Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruf361
. . . it needs to be something i can make crossings in, that is my plan.
i wont mind the refit or refurb. the way i see it, you buy a cheapish boat and have higher refits or buy a more expensive boat and less refits, its a wash. just depends on your initial investment. I will live on it quit a while before i can sail away. . . .
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With that, I would specifically suggest a "double-ender" in the 35 to 40 ft range - If you want reasonable speed and lots of room inside for
storage and a possible crewmate later on. If you are strictly a loner and want to largely preclude any long term crewmates then go for the 30-35 ft range.
- - Definitely a
cutter rig so you can reduce down to staysail and heavily reefed main. Look for a "barn door"
rudder - that is a
rudder that runs the whole length of the aft end of the
keel. Also a narrow boat with a proportionately deep
keel. Nothing "shoal
draft."
- - For stability this is about the best you can get. It also is not a "sexy screamer" so the prices will be more reasonable. Only serious sailors are going to be interested in these boats as they are designed to "go places" in a solid, stable, take most anything vessel. They are not fast, but like the proverbial "turtle and the hare" they will get you there with minimal grief and hardships on the crew.
- - Dual roller-reefing on the forestays.
Mainsail with full length battens, if possible. Whatever you buy, be sure to
budget for a new set of
sails, heavy ocean cruising
sails, not the light coastal sails. You want sails that will take a beating and keep together.
- - On the smaller 30-35 ft boats, a tiller is more functional and less to maintain. Of course, get a wind-vane
steering system for ocean crossings. On the larger boat get a good
autopilot like Simrad/Robertson - stay away from anything Raymarine/Raytheon. The European instrument makers are mainstream with stuff that keeps on working. More expensive but you will bless the day you opted for a good
autopilot.
- - Generally speaking, on a
used boat the
electronics are "shot" or obsolete or used up. So don't "pay" anything for them when bargaining for the boat. You are going to replace them anyway.
- - Single-handing is not difficult or dangerous if you set up the boat so that you can operate it with minimal manual labor. Single-handers do everything slower than multi-handed crews. But they have less to worry about especially trying to keep track of the
safety of the crewmate.
- - You replace that crewmate with solid
electronics - autopilot,
radar, C.A.R.D., sonar,
AIS and most importantly excellent
navigation software/systems. You set up the boat so it will sail itself with minimal "tweaking" by you and you can see at a glance where you are and what is around you. By shifting the menial tasks to machines you can free up your time to plan and think what you need to do next.
- - Others can suggest specific makes and models of such a boat but they are easy to spot as all the other buyers are gathered around the sleak, sexy speed demon sailboats and off in the corner is the lonely, solid blue-water boat looking for a new loving master to sail her over the seven seas.