A little personal history with an honest question....

[Greaph]

Hello everyone, new and glad to be here. Honestly cannot say why it took so long to find this forum, other than possibly being to busy sailing, dealing with life and work to have much time browsing forums. Harvey changed that for me in late 2017.

I have sailed on and off for a few decades. My first personally owned boat was a 1973 Bill Gardner design by U.S. Yachts that I kept for a very long time. I used it in TX/Gulf waters with limited Carribean cruising. This boat was stolen following Harvey.
My next boat was a Shannon 38 ketch/cutter rig and I fell in love with the sailplan. I singlehanded this boat up/down the U.S. west coast from Anchorage AK, through the Panamanian Canal. I turtled her in Prince William sound in 2012. Performed some emergency hull repairs, rigged some low studsails (had 3 broken chainplates, mainmast shoved 22" to port) as the remaining rig couldn't take stress and the batteries had been shorted and I couldnt start the engines or get my radios working. I hadn't checkes or replaced the batteries in the Epirb and it didnt fire (there were many more stupid/prideful decisions and mistakes that led up to this event). Long story short, after making port in Canada and completing repairs, I sailed her with gradually worsening performance to Kemah TX and had to decommission her. She had cracked her keel in the rollover.

This set me back on old faithful Providence (the William Gardner Buccaneer). Sadder, wiser, and broke. I stayed in Corpus, joined a local YC, helped others mend their boats, and raced the weekly Wed. night regattas the annual events. I met my current wife, Hellkat (Carrie) and she joined me on Providence.

We moved from CCMM across the bay to Port Aransas (Island Moorings Marina) and I started a boat building and refitting business. Hellkat (a chef) started a restaraunt with a partner. Life was good. We met an older cruising couple and after a while, they asked if we would be interested in assuming the care and feeding of their (admittedly rough) 1969 Morgan cruising ketch (have I mentioned I LOVE ketches?) My wife I and discussed it, and we agreed. Upon completing the nessessary paperwork, we towed Freebird to the hard (my shop) and hauled her out. The plan was to refit her completely with unstayed main and mizzen and used a modified junk rig with cambered sails (something I learned about from the originator, a salty sailor from Finland), in addition to removing the atomic 4 and replacing the power package with a perkins.

Hurricane Harvey ended all that. Where Freebird sat on the hard (uninsured), there was a large boatbarn across the street. When Harvey hit, he spawned a tornado that hit that barn like a bomb. This threw at least one 30' powerboat into Freebird. Freebird was dead.

Providence, however lived, almost entirely undamaged (the only boat in Island mooring to do so). Despite over an 18' sustain surge. We had tied her off in the center of the slio using 3/4" lines, spring lines and bridles. Her only damage was from another sailboat that had broken loose, rode up her, and tangled herself in the standing rigging. Not anything to cry about. As the marina was a shambles, we had to temporarily move her to harwall mooring. It was from here she was stolen. No word about her in two years.

In addition to this we also lost my business (total loss) and my wife's restaurant (some insurance money recovered). My father also had a stroke. This led us to decide to move inland, to be near my father in Weslaco Tx so we could help him. We would travel back to Port Aransas on weekends to help cleanup and recovery, always planning on returning. However, financial recovery has been extremely slow and depressing. Recently this has changed for the better and things are slowly looking better. We are now setting aside money for a new cruising boat and home (we are both dedicated liveaboards).

Hence my question (finally!). Im sorry for the long post, but background was important, I think. I (my wife is a capable mate, but has no opinion on boat design, so long as it is ascetically pleasing and the interior is well thought out) prefer heavier, full (or long) keeled boats. I am a fan of the Hans Christian 38T, and the Lord Nelsons. Has anyone had any experience with the Formosan boat builds? I trully think they look yare (fit, eager) and should be a good fit for us.

Please be completely honest with your responses. We plan to purchase in the next 6 months to a year, learn her quirks for a year, and have tentative plans to sail and meet some friends in S. Africa. It is not my experience I am questioning, rather a knowledgeable opinion of the vessel make in question.

Thank you in advance!

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by Greaph

............... Has anyone had any experience with the Formosan boat builds?.......

Many previous threads on Formosa boats with much personal first-hand experience. If you use the search function you'll find these different threads.

[Greaph]

Originally Posted by Singularity

Many previous threads on Formosa boats with much personal first-hand experience. If you use the search function you'll find these different threads.

A good point and I shall do so. I apologise, I trully am not used to forum use.

[DDabs]

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/197...utter-3579040/

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/198...ketch-3618804/

Since you love ketches...

[Greaph]

Ddabs, I saw those and they are beautiful. Also looked at a couple of Bruce Roberts Pilothouse 44s (I'm not oblivious to other well rigged boats).
Unfortunately for me, the ones that keep me looking back and smiling are the old, big, slow plastic classics. Fortunately there isn't much I haven't put my hands on repair and refit wise when it comes to boats. I have some money, and LOADS of time...

[Greaph]

I've crewed a lot of new model hunters, beneteaus etc, during regattas, and am not a fan of (other than esthetically) wide fantails and sugar scoops. A lot of the newer boats that I have crewed do not seem to handle any sea state but calm and anchored well, and only seem to get worse under full sail. Water and mechanical ballast systems help greatly, but the reality is, there is nowhere I want to sail to that quickly.

Having said that, crewing a foiling vessel is a BLAST!

[AiniA]

Because of the age of these boats so much depends on the condition of any particular boat. You know about the performance characteristics of these boats and happy with them so the challenge becomes finding one that has been continually updates and maintained.

We circumnavigated on a Bristol 45.5. These Ted Hood designs, various sizes, combine decent performance with very solid, safe builds. If money is not an issue, Hood moved construction of very similar boats to Taiwan as Little Harbors. Very beautiful boats but not cheap.

[Greaph]

I did actually learn a few things searching the forum as suggested (including the search engine seems anemic). I wasnt aware of the consistent build shortcuts, particularly after 1980. The ones I've been looking at from afar are in the 50-70k range and have well documented maintenance and records. I am not averse to a cheaper project boat, but all repairs would need to be completed and the vessel ready in an 18m time period after I bought it, and it would preferably be ready for light coastal sailing immediately.

My upper limit at this time is 70k. If I wait a year or 18m, I can stretch that to 150k, bringing some of those Lord Nelsons and Hans Christians into reach. This is probably the best course of action, but honestly, Hellkat and I have been away from the salt too long. It will be difficult.

[Greaph]

Originally Posted by DDabs

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/197...utter-3579040/

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/198...ketch-3618804/

Since you love ketches...

Actually, I hadn't spotted that particular Tayana 37.... TYVM for sending it my way!

[sailormed]

”(including the search engine seems anemic)“

Use the ”Google custom search” in the pull down menu, works a lot better then the standard search box.

[Greaph]

Im using the app on my phone, and that search option doesn't seem to exist. The website on my phone is difficult to navigateand kills my phone. When I attempt a search using my phone on the website, it kicks me out. No worries. I was able to find the posts with a bit of diligence.
P.S. I apologise to all for any fat fingers and typos. All spelling errors are my own as I cannot stand autocorrect...

[Greaph]

As beautiful as that Tayana 37 is, my wife will not go for it. She is deadset on a vessel in the 41' to 51' range, preferably with an aft cabin. Layout is not as important to me, as I am more than passing fair at cabinetry, plumbing, electrical and design. I would, however prefer to stay under 51', as my wife is not a big person, and she needs to be able to operate all sheets while standing watch.

[JPA Cate]

Hello, Greaph,

If your wife is the kind of woman who likes to be involved in the actual sailing of the boat, she may find that she is unable to get the main halyard onto the main sail on the larger boats. This is particularly true if she is of short stature. Staying in the under 40 ft. range of boats would probably address this issue satisfactorily, as well as fitting your budget better.

Another issue is that the larger boats generate bigger loads, making it more difficult for the smaller person to sheet in the lines on the winches, which in turn leads to shoulder problems. This issue can be handled by fitting larger winches.

Given that budget, I'd suggest you look under 40 ft, and spend only half on the boat, reserving the other half for re-fitting the boat.

Finally, mostly, the woman who enjoy long term cruising are more the back-packer or scuba diver type than the artificial fingernails and spike heels crowd.

Ann, cruising for 35 yrs.

[Greaph]

Anne, valid points, all! My wife is a certified diver, degreed chef, very outdoorsy and loves being involved with every aspect of sailing. She just isnt interested in marine design, other than what looks good to her. She had no problems with handling any sheet or halyard on out fractional rigged sloop (638sf sail area) or our Morgan 41 cruising ketch. However, that is one reason I prefer a ketch rig with her as primary crew. Shorter mainsail. She is very experienced handling all sheets from flying jib to mizzen, including a fishermans staysail. She participated in 5 years of Yacht club regattas with me on a large assortment of differently sized vessels. Definately not portable ballast!

That said, that is why I've quashed her dreams of a larger boat and placed an upper limit of 51' so long as its ketch rigged. I even had to nix powered winches (she angrily brought those up) with the argument that if I were incapacitated, and we lost power, she wouldn't be able to operate the vessel by hand.
She is small (compared to myself) but not tiny. And she is used to long days of physical work.

Thanks for your on point advice!

[sailormed]

“ I even had to nix powered winches (she angrily brought those up) with the argument that if I were incapacitated, and we lost power, she wouldn't be able to operate the vessel by hand.“

I hope she doesn’t read this, but AFAIK every electric winch can be operated manually with the standard handle.