Congratulations Norm, from the "other" Norm. I'm 6 weeks away from retiring,
and looking for a boat in the PNW also.

You might want to broaden your search area a bit. As others have said,
Bellingham, Anacortes, etc, would be a good place to visit. Most are short
drives from Seattle. (Plus hotel/motel is a little cheaper too).

I've dealt with two outfits in Bellingham as a sailing student....San Juan Sailing
and Bellhaven, and both are a brokerage.
Try www.sanjuansailing.com and www.bellhaven.net
to get the phone numbers. Both are friendly, and I believe have integrity. If
you care to, tell either that "Norm from Oregon" suggested you call.

By all means find a copy of 48 North...or look at their web site, it's THE
sailing rag in the PNW. Bear in mind that the web site doesn't list all the
boats for sale.

I wouldn't dream of suggesting a boat model suitable for your needs,
but I will make one suggestion.....make up a mini-survey sheet listing
boat name, the vitals (make, length, disp, tankage, price, etc), owner/broker,
equipment, etc......and then make a bunch of copies. When you visit
a boat, use the list (a clip-board is handy), to fill out the data on the
spot. You might be tempted to ignore some boats you visit, and quickly decide
you're not interested, but fill out the sheet(s) any way. You're building
a personal data base. Plus, if you're like me, by the time you look at
boat #20, you won't remember what boat #4 was all about. grin

Good luck, and keep us posted....
Norm B


On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 04:45:20 GMT, (Norm) wrote:

The kids are gone, the house has been sold, most of the junk has been
sold or given away, and after nearly 10 years of being without a boat,
my wife and I are ready to start shopping again!

We just made airline reservations to fly from Juneau Alaska down to
Seattle Washington on the 22nd of April. Wow are we excited

Our last boat was a 36' Fuji Ketch. This time we're looking for Sloop
between 38 and 40'. Being in Alaska has made it pretty hard to get an
idea of exactly what boat will work best for us, so we're guessing
we'll have to crawl thru a few before we start getting a clearer
picture. We want something that can be safely taken offshore, holds
adaquate fuel and water, skeg rudder and fin keel with fairly shallow
draft 4 to 5.5' at the most. Some folks have recommended a Morgan 38
a while back, so plan to check one out if possible. Not sure if that
is a very good offshore vessel though. Suggestions???

It's been a long time since we've been in Seattle. Last time I was
there, most of the boat shopping seemed to be around Lake Union. Is
that still correct? Can someone recommend any other areas close by to
check out????

We'd really like to hear some recommendations on boat brokers too. It
would be nice if we could use one that comes recommended rather than
take our chances via email. Any recommondations???

If all works well, we hope to be bringing something back up to Alaska
in June, but if we have to wait another winter, that's ok too.

This has been a great news group. I've been lurking for about 2 years
or so and have really enjoyed the reading.

kl7rs - Norm in Alaska - Almost retired!!!!