I will most likely start a long term (five years?)
cruise around the world
cruise starting in 6-9 months and
single handed. I'm living in
Sweden but given the weak dollar and the amount of second handed good US cruising
boats i plan to buy one in the US. I haven't settled on the
route yet but will most likely also cruise the not tempered latitudes. Like to see
Alaska and will for sure go to northen
Europe, but most of the time i will cruise the tropics.
I'm not an experienced cruiser yet, but have cruised with my
family from
San Francisco down to
Mexico and back and I also cruised the
Bahamas for about 3 months. So i think I have the experiance to get started and learn more as I go. I have sailed my whole life though but mostly
racing high performance dinghies on international level.
First step is to narrow down what
boat to look at. I will do this
single handed so i think the right size of
boat is around 37-42 feet. We all have personal preferences and given my
racing background
boats like Hans Christian, Tayana,
Pacific Seacraft, Valiant does not appeal to me. I recognize they are excellent yachts to sail around the world.
I'm also tall at 6'6". I pullman berth seems like an great layout as i plan to live for 5 years on the boat and i don't like the idea of sleeping in a V-berth for that long.
Oh yes, then it's the
budget. I like to be able to get on the
water for about $150K.
So far the boat i think i like the best is the Caliber 38 and the Passport 40 looks good too which can be had for $150K twenty years old. Somehow the
Island packet 38 appeals to me too, but i don't like the long
keel as its probably slower than the other two.
Given above, are there other boats i should be looking at. If there is something that
sails better it would clearly be good. I looked (on the web) on
Sabre and Tartans (same age). Great quality sailboats but are they up for the task and how about the
interior volume and
head room. On the other side of the spectrum, how about a newer
Beneteau. I did the SF-Mexico cruise in my at the time
Catalina 380 (great headroom). Great
family cruiser but i'm not sure about i as a world cruiser, but I've seen people recomending a Vega (Swedish) and if you can do it in a Vega you must be able to do it in anything.
Looking forward for your suggestions.
Cheers, Johan