100 Footer or Not.. That is the question

[alctel]

Genuine question, what does a 100'+ boat get you that a 50'/60' foot doesn't? The 50/60 footers already have more room in them than any apartment I've lived in, have dinghy garages, space for washing machines, multiple cabins etc - the only thing I could see going bigger would add is complexity, cost and less destination options.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by alctel

Genuine question, what does a 100'+ boat get you that a 50'/60' foot doesn't? The 50/60 footers already have more room in them than any apartment I've lived in, have dinghy garages, space for washing machines, multiple cabins etc - the only thing I could see going bigger would add is complexity, cost and less destination options.

Designers spend a lot of time trying to put 10lbs in a 5lb bag.
Much of that has to do with the amenities that cruisers feel is necessary.
The space requirements for gizmos/contraptions/devices, and just "stuff" has exploded exponentially.
L. Francis Herreshoff said in his writings that the most important attribute that a designer could develop was, "A sense of proportion".
Gracefulness and proportion go out the window when the designer has to resort to excessive freeboard and/or extreme deckhouses to get that 10lbs in the bag.
Having a bit of length can ease the process.
Yeah, I don't think you need 100' either, 65>75' allows gracefulness and still provides real deck space that you can "stride" around on.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by alctel

Genuine question, what does a 100'+ boat get you that a 50'/60' foot doesn't? The 50/60 footers already have more room in them than any apartment I've lived in, have dinghy garages, space for washing machines, multiple cabins etc - the only thing I could see going bigger would add is complexity, cost and less destination options.

That must be an incredible miniscule appartment you lived in if a 50 to 60 ft boat is more spacious.
Average 2 bed appartment in Aust. is 65m2 or 700 square feet
Average 2 bed appartment in USA is 105 m2 or 1138 square feet


Us on a twin decked 60, so more like the living space of an 80 dont have as much space as the Australian apartment we owned many years ago.
But we have a lot more than any 50ft to 60ft yacht we have ever been on

[alctel]

Well I only lived in studio apartments, and in the UK they were about 250sq ft. My last apartment in Canada was actually 150sq ft, it had a Murphy bed that folded up into the wall!

[lo2jones]

One of my sailing students, clients, could have bought a mega yacht, but he wanted me to teach he and his family to sail on a boat he, and they could learn to operate safely. In the 90ft range and larger, you’ll never be able to catch up with the learning curve. Unless, of course, you know a good maritime college close by and have enough time to make a complete study of it.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by FarbonCiber

Apologies for being vague, the proposed is a carbon fiber sloop with boom-furling main, jib, automatic winches, lifting keel, thrusters, tender garage, solar. Layout entails owner aft cabin, forward vip cabin, social kitchen, saloon, dedicated office, and three guest cabins.

Five years sailing experience with wife and friends, primarily offshore Eastern US with seasonal Bahamas loops.

Self-sufficient crew is the plan, paid engineer for peace of mind. There is no intention to charter, just friends and family that enjoy sailing. I never expect to have less than six competent sailors on board.

Destinations will be similar to what I do currently, sail up and down the East Coast cities (Wife's corporate gig needs the east coast time zone and ability to fly from airports). Seasonal Bahamas. Europe trips (Wife flies to destination)

Having a daysailer on deck truly didn't cross my mind.


I was meaning to use capacity as a catch all for finances, crew, and maintenance. Dockage fees are definitely a potential for headaches. I hope to either be in anchorages, on the move, and only hit the marinas for ease of provisioning or special events.

Absolutely, I'd think of it as a floating condo that can be enjoyed moving from city to city



What was that quote "I don't care how tricked out your carbon yacht is, it'll never be as cool as a tall ship"



Convenience meaning ability to house friends and family for extended periods without feeling cramped, garage space for a decent sized fully inflated tender. Deck space for social activities.

I saw an overheard cable on the chart by Quantico with 70ft vertical clearance but maybe I misinterpreted the chart

Do you perhaps have an unmarried daughter around 35+ yrs old?

[Talbot]

My first question would be
Why a 90ft boat
followed immediately by
What do you intend to do with that boat and how will she be used.
If you can't answer these two questions, you are wasting your money.

[Nicholson58]

Take a look at a Shipman63.

Not 100 but roomy, well appointed, fast. It can be single handed. A rally member single handed his from Hampton, Va to Antigua in seven days. He was separated from his crew by COVID. It will make 20 knots.

Hydraulic lifting keel lets you in most harbors. Carbon fiber everything, light, planing hull. Extremely simple rigging.

[drdoyle]

Be careful not to exceed 300 gross tons (volumetric) or you will be plagued by massive regulations and logbook for everything including taking out the garbage. Cruising the Bahamas you will be restricted by draft in many of the island passages and anchorages. Seven feet is maximum for most of the Abacos and the Exuma Cays. I have spent 51 years of full time charters in the Bahamas, just retiring this year. The east coast of the USA may also cause you some greef in the draft department. As for maintaining a vessel over 70 feet you will require full time professional crew. Bigger the boat the more crew. (And all the headaches they will bring with them) . Chartering for 8 guests we used 5 crew (including the captain) to keep the vessel maintained and serve the guests. The full time engineer had at least one relatively significant repair project every day. In the last few years the insurance industry has been jacking up the rates to crazy levels, if you can even get a quote. Personally I'm retiring to a personal Cruising vessel of about 35 feet to reduce headaches and costs. To each his own.

[GrowleyMonster]

Me? A sailboat in the 100'+ range? No. My current boat is all the boat I need, at just under 45' LOA. Any bigger and single handing would be problematic. Yes, you can lead everything to the cockpit and use electric winches and stuff, but the problem is when something breaks or just quits working or gets fouled, or you just misjudge the weather and get caught with your pants down i.e. not reefed and not ready for heavy weather. Then you might find yourself alone battling huge sails or winching yourself aloft up a really tall mast. I sail to get away from people, not have a crew to boss around and be responsible for. That's too much like a job. A 100' boat would almost require a crew of three. Two? Maybe but that's asking a lot when everything goes all metric on you. The only good thing about all that is having potentially trainable watchstanders so you can go below and get a couple hours of proper sleep once in a while instead of catnapping in the cockpit or pilothouse.

A trawler that size, I might go for, given an unlimited budget. But no bigger. Then, the limitation is docking/undocking, being in two or three places at once, when the plan doesn't work out as planned. And working on bigger and more complex machinery. A 100' trawler I can manage alone in a pinch, or with one person to split watches with, for multi-day passages. Bigger, nah, I wouldn't want to go there. If getting underway and voyaging is too much like a job, the boat will just sit at the dock and grow barnies.

[Paul_Carroll]

Why not? Because there are tons of 90'+ vessels out there are prices well below what it costs to build one. If you are dead set on a boat in that size range, go buy one of those and use it for a couple years. See what you like, and what you would change.
Then decide if you don't mind losing a significant portion of the build price. Like 30%. You never get out what you put into a custom build unless your boat becomes famous somehow.

[argonauta1]

You seem to be on the wrong site. This is site is mostly followed by cruisers many of whom cross oceans. As already expressed by some, the yacht must be capable of being sailed short handed or even solo, That keeps the length down to something manageable. For me that would be 50 feet or less.

[chrisr]

when we had racing mono-hulls, at one point we jumped from a 40'er to a 60'er

the difference / learning curve was MASSIVE. this despite my 40 years of racing experience and a really first class team

imho if you want to go to 100'er, either do it in stages over several years, or employ competent people to sail & look after it for you.

otherwise you will be a danger to yourself and to others

cheers,

[Flod]

In my area there is one guy who had to much money and bought a 100 feet princess. Nice boat. Gigantic. His problem is that when the rest of us go out to any of the nice islands, anchorage’s or harbours, he is still in his marina because his boat is to big to fit. One year he made it out one (1) time and that was because it was really off season and the dock at the small island was empty (he needed almost the entire guest dock to fit) My point is that in some (many) of the nicest sailing areas in the world buying a too large boat stops you from sailing. My advice; if money isn’t really a problem by a new Hallberg Rassy 63. This will be big enough and small enough

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Flod

In my area there is one guy who had to much money and bought a 100 feet princess. Nice boat. Gigantic. His problem is that when the rest of us go out to any of the nice islands, anchorage’s or harbours, he is still in his marina because his boat is to big to fit. One year he made it out one (1) time and that was because it was really off season and the dock at the small island was empty (he needed almost the entire guest dock to fit) My point is that in some (many) of the nicest sailing areas in the world buying a too large boat stops you from sailing. My advice; if money isn’t really a problem by a new Hallberg Rassy 63. This will be big enough and small enough

Big boats aren't meant to be in docks.
They are supposed to out there being used.

We are in one now under sufferance for the first time in Seven years.