Greetings from London !

[ausnp84]

Greetings from London, UK.

Having spent the past year using these forums as an excellent reference source, I thought it best to finally sign up and see what the fuss is all about.

We're in the process of selling our O'Day 34 and looking for a bigger boat to liveaboard for the next five years, before getting out of here and taking some time out to see the world.

Any thoughts on a good bigger boat to move up to? Ideally sloop rigged, aft cockpit (but might do the right centre), 40+ feet... we've looked at Morgan 41's, Irwin 40's and Gulfstar 40 CC's, but still trying to find the right one.....

cheers,
nathan

[skipmac]

Hi Nathan,

Welcome to active status and good luck with your future cruising plans.

As always, choice of the boat should be dictated by type of cruising you plan. So does your idea of seeing some of the world mean coastal cruising, trade winds cruising or high latitude sailing.

From the context of your post I assume tropical and trade wind type cruising. If so, the three brands you mention, Morgan, Irwin and Gulfstar should all do the job. My own order of preference is Morgan, Gulfstar, Irwin.

You mention Morgan 41. Do you mean the Out Island, center (when will you Brits learn to spell this word correctly ) cockpit model? These are possibly the roomiest 41' boat in the world, great liveaboard and generally put together reasonably well. Their biggest failing is poor performance upwind. The trade-off is very shallow draft for the size, allowing access to areas most other boats of that size cannot reach.

Not familiar specifically with the 40 Gulfstar but generally the Gulfstars have deeper draft and sail better than the Morgan OI. Same general comment for most Irwin models. Also, a lot of the Irwins have larger windows in the main cabin which makes a more open, light cabin but do concern me a bit for off shore work.

Skip

[James S]

ausnp84...welcome to the forum.

[Bash]

welcome to the forum!
I'm curious as to why an O'Day 34 guy wouldn't want to look at an O'Day 40. I've crewed on one and was impressed by its great handling under sail. On the other hand, it didn't have much in the way of tankage, battery space, or a chain locker, as I recall.
Regardless, I fear you'll find that after your current boat, the Morgan and the Gulfstar are going to seem like dogs under sail.

[ausnp84]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

I'm an Aussie, my other half's a mid-west American, and we're both currently living in London for work related reasons, but looking to move down to the south coast to liveaboard later this year.

We visited an O'day 40 last year in the Bahamas and whilst they were roomier than the 34, we're looking to go global with our next boat and I'd like the hull to be made of steel, or at least chunkier fibreglass. It was somewhat disconcerting being able to look inside-out through the aft starboard quarter and see daylight. Stil, the 34 was a brilliant first boat and it's been a tough decision letting her go, but space is space after all.

We met the original owner of the 34 in George Town also and having traded up to a Gulfstar 44 (?), he made very similar comments regarding the huge difference in performance and lesser enjoyment sailing.

I've spent the last six months researching and have built up my "list" - keel stepped mast, preferably fin keel (altho I understand swing keels to be much more reliable these days), etc. - now it's just the difficult task of trawling YW every day and finding the right boat . The Brits have a habit of spending waaaaaaay too much also on their yachts also (34 footer for £60,000? I don't think so......) so our search will likely bring us back over to the US in the near future.

Anyway, we need a boat that'll take us trade wind sailing, the Carib, blue water, and not cost a fortune. I'm open to older models - "character" I think they call it - so any thoughts, please let me know....

cheers,
nathan

[swagman]

G'Day Nathan,
You might want to check out the Adams 40. Great cruisers - great design - and lots built of heavy glass / or steel / or alumininum. You'll tend to find them bilt in Australia or NZ and sailed away - and then found for sale elsewhere and usually good value.
Anyway - whatever you end up with - good luck and enjoy!
JOHN

[ausnp84]

Originally Posted by swagman

G'Day Nathan,
You might want to check out the Adams 40. Great cruisers - great design - and lots built of heavy glass / or steel / or alumininum. You'll tend to find them bilt in Australia or NZ and sailed away - and then found for sale elsewhere and usually good value.
Anyway - whatever you end up with - good luck and enjoy!
JOHN

Many thanks for the idea - had a look at them on YW and they look like solid boats.

Any thoughts on the Roberts Mauritius series? I know they're deck stepped masts, but otherwise they fit the bill quite nicely.....

thanks,
Nathan

[swagman]

Nathan,
I know this will bring on some flack - but whilst the Roberts have super volume and lots of space, they sail like bricks. Doesn't mean they can be used and will not last - but it will take you ages to get anywhere and you'll use that engine a lot more than you planned.
Cheers
JOHN

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Hope you can find the boat that will fit your needs. I prefer smaller to larger but I'm a bit of a minimalist.
regards,

[Jacques-D]

Hi Nathan. How did you get on? Are you living aboard now? what part of the south coast did you pick? I hope to find somewhere near Hastings, I have similar ideas about travel.

[Tom and Maje]

Hi Nathan,

Welcome.

Maje

[ausnp84]

Originally Posted by Jacques-D

Hi Nathan. How did you get on? Are you living aboard now? what part of the south coast did you pick? I hope to find somewhere near Hastings, I have similar ideas about travel.

Hey guys,

After much hunting around and musing over what we needed for our long-term requirements (comfortable liveaboard initially then global cruiser), we settled on a 40ft steel motorsailer ketch, with plenty of sail to take us everywhere but twin Perkins 4108's to motor us when circumstances call for it.

The boat weighs 19 tonnes.. (!) and needs work - the hull has some minor pitting and some standing water, and the interior needs a lot of the panelling and electrics replaced, but it's at a good yard and will make a solid winter project before we move aboard her potentially mid-next year...

More to follow....

cheers,
n