BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Another single hand/sailboat choice question

wrote:

... One of the problems that I am having in narrowing my selection is due
to the fact that my principle harbor, Havre de Grace, MD, has one
marina of significant size and, I swear, 90% of the boats are
either Hunters or Catalinas ... [and] ... when I walk around I do not run
into owners of Freedoms, Bristols, or even Sabres and Tartans, etc...

I suspect you will almost always find that owners of particular boats are
inclined to "shill" (as another writer put it) for their own boats for a
number of reasons. Makes sense. But a more detached approach admits that
any design is a compromise. I don't know how many times I've decided that a
Corsair 31 was the perfect boat, or a Morris 42, or a Bristol Channel
Cutter, or a Gemini 31, or a Newick Native, etc., etc. All different, and
all very good for certain purposes and pocketbooks. Yet most of us end up
with one boat, and hold onto it for a while.

You must (well, not really "must," I guess) decide what you want to do and
where to do it, then work backwards. If you intend to sail short handed out
of Havre de Grace, you need a reliable engine (long entrance channel), not
too much draft, a boat that won't cost an arm and a leg to pay for a slip (I
cannot recall if there are moorings there, since I have anchored out on my
visits). This results in a long list. What you want to do is buy "smart"
with a good survey and at a fair price, then stick with that boat until you
are absolutely certain that it's time for a change.

And that day may never come.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/