On 25 Apr 2005 12:48:32 -0700, wrote:

A number of months ago I began my search for a sailboat. I am an upper
Chesapeake sailor who, a few years down the road, will do some coastal
cruising. I am looking for a boat that I can sail solo (I want to sail
solo - if I wanted to hook-up with crew, I would have taken up golf),
but that can also confortably accomodate three adults for a weekend
cruise.But the principal criteria is its ease/security in solo sailing.

I single-handed a Yamaha 30 for many years - it is a fairly light
racer-cruiser (or perhaps cruiser-racer) - it performed well, and I
found it easy to handle. I don't think I'd want to go too much over
30 ft for single-handing coastal cruising (ocean cruising may be
another matter). For coastal cruising, you will frequently be raising
and lowering sails, anchoring, picking up a mooring, or docking at a
marina - all things that are harder the larger the boat.

I found the Yamaha very easy to handle, both under way and around
marinas (I had less trouble getting it into a marina slip than I do
with my present 28 ft trawler, and much, much less trouble than with a
26 ft twin stern drive planing boat I had between the Yamaha and the
trawler)

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
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