Quote:
Originally Posted by deanowens1966
It is just my wife and I, and we are planning to sail in the South Pacific. Our budget is fairly low, so we are expecting to buy a smaller, older boat that will need updating and some repair and upgrading.
When I see a local boat that may suit our needs I ask the forum what people think to learn what the experienced cruisers opinions are.
Our experience is fairly limited, but our plan is to buy the boat and get several years experience before a tough passage. Both my wife and I have sailed mostly in multihulls. She likes the idea of a shallow draft and I'm not against it, I just want more knowledge. |
A "fairly low" budget can mean different things to different people. To some it can mean $100K, or $50k, or $25k. It sounds like your idea of fairly low is around $15k or maybe lower. I, personally, would put very low at around $10k.
To me shallow means 4' or less. Generally you can be very happy with 5' or 5'6" almost everywhere. For the the canals of
Europe you would want to be down around 4' or 4'6". In the
Bahamas 5' would be nice but plenty of people go thru with 6'6" or 7' and don't feel unduly limited.
You are talking South Pacific so
Bahamas might be on the
route but
Europe is not so let's say 5' draft, maybe 5'6" for a boat that was outstanding otherwise. Less draft would be nice but you would be trading that draft for decreased stability or increased ballast and
displacement. Increased
displacement means slower. Increasing the sail area to compensate for the displacement would
work but you have decreased the stability by decreasing draft. Vicious little circle. This is an example of the adage that "you can't do just one thing", any change you make affects other
parts of the boat.
Let's say you have $15k to buy and outfit the boat. In general you can expect to spend 1/3 to 1/2 the purchase
price on outfitting. At the very low end 1/2 to 2/3 because at the low end
price on many items does not scale linearly with size of boat. So let's say about $8500 to buy the boat and $6500 to outfit.
That means you should get a relatively
small boat (25'-30') and outfit it very simply. Below 25' is false economy since
storage becomes an overwhelming issue rather than just a major issue, even 25' is pushing it for a couple.
I'll write more later, need to make my lunch and go to
work.
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