Hello all. This is my first post on the cruising forum. I thought I'd get some input regarding a potential
boat for our
family. I have some sailing experience, and we recently
sold a Nacra 5.0 that we had for a few years. We loved the Nacra, but we would like to do some longer cruising, and we're going to use the
money from that
sale towards a trailerable
boat that has these abilities:
1. Be reasonably manageable to
trailer a thousand miles.
2. Be stable enough to handle the crossing from
Miami to the
Bahamas in good
weather.
3. Have a
shallow draft, but no swing
keel. Fixed, glassed-in lead.
4. Under $4000.
The top of my list is an O'day 22, because they are plentiful and we'll probably have several to choose from. My dream boat is a
Pearson Electra, because I love all of Alberg's designs, but they are pretty rare. The ideal boat is a Compac 23, but these are outside of our
budget range.
Anyway, these all seem like solid, shoal
draft boats between 3-5000 lbs on the
trailer. Speed is not an issue for us as we enjoy being on beach time, and are in no hurry particularly. We plan to get a lot of cruising experience in the Keys at first. The crossing of the
Gulf Stream is not in our immediate plan at all, but I want the boat that we buy to have that capability in the future. I'd appreciate any suggestions you have, as well as recommendations for boats I may have overlooked.