How Did You Decide?

[Tayana42]

Originally Posted by bookdocking

I know it's ridiculous but I'm proud of myself and want to flex, I just fixed my garbage disposal. Muscles helped me get the insinkerator down, but I fixed it. To be fair I contributed to its inoperative state, but then I fixed it. *proceeds to strut*

Atta girl!

[Adelie]

Welcome.
I’m in San Diego too. If you want to go for a spin sometime, send me a PM.

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by bookdocking

I know it's ridiculous but I'm proud of myself and want to flex, I just fixed my garbage disposal. Muscles helped me get the insinkerator down, but I fixed it. To be fair I contributed to its inoperative state, but then I fixed it. *proceeds to strut*

It is absolutely not ridiculous at all given how many people would not even try to do something that's out of their comfort zone. I always ask myself, "what's the worst that could happen". For starters, you could forget to remove the electrical power (really bad for one's health) or you can't figure out how to put it back together again (kinda embarrassing) or you can't get it to work (mildly painful to the pocketbook), but once you go through that process, whatever the outcome, you learn something you didn't know before and can feel mighty proud when you can fix things like a pro. That is exactly the right attitude. You got this

[dlj]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Looks like you have the right attitude.

Be careful with your boat choice if you plan to single hand.

Folks here will tell you how they can easily single hand a 45' boat, but I don't see many taking them out and docking them on a windy day.

Gotta say, once you hit 38 feet or above, a bow thruster becomes a really good addition for single handing....

dj

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by bookdocking

He's 5'11 and I'm six inches shorter. Starting off we will sail weekends to Catalina and the Channel Islands. As we gain experience to SF bay and the Sea of Cortez. Hawaii, San Juan Islands and then hopefully after 5 years of boat life, start circumnavigation.
We want to liveaboard primarily at anchor rather than marinas. We want to have a guest cabin for occasional visitors. We will both be ready to single hand for safety sake and practicality. At the beginning when he is still working ashore, I will be single handing the majority of the time.
Just me and the cat.

If you can fix a garbage disposal, you are well on your way to cruising, those skills transfer very well! (I hate those things)

So you need a boat with room, a separate cabin, for guests? That's a different prescription. I'm kind of a one trick pony in this category of suggestions, I say a Kelly Peterson 44 because I sailed one long ago and I loved it. It is the kind of boat that has the room, the abilities and "bluewater" reputation that I'd say would be good for the travels you are sketching out. Going up and down the west coast suggests a design that is comfortable going to windward in a good breeze and larger swells.

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Don C L

So you need a boat with room, a separate cabin, for guests? That's a different prescription. I'm kind of a one trick pony in this category of suggestions, I say a Kelly Peterson 44 because I sailed one long ago and I loved it. It is the kind of boat that has the room, the abilities and "bluewater" reputation that I'd say would be good for the travels you are sketching out. Going up and down the west coast suggests a design that is comfortable going to windward in a good breeze and larger swells.

This is the kind of advice I always jumped at when I was looking at sailboats. It's just a small bit of thread that would inevitably lead to so much more....like Muir pulling on a single thing and the whole world revealing itself.

[Gadagirl]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

Cruising isn’t rainbows and sex in the sand. Someone you know will be hurt, someone you met will die. Has anyone who’s cruised not met a boat that disappeared, or that had to bail on their dream?

This is blatant fear mongering! How is living on land? Living in a house isn't exactly rainbows and sex neither. Living on on land you will meet people who become hurt or will die. Has anyone living on land not met a person who's house was destroyed? Has anyone living on land never met a person that was downtrodden and gave up on a dream?

[Tetepare]

Originally Posted by Gadagirl

This is blatant fear mongering! How is living on land? Living in a house isn't exactly rainbows and sex neither. Living on on land you will meet people who become hurt or will die. Has anyone living on land not met a person who's house was destroyed? Has anyone living on land never met a person that was downtrodden and gave up on a dream?

My apologies for not researching your history and experience so I’ll just ask. How did you feel when you got to port and the other boat disappeared forever? Ever say to yourself boy I wish I could sit out this storm on land? Damn, should have lashed the jib before, it’s really hard to do when the bow and I are a meter under water.

I’ve been out twice to save sailboats when USCG was too pussy to leave port. If that’s fearmongering, wish you were there. And all the other times I’ve had to rescue sailors/ boaters. Spend enough time out there and you will get into some bad times.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by gamayun

This is the kind of advice I always jumped at when I was looking at sailboats. It's just a small bit of thread that would inevitably lead to so much more....like Muir pulling on a single thing and the whole world revealing itself.

Ummmm... is that a good thing?

[Tetepare]

So I’ll follow with a funny story with a sad ending.

We were racing and you know how crazy that can be. Someone says “hey who’s bleeding?” and everyone looks up. Mike is covered in blood- all over his shorts and legs. Mike, somewhat panicking, starts wiping down the blood to find the source. “It’s not me! It’s not me!” He says after smearing all the blood.

So everyone starts checking themselves, turns out it’s Paul with a leg cut that sprayed all over the cockpit, most of it striking Mike. We got him fixed up.

One week later Paul was at the wheel and had a heart attack. Despite radio calls the committee boat wouldn’t move. By the time the boat hit the dock Paul was gone.

[dlj]

"For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze."
Richard Bode First to Have to Row a Little Boat

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Ummmm... is that a good thing?[emoji3]

Do you mean about that boat, per se, or tugging on a little thread of information and seeing where it leads? I can tell you the latter can get you in trouble at times but passing up on wonderment and inquisitiveness as a matter of course is a character flaw in my opinion.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

Wingsails point is valid. OP failed at her own analogy, while ignoring valuable input. That’s concerning.

There are overpasses between destinations, they’re called air flights. There are no overpasses when ones a week out of port.

Cruising isn’t rainbows and sex in the sand. Someone you know will be hurt, someone you met will die. Has anyone who’s cruised not met a boat that disappeared, or that had to bail on their dream?

It almost sounds like OP is mining for a book story rather than real world insight.

True to a point , but

The vast majority of people “ cruising “ , which I would personally define as living on board for extended periods while sailing around ( even if the linear distances are quite small ) are not crossing oceans or sailing in inhospitable places or into weather extremes

The type of boat has little impact on the outcome in my experience. The skill level ,experience and applied wisdom by the skipper and crew is the key component to a successful outcome.

Some people seem to spend excessive time “ fact “ searching , and getting tons of conflicting ( mostly subjective ) opinions which they don’t not have the experience to evaluate and they get hung up on “ things “ ( keels, furling etc ) they begin to express preferences that are based on other people’s unsubstantiated opinions rather then something they personally understand

Sailors are by nature mostly quite conservative , tend to avoid dangerous situations if at all possible. The injuries and deaths numbers in sailing , attributable to the sailing rather then other issues , is tiny.

So I agree choosing a boat without having any experience is fraught with issues, but most people handle it by being conservative and taking tiny steps. The rapidly then build personal experience and with it wisdom ( well most do )

Only a very very tiny fraction , buy a boat and immediately cross oceans or sail in very challenging situations.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by gamayun

...
9) It could not have two heads. This seems like a silly thing but for some reason, it just seemed asinine to have twice as many things to go wrong in 36 feet of space (the other 2 feet are the dive platform). Some people might use an extra head for a storage but that just shook my insides a bit when thinking about excess crap piled up like that. Also, the idea that your guests will have privacy with their own bathroom is also asinine. There's nothing private on sailboats at the size you might be considering...
...

I am going to riff off of Gamayun's comment to answer the OP's question a bit.

One head or two, is a "discussion" the wife and I have had a few times. She says Two Heads are Better Than One and I say, well, maybe.

The reason we want two heads is that if one fails, well, let me change that, WHEN one head fails, we will have another working head to use. The first day, on the first trip I had on my dads new to him sailboat, involved fixing the head. The only head on the boat. It took a few days to fix and we were in the Keys for a week or so.

Funny enough, I NOW KNOW why he had the problem but I did not have a clue back then. The waste hose, and I swear it was landscape pipe, was clogged with minerals. We sat in the cockpit with that waste hose, chipping away at the minerals with an aluminum lobster tickler.

It took some time to fix that head, and in the mean time, we had to use the LGB(Little Gray Bucket) I really do not want to have to resort to LGB use again but I can if needed. However, the wifey does NOT want to use a LGB.

So two heads or not? That is the question.

Some of the boat plans we have looked at are such that one head would be better than two. The space for a second head could be used to have a larger single head and/or use for better storage. In that case, I would live with the risk of LGB use, but the wifey most certainly does not agree. So, if we manage to get a cruising boat, it will have two heads.

Boat features are a compromise. Never forget that point. What one gets with Feature A will likely mean a loss of Feature B. Boats are very design constrained. I have spent many months with CAD designing layouts for the various boats we have an interest. There is always a compromise one has to make which I why it is up to the owner to understand what they want/need in a boat.

For instance, aft cockpit vs center cockpit. Pick one and you just decided on the a major component of interior layout of the boat.

Most/Many center cockpit boats can/will have an aft cabin. An aft cockpit boat is going to have a forward berth, and if the boat is big enough, it might be a forward stateroom. For boats under say 45-50 feet, the aft cockpit will mean the forward berth will be a V berth. I can think of some exceptions, there are always exceptions, but the design choices for those exceptions will not be acceptable for most people. Boat interiors are remarkably similar in the size boats we are talking about because the geometry drives the design and the cockpit location will drive that design.

I don't really like a V berth, but one of it's advantages, is ventilation. Aft cabin ventilation is harder to do. This gets back to where is one going to be cruising? If it is hot and humid, one must consider the ventilation on the boat and the forward cabin is easier to ventilate. I have spent many a night in the V berth, in the South Florida summer, and was cold. Course I was acclimated to that environment and we got lucky in that in NEVER rained! Aft cabins can be ventilated but one has to look at the details.

Course, one could say we will have AC, which is fair enough, but that just opened a chest full of other design choices and compromises.

Later,
Dan

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by dannc

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An aft cockpit boat is going to have a forward berth, and if the boat is big enough, it might be a forward stateroom. For boats under say 45-50 feet, the aft cockpit will mean the forward berth will be a V berth. I can think of some exceptions, there are always exceptions, but the design choices for those exceptions will not be acceptable for most people. Boat interiors are remarkably similar in the size boats we are talking about because the geometry drives the design and the cockpit location will drive that design.
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I know you mentioned exceptions, and thank you for it. I agree.

Here's one kinda "reverse" exception. They stopped making our Catalina 34 in 2007/9 after a 20 year run. Our C34 has the largest V berth ever made in a boat that size, aft cockpit, but with a usable aft cabin. A few years later, they began making the C355, similar exterior dimensions. Identical layout down below with an aft head. But, they ended up making a spacious forward cabin with a walk around berth!


So, yes, it can be done, so 45-50 feet isn't a limiting factor, although it sure used to be "back in the day."