wrote:
Actually, none of us can offer advice outside of our experience.


Sure we can... or at least, I can and it looks like a few others do it
very enthusastically.

.... RB
sails
within a mile of his marina with a "family" crew. Oz, as far as I
can see,
races single class boats.

Looks to me like Oz has raced a lot of different class boats, done
some ocean racing (IIRC he's done the Sydney-Hobart) and cruisers in
various parts of the world. AFAIK he talks (posts) about it with
enough accurate detail that he's not BSing.


....Doug, seems to be a racer of "20
something"
foot yachts.

No, I've raced a lot of smaller ones.... once in a while a bigger one.
And I've definitely spent more time underway cruising or daysailing
than racing, but it's not as interesting to talk about IMHO.


Likewise, Ringmaster races a particular boat.

JG, probably has as much general expereince as any of
us.


And Bart has quite a bit more yet.


My experience is mainly based on a single boat. Fortunately,
I seem to have made the right choice.

Maybe you have a knack for it?



As I see it, you have two choices.
1) Go for your ultimate boat!
2) Buy something "safe" so that you can learn
about your real requirements.

My advice is to take choice 2).


Not sure I get what you're saying. Don't buy the boat you really
really want, that will do the tasks you really want to undertake? That
sounds like the safest course to me, rather than buying something
smaller & cheaper & less suitable, just to gain experience... at a
large cost in dollars & time!

I'm not old enough to buy an "ultimate" boat, I've always picked out
boats that would suit what I wanted to do... and were suitable for the
places I lived & sailed at the time. For example, my current ride was
largely chosen for the benefit of being kept on a trailer, out of the
water; with the concurrent benefit of shoal draft. There really wasn't
anything like I *really* wanted on the market, although a bunch of
boats came closer... now I'm thinking about either building a custom
sportboat (which is insane) or buying a Flying Tiger 7.5 (when they
finally get here). We're also keeping the tugboat for cruising, so we
don't need a sailboat to answer that need. Which makes it easy!



However, when I bought my boat I took option
1). It worked for me.

I think that it all depends on how confident you
feel about your ability to define your own ultimate
yacht.


Agreed. I'm puzzled why you don't think anybody else can pick option 1
as well.


"Capt. JG" wrote:
I would say that while I have a fairly diverse sailing CV, Doug probably has
a more extensive one, as does Bart, and a couple of others. I don't have
long-term, deep water experience, at least not over a couple of weeks worth
in one shot. I think I also have a fairly decent level of experience with
different makes and models. I think the best method of picking a boat to own
is to sail lots of different boats. That's what I tell my students.

And it's good advice... also a good way to pick up a 'feel' for the
charactistics of different types of boats.


It's not
clear to me how much experience BS has in this regard because it's hard to
separate the BS from BS.


It's all one mass, IMHO

I'm not a big fan of pilot house boats... lots of windage and potential for
losing portlights in bad conditions.


It all depends. Mast & rigging cause more windage than a pilothouse.
With good construction & modern materials, big ports can be as strong
as any other part of the hull or superstructure. A bigger factor IMHO
is handling, deck layout for all the tasks cruisers have to do
including access to/from the water (or dinghy), and how really
comfortable the boat will be away from it's support base.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King