What is the most affordable new cruising cat??

[Yihang]

Originally Posted by alansmith

The originator of this thread hasn't pinged in. I have no difference of opinion about many guys putting their 2 cents into the discussion. But what i think is we are entering into unchartered waters with the Covid pandemic. Our world changed over night. There are hundreds of cruisers stuck in places for long periods of time. Ports closed. Policing of harbors and quarantining. Where can you sail these days?

If this trend continues for a season it is one thing. If it continues for next season it is another thing. If it continues for 3,4, or 5 seasons...what then of our half million dollar boats? What i know of vaccines is that viruses change their genetic markers and create algorithm problems for the computers. Depending on our age the protection decreases rather dramatically. For example, let's talk about the regular flu season. I'm in my late 60's. Even if the algorithm was perfect for this years selection of which biotype the vaccine was to be made to...for my age group it might only be 50-60 percent effective. You are going to see the same problems with genetic mutations with Covid. It is freaking disaster what has been unleashed with this Novel virus.

I am a trailer sailor. I don't see myself crossing oceans...not that it isn't interesting to me. But the uncertainty should be in everyone's minds as to what the future holds. Where we can sail and what new limitations will be placed on the international boating communities remains to be seen. I hope for the best...i'm sure we all do.

Well this is probably me back in 2005 asking the forum if I should build a cedar planked junk rigged macnaughton penny. Lucky for me i didnt have the funds to blow it on that.

If I had 300k in my 20s i'd be set. Just compound that in some growth ETFs and you will have a million in your 30s.

From 15 years of dreaming I've come to realise the boat is the least important thing about cruising. It's simply not going to work unless you have a sure way of generating at least 30k income passively. So that means either 500k in divident stocks or a 500k apartment on the coasts. Or if you can reliably get online work remotely. Even then it leaves no room for error.

This is if you want to do it comfortably like the OP. Of course you can get a 1980s mono and do it cheaply.

[Yihang]

Originally Posted by Davo666

We chartered an older (AUS built) Seawind 1160 in the Whitsundays a few years ago. It sailed well, for a cat. The guys there showed us over a new one, just added to their fleet. They said they had replaced a lot of substandard gear and that the quality of the Vietnamese built boats was not close to the older ones. They didn't have much regard for replacing diesels with outboards either.
This may have been fixed by now.

Considering the AUS made 1160 was over 400k USD back in 2005, they probably had to justify it somehow in their heads.