difference between same brands is often just stern extensions. The Manta 42 is exactly the same as the Manta 38, except for a bit of unaccessible space in the pointy ends. Leopard and Privilege have done the same in the past.

Mark

[12BCruzn]

Dulcesueños, how is it going? We have looked at a leopard 40 (38' really), several fp40, some fp42 and 46', L440, P395, L410. There is a very well finished Shuttleworth 44 in Ft Lauderdale. Also looked at Admiral38. The 38-40s were just a little too small and the 44'-46' a little too big. Manta 42 is very nice.

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by 12BCruzn

Dulcesueños, how is it going? We have looked at a leopard 40 (38' really), several fp40, some fp42 and 46', L440, P395, L410. There is a very well finished Shuttleworth 44 in Ft Lauderdale. Also looked at Admiral38. The 38-40s were just a little too small and the 44'-46' a little too big. Manta 42 is very nice.

Its going good, the Manta 42 is an awesome boat, very seaworthy though accommodations are not as grand as some 9ther 40plus boats, they handle great! I really love top and arch setup and the seat across the arch is sweet. Had we the $ wed have gone that route. The shuttleworths are nice but some sketchy dealings recently with the guys who build them in Florida would have me looking elsewhere, my own opinion.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[denverd0n]

My opinion is that when buying a boat (as with houses, cars, and most things in life) you will be better off in the long run if you buy the least and smallest that will fulfill your needs, rather than the biggest and most that you can possibly afford and/or manage.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

Its going good, the Manta 42 is an awesome boat, very seaworthy though accommodations are not as grand as some 9ther 40plus boats, they handle great! I really love top and arch setup and the seat across the arch is sweet. Had we the $ wed have gone that route. The shuttleworths are nice but some sketchy dealings recently with the guys who build them in Florida would have me looking elsewhere, my own opinion.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

The Shuttleworth 44 that's for sale in Florida was built in South Africa not Florida. The owner has put a ton of money into her. Only negative is she may be a little heavy.

[12BCruzn]

We are in contract for a P435. Pretty exciting time for us to say the least.