What makes a boat a go-anywhere blue-water cruiser?

[hellosailor]

Her crew, and the grace of the gods. So buy whatever you can easily afford to lose some money on now, because whatever you buy now will be the wrong boat. Get some experience, sail everything you can, and once your skills are high enough, if you've paid proper respect to the gods, anything will be blue-water capable. And you'll have a better idea of how far you want to push your luck.

[ALAIN97133]

Originally Posted by trbgld

Hello everybody! I'm wondering what qualities a sailboat must have to be a (go anywhere) blue-water cruiser. I have some limited sailing experience (Meds only) but fell in love with it and I am now looking at affordable sailboats to do some extended cruising on big waters. Of course there are the well known boats which have the reputation of being capable to take you anywhere, but what if this boat is not a famous design? I have found this boat which is almost the right size and amount of "project-boat" I'm looking for, but I can't find any information on this design and thus its sea-worthiness. I believe as a ketch-rigged steel boat with a medium long keel it sort of falls into the go-anywhere category. I believe she's a good boat, but I would be really happy if anybody could share his/her opinion about her. (Don't worry about the interior since this would entirely be redone.)

The answer us YOU ! A week before leaving Canaria islands for my first passage across the pond, an old French 26 footer rated to sail no more than 60 miles from a shelter (Categorie 3) took off from Pasito Blanco (?) with two young French sailors. They arrived in Martinique after 21 eventless days while I did it after 30 days aboard my brand new British built heavy displacement 6 metric tons 31 footer ! Just make sure to inspect EVERY corner of your sailboat from the mast head shroud crimps to keel bolts, stuffing box to rudder bolts ! By the way, I have a great self steering gear for outside mounted rudder; all you need to do is to mount a trim tab on the trailing edge of your rudder & couple it with my Hydrovane. I used it on a Chance 33 equiped with an old J24 rudder mounted on the transom. I now have a newer generation Hydrovane, stand alone self steering gear mounted on my 34' Ericson ! Interested ? Cheers

[knockabout]

these blokes are leading the Vende they will be 3 months non stop around the world -D28 : Alex Thomson and Armel Le Cléac'h very close to each others / Vendée Globe - vidéo Dailymotion

they are also solo / somewhere around 60ft /very expensive
may need to streamline the zodiac in the davits and offset the anchor spit to take the gigantic anchor that seems popular / of course a huge power winch to lift the gigantic anchor then gigantic fridge / freezer, stand up shower / keep an eye on the sonar, blue water is usually deep / if you want to cruise in green water you may need a shoal draft cruising boat

[barnakiel]

I'd rather NOT bounce off a reef. In anything. Few boats are designed to bounce off reefs. Pigs do not fly. As a rule.

Boats are designed to sail well. People who would rather bounce off reefs should find themselves a better pastime. If they can't, I ask them NOT to take crew nor to carry an EPIRB.

b.

[barnakiel]

And making it from Pasito Blanco to Martinique is ... what any PET bottle can do.

Guys: GO ANYWHERE boat. Dead easy gigs in between the tropics are not go anywhere.

Mercy ;-)
b.

[soerencarlsen]

I would say the build quility is the most importen part in a cruising boat. and some people are just better cabinet makers then welders.

[El Pinguino]

Late to the party but here we go...

Never ever buy a 'project boat' if you want to go sailing in this lifetime...

A 'Bristol' '100A1 at Lloyds' 'ready to go right now' will offer up enough 'projects' to keep you amused for some time....

'Steel bounces off reefs'??? Nothing bounces off reefs... most of the reefs in the SW Pacific are conveniently marked by what were fine steel ships... I, me, and myself would avoid old steel....

[brianlara 3]

Look at 30 year old (&lees) steel boats.
Google .......alang ship breaking ....go to images.... hundreds of boats.

[Kenomac]

A long range cruising boat should be able to double as a submarine at times when the need arises.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=untSyM8Vo6k

[nortonscove]

After all, ever seen a fibreglass sea buoy?[/QUOTE]

Probably the best example of the wrong comparison I've seen on this often misguided site. Seems all of the buoys here in Newfoundland are either fibreglass or rotomolded plastic so I can assume the best boats to be built of those materials based upon this assumption. Wow and we get pack ice and still 99% of all boats here are fibreglass.

[mawtty]

I agree with Lady Stardust.
Wind vane steering ( my pick is the Flemming) .The external rudder means that it will be set a long way aft.
Tulku tim

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by mawtty

I agree with Lady Stardust.
Wind vane steering ( my pick is the Flemming) .The external rudder means that it will be set a long way aft.
Tulku tim

The funny thing about windvanes is those I see on boats out there are rarely in working order.. or set up for use with a tiller pilot and block and tackle system if a centre cockpit.
For half the price or less get 2 tiller pilots (if you believe in redundancy), a decent size spare battery and a dedicated solar panel to recharge it during the day..
The house bank usually gets you through the first 3-4hrs after sunset when you switch over to the dedicated battery for the rest of the night while the house continues with nav lights and basics.
Used this method on many of my boats in the past..

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The funny thing about windvanes is those I see on boats out there are rarely in working order.. or set up for use with a tiller pilot and block and tackle system if a centre cockpit.
For half the price or less get 2 tiller pilots (if you believe in redundancy), a decent size spare battery and a dedicated solar panel to recharge it during the day..
The house bank usually gets you through the first 3-4hrs after sunset when you switch over to the dedicated battery for the rest of the night while the house continues with nav lights and basics.
Used this method on many of my boats in the past..

We have a vane (Monitor) on a heavy (20 tons) centre cockpit boat - guess it didn't really steer us for more than 98% of a circumnavigation. When you get in places a long way from home most ordinary boats (not the seven figure, gold-platers) have vanes that are doing the steering. Vanes work great but they do require some operator skill and experience.

[trbgld]

Myself being a programmer I have always thought that we are the most opinionated people on this planet but now I know I was wrong

I have learned a lot from your answers and I thank you all for your input!

The boat I was linking to is not and has never been the top choice on our list. But our budget is very tight and I picked her as an example of the "right amount of project boat" we are looking for.

When it comes to steel versus fiberglass I believe that there is no real "better". If a steel hull has been well cared for, I would probably prefer it. But since the boats we are looking at are all a bit older, this can't be guaranteed. So we have no real preference here. In the end we want the hull to keep the water out. That's what we care about

As for the discussion on the "go-anywhere" term I used in my initial posting: I guess I didn't choose my words wisely (English is my third language). By go-anywhere I implicitly excluded the arctic and any notoriously dangerous areas. Sorry for that.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by trbgld

As for the discussion on the "go-anywhere" term I used in my initial posting: I guess I didn't choose my words wisely (English is my third language). By go-anywhere I implicitly excluded the arctic and any notoriously dangerous areas. Sorry for that.

No worries, even if you used the most presice definition there's no way the discussion staying inside any given parameters more than three replies