Beautiful boats and compliments..

[JordanH]

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder, I mean, beholder. Usually you can't quantify 'pretty' but I'm sure that you can count the number of compliments received by certain boats. In your marina, there's probably a pretty boat, two if you include your own, but specifically there's likely a boat that has people always stopping by to tell the owner how pretty it is.


I have one of those boats. There's nothing particularly outstanding about my boat, it's old, worn and the teak needs more attention than I've given it in a few years, but my little Contessa 26 continually receives comments from the dockside, both yachties and otherwise. On the weekend, I was out for a sail and another sailboat intentionally steered down to meet me, just to shout over a compliment and his admiration. It was a small thing, but I love having a pretty boat.



Now, I've been in the market for a larger, blue water cruiser for a long while now, searching primarily on utility and function but I realize that I'll miss the aesthetic appeal and resulting compliments of having a special boat... So here's my question, what is the blue water cruising boat, 40-44' (ish), that you think garners the most compliments? What's that one boat that you look at and think, "Wow, that's a pretty boat." I mean, an Ovni or an Island Packet probably gets the job done with utility to spare, but I'm betting a Hans Christian receives more compliments.

Anyone want to throw a boat into the ring?