US to Australia in One Year Starting February 2012

[Charlie]

Get Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes for course and time frame it is typically done in less then a year from US west coast. You can go the Mexico to Marquesas route or California to Hawaii route. Here is a good place to start looking for a boat Mahina Expedition - Selecting A Boat for Offshore Cruising

[avb3]

This is probably as blue water as they get. At $50K it leaves lots for add-ons, repairs and improvements, with probably lots left over.

[savoir]

OP claimed to be wanting a turnkey (sailaway ?) boat.

[holmek]

Very do-able. Just be adventurous. I bought an O'Day 40 in Connecticut for $45000, spent 4 weeks preparing and commissioning her, added a liferaft, solar panel, windvane. Left Connecticut at the end of Oct 2010 and sailed single handed non-stop to Durban arriving at the end of Jan.
9000 miles in 91 days.You could carry on in the southern ocean to Aus. There's no reason that you couldn't stop on the way in Cape Verdes, Brazil, South Africa, if you don't want such a long passage. Borrow Jimmy Cornell's Ocean Passages from the library and photocopy the relevant routes. !

[dennisail]

Nothing mentioned about rigging in a Liability Contract....
You guys want your cake... and eat it... find me a cheapie with brand new gear... rofl
Tell us what you DO LIKE and DON"T LIKE and maybe we can help... this 20 questions game gets boring after the first 500 people...

OP claimed to be wanting a turnkey (sailaway ?) boat.

Your strategy is "buy and blast?"

You'll need a lot more money to do it that way. A whole lot more.

Look at this. Its sold though. 1981 Kalik 44 Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

I did not say I would only go for turn key boat. This will be almost impossible unless I am very lucky. I said I wanted to go for one as equipped as possible to lessen, not eliminate the needed preparation time. Why am I being grilled for this notion? The one above appears to be as ready to go as I might find. Even with something as equipped as that I would expect a lot would need replacing.

Don't have one, just the 3rd party deal that marinas want. I pays me money and takes me chances.

There are plenty of "well prepaid" boats out there but your chances of getting one big enough to live on for a year, less than 10 years old and well prepared are not good. Maybe time for a rethink.

I did not even say I do not like Beneteau. Plus I am truly interested in what anyone thinks will be a suitable boat. Just because we might not want to buy it does no mean we did not like to hear the suggestion. Nikki does not really like "production" boats, but I think they could be viable and she might be convinced. However a 10 year old charter boat is guaranteed to need new rigging.

We want to comprehensively insure the boat so we will need rigging under 10 years old. Plus we will feel more comfortable on a boat where we know rigging is not past its used by date when blue water cruising. But even then I did not dismiss it. I asked what a re rigging might cost in the US. A well maintained older boat may well have had its rig replaced within 10 years. Most old gear is relatively cheaper, quicker, easier and less crucial to replace than a the rig.

[dennisail]

That's one of those impossible questions since there is so much up to personal tastes. I bought a 30 year old Niagara 35 in Canada for about $60k and should be able to do her up quite nicely for blue water to my standards (again, everyone will be very different on this) for $30-40k. So that would qualify. Also not a Beneteau, though I'm not sure why you guys don't like those. I think they make some great boats.

If you have a $100k for your boat, it sounds like you have a very realistic plan. Only thing I would be concerned about is leaving enough time to find the boat, shake it down, and fix all the things that are wrong with it. I don't think you can realistically walk up and find a turn-key boat in a week or two. Do you have a trusted person state-side? Or can one of you travel up a bit early to start the process?

Sounds like you made a good purchase there. Going over yacht world I thought 100K was very realistic given the price of the yachts at the moment. I do not have a trusted person state side, well not one that knows anything about boats. I suggested that I could head off a month earlier as Nikki is bound to February by work but I am not.

Lotsa boats under $100k. What else are you looking for?
Minimum size
maximum size
Are you very concerned about resale in which case I would go with a Sparkman & Stevens design that apparently sell well there. Here is a list of his boats Sailboat Designs of *Sparkman & Stephens.
draft
Keel type
Lotsa sail area or more managable
older newer
which of these don't you care about.

Min size 40 max size 45. I am concerned about resale as the boat will probably be sold once we get back and I am not rich. I will have to draw on my home loan to do this. I do like S&S boats. We like performance to all wind directions, so the boat would have a not have a full length keel. Prefer skeg hung rudder for safety but not a must. We are 30 and I am fit enough to grind any winch so larger sail area will be OK. I like both older and newer boats. Nikki's current boat has 2.1m /7ft draft so around that will be fine. I prefer a bit of draft to a shoal draft for good sailing characteristics. But 7 foot would be around the max or many places might be had to get into.

As far as the sail, it's a relatively leisurely cruise. Many boats from the US leave the US in the Northern Winter, cruise French Polynesia till the end of the southern hemishpere Cyclone Season, head west to Tonga-Fiji in May-June, then head south in October to NZ or OZ. If you have more time, you can do Baja, heading for Mexico in the late fall.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think a trip to NZ could be doable if we are running to late for the cyclone season.

Get Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes for course and time frame it is typically done in less then a year from US west coast. You can go the Mexico to Marquesas route or California to Hawaii route. Here is a good place to start looking for a boat Mahina Expedition - Selecting A Boat for Offshore Cruising

Thanks mate. I will look into that book and website.

This is probably as blue water as they get. At $50K it leaves lots for add-ons, repairs and improvements, with probably lots left over.

That ticks a lot of boxes but it is under the min size of 40 ft we are after. But like I said earlier all suggestions are welcomed as I like to see as many opinions as possible.

Very do-able. Just be adventurous. I bought an O'Day 40 in Connecticut for $45000, spent 4 weeks preparing and commissioning her, added a liferaft, solar panel, windvane. Left Connecticut at the end of Oct 2010 and sailed single handed non-stop to Durban arriving at the end of Jan.
9000 miles in 91 days.You could carry on in the southern ocean to Aus. There's no reason that you couldn't stop on the way in Cape Verdes, Brazil, South Africa, if you don't want such a long passage. Borrow Jimmy Cornell's Ocean Passages from the library and photocopy the relevant routes.

Thanks for the support. Thats the kind of story I like to hear. Great work and nice boat. Did you use radar etc for single handing?

[holmek]

No, I did not use radar. I did have an A.I.S. but did not recieve a single alarm. Only saw about 6 ships. The chances of being run down are grossly overfeared. In 50000 miles of international sailing over 40 years, I have SEEN dozens of ships but have NEVER had to change course one single time due to "collision course". The oceans are vast and the chances of your pinprick coinciding with another are miniscule. Don't over-sweat the small stuff. A basic boat, sailed conservatively and a reasonably "handyman" skipper and you'll be fine.

[captain58sailin]

I am more concerned about your time line. I hope you can be flexible, things always take more time when dealing with the sea, and it is a mistake to get in a hurry under sail. Jumping off for the Marquesas from San Diego or points further south is good around Oct. - Nov. makes for a nice broad reach to Nuka Hiva. I would want to take my time and savor the experience.

[MarkJ]

Well, I won't start on the type of boat subject lol (but ex-charter boats arn't 10 years old. They are normally sold at about 5 years. And you still need to replace standing rigging on non-excharter boats too after 10 years!)

We did the Caribbean to Sydney in one year.

The only additional stuff we bought on our ex-charter boat was an EPIRB and a bit of line to replace a sheet etc. Everything else was on the boat ready to go.

To put money into a boat for a less than 1 year cruise would be a bit of a waste as its a pretty easy downwind run. IMHO it would be better to capatilize more on the boat than the fitout.
When you say "But does not have much cruising gear if any". What do you mean? IMHO beware what people tell you you need.

[dennisail]

Yeah I don't want an argument about what is seaworthy etc. I have read all the production boat bashing threads already. I liked the idea of Beneteau since they will have good resale here. Most of these boats I have found in my price range are pretty much bang on 10 years old. Many older boats that have been well maintained have had rig etc replaced, but obviously all boats will need in date rigging for insurance.

When I say minimal cruising gear, I mean often these "production boats" don't have things like decent fuel tankage, spare sails, power generation gear. What did yours have in the way of electronics and spare sails? How much tankage?

[cwyckham]

I chose a 35' boat for lots of room for a couple while keeping the costs of boat and refit and repairs down. You may have reasons why 40' is a minimum, but it might be worth considering a downsize for economics.

This is the first I've heard of a 10 year requirement on rigging for insurance. Is this a common requirement for blue water insurance? Certainly unheard of around here for coastal insurance. Only requirement is a good survey.

[Jim Cate]

G'DAy Dennis,

Lots of divergent opinions above... here are a couple of additional comments:

Lots of folks make your proposed passages within a one year time frame. Including within that time the purchase and fitting-out of the boat makes it considerably more difficult. This process will very likely take far longer than you expect, and this starts putting lots of pressure on your schedule. Tight schedules kill yotties... or at least make what you intend as a cruise become a delivery trip where the sked trumps any opportunities to enjoy yourselves.

So, first of all, your desire to purchase a boat in near turn-key condition means to me that you should not settle on any specific design ahead of time. Being too "picky" will reduce the number of candidate boats markedly. Second, especially considering your proposed departure season, buying a boat from a northern origin isn't a good idea... the farther south the better. Third, with the time constraints, a west coast departure removes a lot of miles as well as the Canal transit (which can add a surprising number of days to your trip). All of these factors suggest to me looking primarily in the southern California market, with the possibility of adding the SF bay area.

February is still winter there, but with a bit of effort one can usually find an escape window. On both of our trips to the Marquesas we departed from Cabo in early April, and had 19 and 21 day passages to those lovely isles. From there there are many places one might wish to visit. We had stops in the Tuamotos, Societies, Cooks, Niue, and Tonga, arriving in Auckland in late November. It would have added a few days at sea to make Brissie our destination. Oh... the advice to leave in October for this voyage is IMO dead wrong: that would put you traversing the South Pacific during cyclone season with its obvious hazards.

Now, it is obvious that you won't have time to stop and explore all the island groups that you will encounter along your route. They all have their attractions... what to do? One approach would be to spend more time in the areas that are harder to get to from Oz -- the ones thus less likely to be returned to in future trips. This would likely mean more time in the Marquesas (Ann and my favorites in FP) and the societies, and less in Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Cal, all of which are sorta reasonable voyages from Oz (Tonga stretches that a bit!). Anyhow, this sort of planning might suit you.

And finally, don't obsess too much about the rigging issue. Replacing the wires isn't all that expensive or time consuming, especially if you do it yourself.

Cheers and good luck with this voyage

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by dennisail

What did yours have in the way of electronics and spare sails? How much tankage?

Enough to get me from the Caribbean to Australia.

We bought 6 extra diesel gerry cans in Panama but could have actually done it without them, but they were nice to have.

Even on a 10 year old boat I would be inspecting rigging prolly not replacing - though I lost my forestay in the last few days of the Atlantic, but remember I had done 30,000 miles on top of the ex-charter.

Extra sails. what for? You rip one sail and you patch the damn thing up. I use sail tape and contact glue. My genoa is still Sunsail red so its done me 30,000 miles. My mainsail did well over 20,000 miles. I had bought a new one in Thailand so the old one got me far past Australia (and it had UV damage when we bought the boat).

Power generation: alternator. 2 hours per day anchored will give you a fridge, 3 hours at sea where we didnt use a fridge.

Electronics: all charter boats have a full electronics pac. Buy a chip for the Pacific.

Remember, that an ex-charter boat was doing one week long independent charters in trade winds conditions untill a month or 2 before they were bought by people like me.

So look at that: 1 week independent cruising. So Caribbean to panama = 1 week
Panama - Galapagos = 10 days (2 charter weeks)
Galapagos - Marquesas 3 charter weeks
Marquesas/French Polynesia - Tonga 1 charter week.
Tonga - Sydney 2 charter weeks.

So your boat only has to sail for 9 charter weeks.
Down wind in prolly the most benign ocean in the world (in the right season)

Its just not that difficult

You sure as hell don't need a Halberg Rassy or a Swan etc. I would go for the boat that can be most valuable at the end of the trip.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

So your boat only has to sail for 9 charter weeks.

I was thinking it would be a lot more sailing hours, but a quick measure in google earth showed you only need to average 5.5 knots to do that.

If you took a year to do it I guess you spent a lot of time relaxing in bars in between sails.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by boatman61

BVI Yacht Sales Ltd.&
Probably be able to knock em down 5-10K maybe... then head for ST Martin and kit out with a dinghy/wind generator/solar panel... maybe an SS Arch for the 3... doable for around 7K...

Cheers Mark...
Maybe this time he'll absorb... the only bad thing about de-comm charter boats is the engine hours which are usually high.. but hell.. they're diesels so no worries if maintained...
And this one looks the 'Business'.... a Jeaneau... just to keep the 'Missus happy.
BVI Yacht Sales Ltd.&