Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibetitsthisway
Cool - some names allready here I did not know before.
Nothing wrong with the 43. Maybe a tiny bit too small for my liking as a live about... I am closer to my 60's than my 30s
But I just saw the old (80's) Nauticat 52 is also what I am looking for).
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Ralph - can understand you. I was looking (in the US and Europe) for over a year for a
center cockpit with quite few additional conditions, including:
- A production boat - no no no to one-off/custom etc..
- A modern overall design
- North of 1990 circa.
- Good global reputation and knowledge base
- Sloop/cutter
- In mast/boom main
furling - pilot house and CC are very difficult to manage things with the main - plus, wanted the best short handed setup
- Reasonable to good condition
- Reasonable
price...
Pilot house is a great target for a more comfortable
offshore sailing and off season/extended season sailing - especially given my home location in the US Northeast. - As you have learned so far, quite difficult to find, especially if you are following some of my own wish list items above.
While I didn't want a pilot house, one of my first refitting projects was to build a fully enclosed (with removable panels) elevated
bimini - it took over 6 months with all kind of vendor delays and my own available time. It created a kind of "pilot house" in the
cockpit and proved to perfectly
work for us in some rough ocean conditions. - so this could theoretically expand your options, especially for boats with a hard (and if possible extended) dodger/sprayhood.
And speaking about a "production" reputable
classic yet modern and very well built pilot house - Nauticat is probably almost your only reasonable choice.
Anyway - get a boat and go sailing ASAP

- life is short