Mr. Navigator,
If the boat was a passagemaker or, I had no desire
of making passages of more than 350 miles I would keep Cliohdna for the rest
of my life. Especially after all the work I have put into her. She is a
great boat to learn to sail on, which is what I am still doing and will be
doing for some time to come. Or should I say, relearn since I used to cruise
and liveaboard a Morgan 41 OI about 17 years ago. When it comes time for me
to take off (at least for a few years) and make long passages, a Morgan 28
OI is not my boat of choice. I would probably die and the boat would sink.
Now, is that love? Where I live, in Florida, she is a great boat to own
being shallow draft and roomy for weekends and Bahamas. Roominess however,
has been a tradeoff for seaworthiness and sailing performance. I love my
boat but I am also aware of her intended sailing/cruising capabilities. A
very beamy open cabin design she lacks bulkheads for the rigid hull a
bluewater cruiser must have and therefore has not enough locker storage
space to properly provision for an extended cruise among lots other things
like a keel stepped mast that a true bluewater vessel would incorporate in
hull design and rig. We are talking about a boat that has to have the main
reefed at 15 knots. Only a 3'6" draft. Does this sound like a passage maker
to you? Not to me and I'm sure you would agree. HEY! That rhymed didn't it?
Maybe I can do that again! She is a coastal cruiser, and a great one at
that, in my humble opinion, not much more than that. Pretty cool eh?
Anyways, she's not built for what can happen offshore on long passages. I
want to go to places that I believe are just out of reach of a Morgan 28OI.
She is the right boat for me at this point in my life. All the work I put
into her will not come back to me in the way of $. I suffer for my boat and
do without newer and nicer comforts on land because I love my boat and I
love to sail. Yes it is true, I will one day be sailing another boat. But I
still love her dearly. When I get my next and hopefully last boat (after
carefully researching it so none of you guys will make fun of it) I will
also love my new boat just as much.
Brian McAloon
S/V CLIODHNA M28 OI
Pompano Beach, Florida.

"The_navigator©" wrote in message
...
But it's a stepping stone...
Bwhhahahahhahahahha