hellsfire I'm curious about your sailing experience, because I think that bears on both your plans as well as the "right" boat for you. Your initial post has hints that you don't have a tremendous amount of boat
ownership or long
passage experience, but perhaps I am wrong. Knowing a bit more about your background and experience would be helpful to the discussion.
I think if you plan to single-hand a majority of the time, you're going to have great difficulty finding a boat over 40' that is adequately equipped and in your
budget. Moreover, the complexity of the boat will go up past that length as well as the running costs. If you're alone most of the time, 40' is more than enough space.
Hawk would in many respects be an ideal boat for you given the simplicity of its systems and the fact that it is not only a go anywhere boat but has literally been almost
everywhere. While the listing
price is $300k, that is the listing
price. I've been on the boat and it's a one of a kind expedition vessel inside and out. The
interior is spartan and rough to say the least and the "lack" of many comforts and systems that most cruisers take for granted means that the the pool of potential buyers is rather small. It is certainly worth a conversation with the
broker. As mentioned a tremendous upside to Hawk is that she is tested and in relative "sail away" condition for your purposes.
Buying a boat from one of the most experienced
blue water sailors on the planet is never a bad thing.
Another reason Hawk may be a good fit for you is that if you don't have extensive mechanical,
electrical, and other boat
maintenance skills, the simpler the boat the better. If you're going to circumnavigate you need to be able to fix everything yourself or at the very least understand how everything works. The less there is to break, the less there is to understand how to fix, or spend
money on to fix.