I spent my youth sailing and
racing Sunfish, Lightings and FD's on the Finger Lakes with an occasional jaunt to
Ontario. Raced scows in Wisconsin then married and had no time. In recent years have chartered 46'-50' cats in
BVI (my wife likes a flat ride). Now as I approach 60 and think about
retirement, I'd like to spend time doing a little cruising. My wife is not overly excited about sailing, but has enjoyed the
charter experience and is willing to invest more time at it. We own a house on a deep
water bay on the eastern side of
Ontario, dockage is not a concern. I thought we might start a bit on the modest side 28'-32', but was pleasantly surprised when she commented that this seemed rather small. Since then I have been looking around at larger boats, 36'-44'.
Draft is a concern. Reading through some of the posts here, I get the feeling 5' or less may be the right choice for the
Great Lakes. I may get out to
Blue water at sometime, but only for coastal cruising, and not often.
Budget (<75K) requires that I focus on used boats, but I do not believe I want something older than the early 80's. Finally, regardless of my dreams of cruising, reality is most of the time will be spent
day sailing. I have spend sometime looking at a
Morgan OI
Classic 41.
Shallow draft, stable, lots of space - maybe too much space.
I would love to hear thoughts from anyone.