Today I went down to Ft. Pierce, FL to look at a
boat. I'm not to the point of actually
buying one yet, but I did want to get an idea of what was actually out there.
I was also curious as I had found this
Formosa on yachtworld:
1977 Formosa Ketch (CRUISE READY!) Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com
Mainly, since it was only an hour south, I really wanted to see what made this
boat worth $240k when most other Formosas are between 60k and 150k.
It was a well kept boat with some creature comfort upgrades, but needless to say it's 100-150k boat and the guy will never get anywhere close to what he's asking for it. As I told the
broker, for that
price I expected to see a boat that was impeccable in every detail. It wasn't.
It did however do what all Formosas do, it immediately gets you with all the warm
wood and plush surroundings. They really do feel like a floating house. That combined with the acres of usable
deck space and well...you can easily see yourself living on that boat.
After looking at the
Formosa, we checked out a Benetau 50:
Florida Coast Marine, Inc. (Fort Pierce, FL)
I really hadn't considered a boat like this because early on when I first started looking at boats I had realized that I really don't like the lack of deckspace on most modern fibreglass boats.
I think its the lack of flat surfaces. Something about having 50+ feet of boat yet having to balance one foot in front of the other to move around the edges just really irritates me. It seems wasteful.
Needless to say these were two totally different
animals.
The Formosa feels immediately like home yet also feels like you would need a fleet of industrious oompaloompas just to keep it running. It didn't feel quite like it would be fun to sail (and didn't look like the liveaboards on it had done much sailing themselves recently). It did however look like the kind of place you could enjoy many nights with a cold drink on with friends.
The Benetau on the otherhand definitely felt like a big sailboat below decks. It had a great look, but honestly wasn't very inviting or warm and cozy. At the same time though the
cockpit was amazing!
If you look at the pics it has the dual
helm setup with a great casual area in front. At far aft the middle seat opens up to a step down
diving platform that you could just sit on for hours
fishing or dangling your feet in the
water.
I felt immediately like I could sail the benetau anywhere and enjoy every minute of the trip (it was also set up for
single handing). The living space on the
beneteau is definitely spartan compared to the Formosa, but at the same time is very well thought out and superbly functional.
Either way, both of these boats were out of my
price range and both (from the comps online) are overpriced. But it's not got me thinking and willing to consider some other boats.
One has an
interior and front
deck you could fall in love with. The other has a
cockpit that feels like you're driving a luxury sports car and an
interior that feels cold yet reaks of quality yet you can't use half the topside of the boat. Interesting options and tradeoffs.