More questions than answers.

[Efraim]

Hi, this seems to be a pretty friendly forum, lots of helpful people with real world experience.


As a brief introduction, my girlfriend and I have been serious dingy sailors now for past ten years. Rain or shine, cold or hot, in anything short of a hurricane we are out on Lake Ontario from early April to pretty late in the season...we like to sail. ( either that or there is something seriously wrong with both of us ).

It's now time for early retirement and go cruising, trouble is that when we go looking at boats out there we can't help but feel disappointed. That is why we are here, we need the opinions of real sailors with some miles under their keels, not some salesman tellings us what we need.

[ssullivan]

Welcome aboard, Efraim. So you're looking for boats. Seach the forum a little bit for threads already here that will introduce you to "finding the right boat" (seach for that).

Read up a bit on the tradeoffs involved. Now why do you feel disappointed when looking at cruising boats? Too big for a dinghy sailor? ha ha

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Efraim,
Welcome aboard! 32 to 36 foot on deck, fiberglass, aft cockpit, cutter rig is my recommendation.
What kind of dinghies did you sail?
Ask away!!
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[Efraim]

So far so good! Two good replies.
Ssullivan,
I don't know how you knew, but yes size is factor that neither one of us is use to.
The admiral ( I love that term, she hates it ) is rather petite, although an excellent sailor she cannot handle the big sails by herself, this is one of our big issues.
Skipr John,
Yep that is the size range we are looking at 32-36 feet on deck, we are looking at buying new, so I guest fiberglass it is going to have to be. We've been looking at different rigs, but seems that all of the "regular suspects" as far as manufactures go only offer one rig...bermuda sloop, there doesn't seem to be much of a choice.
We've been sailing Albacores for ten years now, by your standards a tiny boat, however it's a pretty active class in this area and fun to sail.

We are going to check out the previous post on the forum and see if perhaps some of our questions/concerns have already been addressed, so far we've found some real good information.

Albacores on Lake Ontario...smaller that some your tenders!
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[Charlie]

Hi Efraim:

Just bought a boat myself. It was used and slightly bigger than I had originally wanted 41' What are your intentions with the boat? That is the starting point. Costal cruising, blue water, or local sailing. A new serious blue water boat will run in the high $300k or more. A costal cruiser will be less. There are lots of different sources for looking to buy boats a good starting place is John Neal's site http://www.mahina.com/cruise.html

It really helped me.

[PBzeer]

Some things to keep in mind. When you say cruising, are you talking bluewater type cruising, or coastal? What level of self-sufficency are you looking at? On the hook mostly, or in marinas? These are some of the factors to weigh in your boat choice.

New versus used. In a new boat, you have to discover the bugs and work them out. In an older boat (if well maintained), these have usually already been addressed.

In the main though, the best advice I've ever gotten, was to determine just how you'll use the boat. Not how you'd like to, or wish to, but to sit down and really try to decide just what you'll be doing. Then, you can buy a boat that fits your needs, instead of buying more than you need.

Good luck with your plans,

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Efraim,
Just did some sailing on a club Sunfish today. If I can't sail my big boat I go out and sail with the youngsters. Dighies are loads of fun and the Albacore looks to be a fine class boat.
My advice is to look at well kept used boats, then if you can't find what you want try a new one.
Kind Regards, JohnL

[Lynx]

Welcome Efraim, Try to narrow your search a little. If you are not going to go Blue Water (off shore for days at a time) then maby you should go to a coastal. Lighter, cheeper. Do what upgrades you need for cruising.

How much weight do you want to move around, anchor, how big of sails, ect... The smaller the boat, the smaller the weight and size. A lot of differance between a 25 footer and 40 footer.

What can you really spend and cruise on? This is the biggest thing. The most time you will spend on the boat is sleeping and the cockpit. Some times there is too much of a good thing when you move it every few days.

Go and talk to some cruisers and look at their boats. Marathon Fl in the winter is a good place. There are other places as well. Make sure you ask about new vers used.

If you can afford it. Go small for a year and then buy a bigger boat.

[Rod Cawthorne]

G'day, I'm new as of an hour ago. Living in Sydney my focus is from east coast Australia. After ( & I cant believe it) a break of about 35 years!! I want to get back into cruising & planning initially the south Pacific area.
First task is to buy a comfortable, as I'm an old bloke, true blue water competent boat, about 35'+ in the A$100,000 range. Currently I'm inclined to a Martzcraft 35 and I would really appreciate comments/advice (good or bad) from anyone who has sailed them. Or equally from anyone who can suggest good alternatives - particularly someone whose done a similar exercise here in Australia.

A possible concept alternative is to share the boat with someone who has similar plans. As I'm virtually retired I don't have any real time constraints.
Anyone interested?

Look forward to getting involved.

Rod.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Rod,
Your post should be on meets and greats in a new thread so you are not a tag along with Efraim.
That's just a suggestion. At any rate, welcome aboard.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[Rod Cawthorne]

Thanks,
I'll re-post it.
Rod.

[Weyalan]

Efraim,

You say its time for early retirement to go crusing. Where do you intend to cruise, and for how long - i.e. all around the world, blue water, coatal, lakes, etc. Also, what it your realistic budget? Do you want to buy a new boat, if not, how old are you prepared to consider The range of types and prices of boats is so huge, so giving advice isprobably meaningless without narrowing the field a little.