Farr 1020 versus Express 34 for First Boat

[Carl262]

My wife and I dream of long-term cruising, but we have limited sailing experience. We’ve spent a few summers lake sailing a 22’ Ensign and zipping around on Lasers. We’ve crewed for day sails on a handful of larger boats.

Without getting into our life story, we feel it’s past time to buy a boat. We need to get out on the water more, but we also need to learn more about boat maintenance, and – what scares us most – docking and anchoring. We have a 3.5-year-old son, so while we’ll always have 2 adults on board, we want to be able to singlehand. Inventory is light, but I think we found something that will work for what we can do right now, which is weekend trips alongside the occasional two-week coastal trip.

I wanted some “outsider” opinions. If you had the choice between a 1985 34’ Farr 1020 or a 1987 Express 34’, which would you recommend given what I’ve mentioned? Both boats are well-maintained single-owner boats that are similarly priced at around $40k-$45k.