Ideal cruising sailboat length: 35-40 feet

[Kintala]

There is no ideal cruising sailboat length. The size of cruising boat is a highly personal matter and depends wholly on the crew operating it. My daughter lives quite happily on an Ericcson 28 with a family of six (yes, you read it right) but for my husband and I a 42-foot was the right size to feel like home. We fell victim to the marketing hype that said we absolutely. had to have a bluewater cruiser, which we bought, but later found out that it didn't really suit us as we were coastal cruisers. We sold the sailboat and now currently have a 42-foot trawler which, while it has almost twice the interior volume, is also just right for the two of us.

A discussion is also merited on performance, not just length. I've been on 30-foot boats that were so squirrelly that you would be miserable on them for very long, and I've been on 47-foot boats that were a dream to handle.

It also depends on what type of cruising you want to do. What are your expectations? What are your skills? Do you want to do mostly coastal cruising? Then a smaller boat will do just fine. Ocean crossing? Then probably a larger more stable boat is better, although there are many that have circumnavigated on smaller vessels.

The choice of a cruising boat is one that only you can make for yourself and you will live with the consequences. We were so inexperienced when we decided to retire onto our boat that we made every mistake possible. We ended up writing a book about it to possibly help others not to make the same mistakes. If anyone is looking to buy a boat, it might be worth the read.

https://a.co/d/9gGYRk4

[lo2jones]

Amen to this one. Also consider the fact that at 40ft and under, one has to be very careful about what to take along on the voyage. It is much easier to overload and 36ft boat than a 42ft boat.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by lo2jones

Amen to this one. Also consider the fact that at 40ft and under, one has to be very careful about what to take along on the voyage. It is much easier to overload and 36ft boat than a 42ft boat.

That is an argument to go with the 42ft boat

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by lo2jones

Amen to this one. Also consider the fact that at 40ft and under, one has to be very careful about what to take along on the voyage. It is much easier to overload and 36ft boat than a 42ft boat.

Perhaps in general, but this is where design really matters. Lightweight "performance" boats can easily be overloaded, whereas slugs like mine really aren't affected by more weight. Volume is my constraint.

[botanybay]

Definitely a very personal decision.

I my case I started out with a Deck Salon Cruising CAL 35 built in 1973. Sailed the Chesapeake for many years, then up and down the coast (Nantucket to South Carolina) and eventually Norfolk to the Bahamas via a long offshore run. For that time on my budget at the time and the size of crew I enjoyed (Myself and one other) the 35 footer was ideal for me. In fact, I looked at many vessels from 40 - 45 feet which I saw no value in moving up to.

Sailing the same boat from Southern California to the Marshall Islands in December/January was also double handed and the 35 foot cruising CAL remained my ideal with a self steering vane handling the boat.

The return trip from the Marshall Islands via Midway Island (Midway Island to Los Angeles non-stop - a 35 day passage) resulted in the desire for a larger crew - from the social aspect and sharing the experience with friends and a longer waterline length for faster passages.

I spent 10 years looking at boats while continuing to sail the CAL 35 and not finding what I was looking for (flying all over the planet looking at boats - which is also fun).

Eventually I came to the conclusion that it is not the size of the vessel but the purpose built for short handed offshore sailing. The issue is that the larger the vessel becomes the larger the initial cost (Growing far more quickly than general larger boats), larger maintenance (due to significant systems which are needed for short handed sailing on larger vessels), and dockage and the like.

The upshot for me is that "purpose of use" is the critical factor rather than "arbitrary length".

I looked at:
Wauquiez 48s (Pilot Salon)
Amel 50s
Sundeer/Deerfoot
Valient 40 Pilot House
and many others.

I eventually ended up with a 1990 Oyster 55 which fits in the class of "purpose built vessels for offshore sailing" and she is probably no harder to handle than my prior Cruising CAL 35.

The maintenance costs are MUCH higher (a new Main was eye-watering :-) ) but well within what I budgeted for the change. I suspect that if someone does not expect the X^3 increase in costs with length 55^3/35^3 = 3.9x, which is basically the scaling with displacement (60000/15000) = 4. One might argue that it scales with square of length 55^2/35^2 = 2.5x. Truth is probably somewhere in between.

That said, I went over 50 feet with much trepidation. Purely availability of slips/moorings/etc. In my case breaking 50 feet has caused some issues for just those reasons. You will be forced to anchor when finding a dock would be nice to have, mooring availability, and haul out facilities have a "magic" limit at 50 feet and then case by case negotiations from there.

That said, I am delighted with this size vessel as a purpose built offshore vessel with a focus on bringing friends along to experience the offshore world the way I did years before. If I was looking for a primarily single handed vessel or a couple with one partner not being fully in then smaller would be a good choice.

A bit of a rambling post but perhaps it helps.

[SailingHarmonie]

Size has almost nothing to do with it. Matching the levels of creature comforts and maintenance complexity to the people on board is the key to a happy boat experience.

The MOST unhappy people in my experience are those who want lots of creature comforts, but do not have the engineering chops to care for it themselves. Checkbook boat maintenance is not a recipe for successful long range cruising. If you can not be independent of shore-side support for long periods, your experiences will not be happy ones.

People without mechanical skills and experiences should buy very simple boats. The problem is nobody builds simple boats, there is no money there. So people with a lot of money in their pockets who want to “go cruising” buy the biggest boat they can afford, and end up with something they have NO IDEA how to care for. A recipe for an unhappy boat owner! You know when you are on one of these kinds of boats, the two most common comments from the owners are:

• Everything breaks all the time!
• But, I paid somebody to fix that!

I actually love taking care of a boat, and we have a complicated and sophisticated 53 footer that we LOVE. It has all kinds of things to take care of, and that’s OK with us, because I can, because she takes good care of us and is easy to sail.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Size has almost nothing to do with it. Matching the levels of creature comforts and maintenance complexity to the people on board is the key to a happy boat experience.

The MOST unhappy people in my experience are those who want lots of creature comforts, but do not have the engineering chops to care for it themselves. Checkbook boat maintenance is not a recipe for successful long range cruising. If you can not be independent of shore-side support for long periods, your experiences will not be happy ones.

Completely agree . This is why I advise people to go with the smallest boat that will do what they want/need. By thinking about it in these terms, instead of the standard "How much can I afford to buy?" approach, it forces you to really consider what your actual needs are, and how you're going to achieve them.

The smallest boat might be a 22-footer, or it might be a 53-footer. Whatever it is, understanding what your needs and CAPABILITIES are essential to happy cruising.

My boat is stout and simple for exactly the reasons SH mentions. I'm not particularly mechanically inclined, so I try and keep our boat's systems either simple enough that I can fix and maintain, or highly reliable so that they almost never needs work.

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Size has almost nothing to do with it.
The MOST unhappy people in my experience are those who want lots of creature comforts, but do not have the engineering chops to care for it themselves. Checkbook boat maintenance is not a recipe for successful long range cruising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBNzSdv7gwI&t=374s

[cottonsail]

Our 1980 Swallow Craft Swift 33 is our perfect boat. We do the East coast and Bahamas. 33' LOA, 11'3" beam that carries way aft, 5'3" draft, skeg rudder, 2-90 gal. water tanks, 75 gal of diesel, 8 trojan t-105's, 500 watts of solar and a 50 HP Volvo Penta (which is lighter than the original Volvo MD2) and icemaker. we sail at about 6 kts and motor at 6.8, just under hull speed. We have a queen size V berth. In my dreams I'd more waterline length but so be it.

[Happ]

The idea of a 35’ to 40’ boat has been around for decades. They are way to handle, can be sailed long distances with short crew and are pretty cost effective. Five or 6 years ago I was talking to a boat yard owner about a few boats I was considering. He advised me that once you hit the 40’ range everything goes up in size and cost of ownership.

Having said that the reality is with control lines running into the cockpit, possibility of electric winches, roller furling, bow thrusters, auto pilots and windlasses with chain counters and remote controls size is no longer as big of an issue. It now is more about cost and complexity of your systems. Heat and A/C? Generator or large battery bank with Solar, etc. There is a 20 something girl who sails a 50’ boat, often single handing it from Florida to the Bahamas. She sails around the Bahamas docking and anchoring the boat herself.

These days size is only limited by how much money you have available.

[AiniA]

For starters, cruising sailboat covers a lot of territory. Are we looking at a boat to go away on for a two week vacation for a couple or a circumnavigation with a family of six? Beyond this, are personal needs and abilities - and inevitably, for most people, budget constraints. There is an ideal cruising boat for you, and an ideal cruising boat for me - chances are they are very different.

When we did a circumnavigation ~10 years ago, the average boat was 40', which was noticeably smaller than the average we saw in the Caribbean which was more like 45'.

[Keyne]

I wonder this myself. Took a break from sailing a few years ago but still pining to get back into it for early retirement. Long term sailing/living aboard I keep coming back to a Boreal 44 but wonder whether I could handle the size solo. Personal choice of course but I think there is something to be said for the stability of the size and the at sea motion. Boreal's seem to have great movement at sea... and the doghouse and raised saloon seem to help with fatigue.

But maybe 44-45 is too big. Interested to see what the new KM Yachts 36 looks like. Would be nice to have a doghouse and aluminum.

[skipperpete]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Size has almost nothing to do with it. Matching the levels of creature comforts and maintenance complexity to the people on board is the key to a happy boat experience.



The MOST unhappy people in my experience are those who want lots of creature comforts, but do not have the engineering chops to care for it themselves. Checkbook boat maintenance is not a recipe for successful long range cruising. If you can not be independent of shore-side support for long periods, your experiences will not be happy ones.



People without mechanical skills and experiences should buy very simple boats. The problem is nobody builds simple boats, there is no money there. So people with a lot of money in their pockets who want to “go cruising” buy the biggest boat they can afford, and end up with something they have NO IDEA how to care for. A recipe for an unhappy boat owner! You know when you are on one of these kinds of boats, the two most common comments from the owners are:

• Everything breaks all the time!
  
• But, I paid somebody to fix that!
  

I actually love taking care of a boat, and we have a complicated and sophisticated 53 footer that we LOVE. It has all kinds of things to take care of, and that’s OK with us, because I can, because she takes good care of us and is easy to sail.

That’s it in a nutshell, excellent post SailingHarmonie!

[Joli]

I think in general, the size of the boat being sailed is a reflection of both budget and experience.

[BBill]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Perhaps in general, but this is where design really matters. Lightweight "performance" boats can easily be overloaded, whereas slugs like mine really aren't affected by more weight. Volume is my constraint.

Which points out exactly why a survey based on length instead of displacement isn't a good representation of boat size.