Help me pick what boat to live on

[beej67]

Background:

I owned a Pearson 323 for a decade with my wife. Did mostly coastal cruising, but we offshored in it a couple times for as long as week. Eventually sold it to have kids, the idea being to buy a bigger one when the kids were in junior high and move onto it, homeschooling them while we sail full time.

She passed on, so it's just me and the kids now. They're currently 6&8, and I figure by the time they're 10&12 they could probably be very good crew. They're both very smart and very responsible.

So that has me eyeing the original plan again, maybe four years from now. I'd be 47 by then, so I'd have to retire early. Which means I won't have a huge amount of cash to throw at this. I'd like to keep it at or under $200k overall, including refit costs.

I'm not worried about performance at all, really, although seaworthiness is definitely a concern if we decide to hop across the Atlantic or similar. My only other criteria is I want a separate berth, even if small, for each kid, and a berth for me that's big enough to fit a girlfriend, should I end up with one between now and then. So mostly my criteria are interior layout driven.

I've never sailed a big cat. While I don't object to the idea of going multihull, I'm not sure it'd be cost effective or seaworthy at my price point, and I'll admit I have that background fear of getting flipped over in a blow.

I love the look of a CT-54 or Formosa 51. Something like this:

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/198...ketch-3206623/

What red flags do I need to be looking for as I start this process?