Cruising boat for a 62 and 63 year old?.

[double u]

"...on the second night in a blow on a lee shore..."
use the experience of your years not to get in this situation!

[nayu]

...not all who sail are wise...hahaha

[double u]

careful will do...

[BigNurse]

I’m 58 and wife is 49 years old.
I’m looking to buy a new Moody DS 54 to retire in her, like a condo in the harbour. Fully loaded with all extras from the yard, I think she will make our life easy. Plan its to sail all weekends of the year, and live onboard from June till end of September, anchoring in some of the beautiful beaches we have here in the northwest coast of Spain.
Kids grow up and leave, but our youngest daughter still living with us (she is 15 yo), and medium one (20 yo) will meet us (sometimes with the girlfriend) in some weekends, so to have 4 rooms and 3 heads its valuable for us.
This boat have ALL sent to helms, you can totally manage the lines at the push of a button, including reefs.
With 2 thrusters (bow and stern), handling it on the marina shouldn’t be a problem either.
Just a couple of days ago we find a thread about the Amel 50, which its also a very fine boat, but after looking it more in detail, I will keep the Moody as main option, as her Deck Saloon living area its just perfect for us.
Any suggestions ?
Best regards from Spain

[Utahsailor]

My wife and I bought a Beneteau 49, new, 13 years ago, well equipped like your proposed Moody. We live on Penobscot Bay in Maine and have sailed from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas over the years. We have lived aboard about 1/2 time and have felt at risk only once. the equipment you describe is similar to ours and makes the boat easily handled. What would I keep:

The Doyle 4.5 oz Mylar UPS (Like a Code Zero) is really useful- easily handled and good for 50 degree to 140 degree reaching, deeper when poled out. The asymmetrical spinnaker stays in its bag- my wife dislikes it and it is huge. The carbon fiber spinnaker pole is light and easily handled.

We have 4 winches in the cockpit, 2 powered. I'd make all powered as we cross lead across the cockpit for furling often.

Biggest change, especially in a new boat, would be LiFe batteries. Modern boats are very electricity intensive. We started with AGM batteries and lost a whole bank- they are quite easily harmed. Have had FLA Trojan batteries since. Both are very slow to accept charge starting at about 70% discharge while LiFe accept high charge rate up to 90%. They also have about twice the usable capacity and their voltage is not pulled down by high currents. Read Nigel Calder's description of a system with 48V LiFe battery with large generator he developed on his boat.

Enjoy the new boat.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by straydog4612

My locale is Queensland Australia. Budget 50K - 80K. Quite a few of us do know the Swansons, but I am asking a more pertinent question as to what would suit our age, racing and fast boats are not suitable to our advancing years. All our sailing will be the east coast of Australia, just really wanting to change my backyard from dirt to sea.
We would be interested in what other people may recommend, probably because they can identify with the change of tack. Thanks for responding.

At your advanced age? I set sail on Jeanneau DS40 at age 62 and now at 75 I just came back across the Atlantic with a 2 person crew. The Cates are a wee bit of the senior to me -

The Jeanneau matches us perfectly - when we did coastal hopping it was perfect and when we decided to cross a big water she was perfect

We do have a shoal draft and inmast furling and never have to leave the cockpit except to drop the hook

[JPA Cate]

But the Cates have been sailing together for a very looooong time. Time in which to learn how we want to do our sailing routines. It is a huges leg up on people who are starting in their sixties. Personally, i don't think it should be equated.

And, in a funny kind of way, I don't think we should encourage 60+ folks to just go for it, either. They're of necessity starting at the low end of the learning curve. It seems horribly cruel to set them up for failure.

But this thread was started about a Swanson 42. And, if your'e the above age, and want a seakindly vessel on which to sail, yes, okay. But if you like a more spritely performance, then look at an Adams 15, and get a Code 0, or assymetrical, and play around. It is big enough to be pretty stable. It will LOVE the light air sail, and so will you, whizzing past everyone else (including us, blush!)

Ann

[Seman]

I had been sailing on our well set up Passport 42 for over 20 years. A great boat, comfortable and almost indestructible, I tried!
7 years ago at age 64 we build a 48' cat.
What a difference a cat makes. On long passages I used to get hip and back trouble with the constant leaning of the mono. You walk around like a mounten goat!
We have done over 45 k nm with the cat now, 5 Atlantic crossings. Wouldn't think twice to do another one. No effort at all.
What would I do different?
Smaller catamaran, around 42 feet would be nice, smaller sails, sails not as heavy and costly.
We use the Milwaukee 28V angle drill to haul the main sail, permanently installed electric winch would be nice.
Very happy with LFP batteries, now 400Ah would be better having 600Ah. 1200W solar keeps the LFP charged. A watermaker is good to have, ours makes 25 ltr/hr, a bigger output would have been better. I don't think you can beat a cat for living space and comfort. Also having visitors in different hulls is is a great advantage, privacy for both parties.