Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Selawry
Hi Astroman, I have the exact same requirements as you. Have you found a solution? Would save me a whole lot of analysis paralysis to get your feedback, thanks! Mark
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Hi Mark,
After months of searching, reading and on viewings, I bought a boat. Here is my analysis and one person's opinion.
My requirements were:
- 4+
Cabin
- Hybrid helm (Helm is halfway up
cockpit and sees over
salon. no fly bridge, no aft helm).
- no daggerboards
- extended
liveaboard, and ability to travel to
south pacific
- spacious
- 45+ Ft
- < 900k
- 2014 or newer
My kids are 5, 9, 11, 13
Some very good boats from smaller builders but I mainly focused on the Big three production cat. You don't find many used from smaller guys but they do pop up (Knysna,
Seawind,
Privilege, St Frances, etc..) - No Bali. Bali really is not meant for
water sailing">blue
water sailing. definite Party Boat
the Big three (leopard, Lagoon, Fountaine) all have online super fans, all make sea worthy boats and are about the same when it comes to performance. They are made to go 6-8 knts on average. They can outperform each other not based on their
bareboat configuration but how good a
captain you are and
equipment you put on. Folding props, sail plan, how much extra weight, etc. But to say Lagoon,
Leopard or FP are better or worse than each other is not a winnable debate. It depends on the year it was built and condition of the boat (factories seem to go through changes with
ownership regularly and with that build quality)
that said, after a boat is 5 years old, it's more about how well it's been kept up and what kind of
maintenance has been done, etc. A 5 year old boat may be in worse shape than a 10 year old boat that has been meticulously cared for. You will find people that had success with an Ex
charter and done quite well. And on the contrary, many say don't touch them. Of course Ex
charter boats can
work, many people buy them and do quite well. Used boats are not created equal.
With the Big Three, pricing is about the same with used boats. These are value driven builders.
Cabin layout is pretty much the same. 4 Person charter version and 3 person owner version. We needed the 4 person cabin.
Many new lagoons have a fly bridge helm and we did not want that for longer passages. And, I wanted to see what was going on below easily from the helm. I did not look at any lagoons in person (except at boat shows).
I trained on a Leopard 44 and really liked the Front Porch seating. This is unique to Leopard boats. .
After looking at dozens and dozens of boats, the following were on our list.
FP Salina 48
FP
saba 50
Leopard 46
Leopard 45
Leopard 48 (lots of these, and many cruising families love them)
In the end, I did not buy any of these. A 2020 Leopard 50 came on the market and the deal was too good to pass up. It was within
budget and checked the boxes. It's going to be a great
family cruising boat. Like all boats, it's not perfect. We will have issues, things will break, it wont always be as fast as we want, etc. But, I don't know of a boat that does with our requirements. PM me if you have other questions.