"BllFs6" wrote in message
...
Hi all....

or if I wanted to
dive or fish I could stand taking ALL day doing it (because of the slow
speed).

A sailboat is not a very good platform for fishing and especially poor for
diving. Getting back in a sailboat with scuba gear could be quite a
challenge

Now, lets say I get the typical mostly enclosed small sailboat. Say 18 to
22
footer.

That is pretty small! I would recommend a 25 foot boat as a minimum.


How many HP would I need to push such a vessel at hull speed? And say for
example that it calculates at 4HP, how much more power should I have in
reserve
to fight wind, waves, bad weather, avoiding running the engine at max
power etc
etc....

I would recommend getting as much as the boat can handle. You can always
throttle it back.


and generally if its something unexpected (ie pop up
thunderstorms) it only last a few hours at most.

If the boat can't handle the conditions you could be dead in a few
hours.....

jog 10 to 20 miles east/west of "the pass" and about 10 miles offshore
max...

Being close to the shore doesn't help you unless you can find shelter there.
Indeed, if the wind is coming from the ocean towards the shore being too
close can be a real problem. Being a mile from shore but twenty miles from
port still means you have twenty miles to go to get to shelter.



Would a sailboat (without any of the sailing thingamabobs on it) make a
decent
day/long weekend powered cruiser when used in nice weather?

A weekend on an 18 foot sailboat would be really cramped! At 25 feet two
people could be reasonably comfortable.

And would it be
reasonably safe (if not comfortable) in bad weather (compared to a high
powered
"normal" powerboat)?....

A sailboat tends to be very stable, and as long as you haven' t piled the
decks high with gear it could be quite sea-worthy.

Comfortable can be a different issue. In bad weather, you are going to get
tossed around. Some people can handle this fine, others get so sea-sick
they can't function. The boat can (probably will) leak and get everything
inside wet. Most small sailboats are tiller steered from the cockpit which
means you have to be out in the weather, which usually isn't too
comfortable. Compare this to a small powerboat that has an inside helm that
can keep you reasonably dry and warm.

And I certainly like the idea of economical boating being of a rather
cheap
nature myself (and being poor at the moment makes for a really bad
combination
....

Well, my first recommendation would be that if you are going to get a
sailboat, learn to sail! Think of how much more pleasant the cruise would
be if you weren't listening to the whine of that outboard and smelling its
fumes! Furthermore, in a decent wind you might actually make better time
with the sails then you could with the outboard. If the wind isn't
cooperating or blowing the wrong direction then you can fire up the motor
and cruise on in. It would also be safer, as you could always sail if the
motor died on you.

If you really didn't want to sail then I would recommend getting a power
boat that was built to go slow. A trawler or tug style boat would be just
your ticket, something with a displacement hull that could cruise along at 8
knots and not burn too much fuel doing it. The power boat will give you a
lot more useable space for a given length of boat and if you get a platform
off the transom it would be a lot better platform for diving.

Rod McInnis