I'm starting to develop a list of
monohull cruisers from which to pick my future home, to be purchased in the next year. I hope to be relocated to eastern NC by then and have my ducks in a row to buy a
boat and do some extensive cruising—mostly singlehanded, I expect. I'm after a
boat that can eventually take me across oceans;
monohull, sloop/cutter rigged.
My question: Is there a good book like Steve Henkel's "The Sailor's Book of.... Sailboats" that gives diagrams, stats and pros-cons of sailboats in the 27'-33' range? Sherwood's "Field Guide to Sailboats" is good and has been helpful.
From those two
books I have drawn up a list of makes, including Bristol, Niagara,
Island Packet,
Cape Dory. I find these on the online boat classifieds; others are more scarce: Clark 31, Alajuela, for example. Others I haven't done searches on yet:
Pacific Seacraft, Eastward Ho, Eastsail. Hans Christian is just too pricey for me!
Anyway, there are many, many others I'll never know about without a guide showing designs, std equip,
reviews. An online version would be fine. Recommendations? Henkel claimed in his <26' book that he would start on one for larger boats; no trace of it yet.
thanks, -rick(austin)