Interesting
game. We're in nearly the same boat (hah), except we add some
kids (18/9/7 at the planned time of departure) and we're not quite ready yet. Late 2013 is the target date for us.
Our list would look similar, except we'd have never put the gunboat on it. The
interior camping style and the
price rule it out. You cant really enjoy "cool" while on the hook, imo. The
Catana would be out for us due to the dual aft
steering stations. Two handing around the world, I think I'd want my wife closer to the
salon when its dark and nasty out. You don't say much about
budget, except for the gunboat piece. The Antares is probably the best, because its designed and built from the ground up for what you're talking about doing, as opposed to a production boat that seems designed to do several things (including chartering/entertaining) on top of making a profit through quantities of production. I dunno if you can live with the
galley down. I can see the pros/cons for both styles, so I'm not sure that is a show stopper. However, the Antares ain't
cheap, new OR used, and as noted, it's not a big numbers production line, so I'd guess that it was out for you, on top of which if you bought new, you're not putting it in the
water for at least a couple of years. The new L44 looks nifty, and is winning boat of the year from CW, but honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to take any green water over the bow with the forward
cockpit and a big glass door there. I might be way off base, but I'd say
safety conflicts with your needs in that case. There may be more pros than cons to that boat, but I'm not sure I'd pursue it.
So, by process of elimination, I'd say Orana 44. Solid production boat, been around long enough that they've worked many of the kinks out, and you can find relatively new models that have many of the creature comforts already added. The price could be in the Antares range, but you'd have better luck finding supply, so as a buyers market so to speak, you might stumble across a better deal. It's definitely on our short list. I didn't see a
Lagoon on your list. I'd guess because the mid 40ish model has a flybridge, and similar to the Catana for us, I don't want to have that much separation from the cockpit when underway, despite the additional space it gives you (although its sailing characteristics seem like they might suffer from such a high boom, I know there are tons of threads on this, but to each his own).
So there ya go, I'm gonna say a 2009ish FP Orana 44, maestro version, never chartered, has the bells and whistles already, and off you go.