Quote:
Originally Posted by sailorbenj
Can anyone advise on their first experience buying a boat for sailing open ocean / coastal waters?*
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Take a deep breath, then jump in.
Find something that floats, which you like the compromises for living onboard, and like sailing. Save $10k for adding stuff that you decide you must have ( But probably dont really need). We added new
batteries and enough
Solar to charge them, 55m of chain and a new
rocna anchor, a
liferaft, and a new headsail.
By the time you have sailed up the
East Coast, you will have learnt enough to make your
boat work. Or worked out it really doesnt
work. Or that you dont.
We found as a
family of 4 that our 250 litres of
water limited us to a week or so between
ports. Our 1.9m fin
keel made me nervous of bar crossings, and the
kids got towed in the
dinghy from time to time when we got sick of them. We used the
diesel engine way more than I expected, but realisticually we could have done our trip in a beach cat as we chose
weather conservatively. (Perhaps not really, as we sailed up
wind a fair bit, and motorsailed into light headwinds even more)
Unlimited
budget, I'd probably choose either a 40 ish foot Oram cat, or a Nordhaven style
motor cruiser. $50k to spend, perhaps an
Adams 36, just cause I like them and they are better value than the S&S 34 everyone else would choose. No
money at all, I'd bet I could jump from
boat to boat as an extra hand on passages.
Mike