Capt. Rob wrote:
The most common complaint about the Catalina 27 and 30 for bigger
weather is the oversized companionway hatch.

A good point and something shared by most of the coastal cruiser
production boats. Though we never got pooped in the Catalina, there
were a couple of times we secured the lower 2 hatch boards in place
"just in case".

The heaviest weather we ever sailed it in was one night while crossing
the Sea of Cortez to San Carlos over on the mainland side. We were told
they were measuring 40+ knots in the protected harbor and I can vouch
for the fact that it was blowing like snot out on the Sea. Perhaps my
most vivid memory from that night was the spray blowing off the tops of
the waves hitting the back of the hood of my foulies and sounding like
firecrackers going off right behind my ears. We had the wind and waves
a little forward of the beam, a triple reefed main and just a scrap of
jib rolled out. The boat (and us) came through it like a champ. About
dawn, the wind died as though someone threw a switch somewhere and we
wound up motoring into San Carlos's beautiful harbor.

Your 35s5 looks like a fun boat. We just completed a 2 year tour of the
Pacific (Mex. Central America, Ecuador, Galapagos, Fr. Poly., Tonga,
Hawaii and back to Calif.) 2 weeks ago in our Tayana. I'm way overdue
updating the photo site, but if you're interested, check out
http://triciajean192.home.comcast.net. The photo of us underway at the
top of the site was taken off the coast of Guatemala by our friends
Frank & Shirley on Windsong, an Islander Freeport (38', I think) that
also had that oversize companionway hatch that so many boats have. They
had been wandering around Baja, the Mexican mainland and Central America
for several years when we met them. The last email I received from them,
that had gone through the Panama Canal and were going to be heading for
the Carribean.

Dan Best wrote:
Also, no one has pointed out the obvious, so I'll go ahead and do so.
The purpose of a sea trial is to get the boat on the water, exercise all
it's systems and verify what works and doesn't work. Get the sails up
so you can see how they set, try the boat on all points of sail in an
attempt to detect problems in it's handling, etc. In my limited
experience buying boats, this is not a relaxed "day on the bay", but
rather a quick businesslike checkout of the boat and it's systems.

Yes, exactly... except it can take most of a day, with a
boat that has more than just a few simple systems on board.


.... You
should be treating it as an opportunity to discover things that are
wrong with the boat that can be used to either beat the owner down on
the price or to cause you to walk (run?) away from the deal.

Also to check how all the systems were installed; for
example do the vented loops actually break a siphon (best
done at dockside), and if there is a raw water feed to the
pacjing gland, does it actually flow? How hot does the gland
get when run at full power (for that matter, what about the
engine & tranny)? Do any of the electronics affect the
compass? This can be very important for boats with an
autopilot! Any quirks in the running rigging? How about all
the sails? Better hoist & set every single one of them.
Reefing gear?

This is one reason to bring along a captain, so that the
seller (if he comes along) can show the buyer how everything
works, without either having the distraction of trying to
drive the boat at the same time.

DSK

oly., Tonga,
Hawaii and back to Calif.) 2 weeks ago in our Tayana. I'm way overdue
updating the photo site, but if you're interested, check out




Dan....awesome!!! You've had some real adventures. I'm a big fan of the
Tayana boats. For a while, and for no practical reason, I considered
buying the pilot house version of the Tayana 37. I've got a thing for
the looking of PH boats, though your boat is equally beautiful. A
friend currently owns a blue-hulled Tayana 48 DS...but I much prefer
the older designs.



Robert
35s5
NY

shaun wrote:
Jeff wrote:
snip


Not really. Even though I've been on dozens of trips 10 times longer
than your little hop, including being 50 miles offshore a number of
times, I wouldn't presume to advise on the offshore capability of a
vessel other than one I've actually sailed in heavy weather, on a real
ocean.
snip
50 miles offshore.....wow....was it bad.....did the boat tip.....

Not very likely. Actually I had more offshore experience in previous
(and other person's) boats. Now I travel with wife and kid; they're
not as fond of slugging through weather in the middle of the night as
I used to be.



http://www.rlyachts.net/index24.asp
in that case this little boat is a world cruiser too.
i have had this out in one of our (storms) fresh breeze to us
broached surfing down a wave ...yes i was being and idiot but i was
having a ball at the time from memory the forecast at the time 40 to 45
knot winds 3 meter swell with 2 to 3 meter waves.yes i was knackerd
after wards sore bruised ribs ect does it stop me NO.

If this is what you consider an offshore boat why are you asking about
Hunters?

....
Wind and waves do not bother me....reefs fog big tides yes that makes me
very nervous and those great big slab sided things called container
ships scare the **** outa me.
P.S does the Indian ocean qualify as a REAL ocean

Here in New England we don't have reefs, but do have rocks, lots of
fog, and big tides. The container ships we send to New York.

The North Atlantic counts as a real ocean too, but most of us stay off
it during the winter.

Dan, he's a troll... I'm sure that this statement will incite a number
of
replies of course. He's not a "Capt." either, btw.



Dan, Jonathan Ganz is a troll from ASA who, along with several others,
followed me here from there to try to prevent any sailing discussion.
Watch and see who posts what.

Cheers,


Robert
35s5
NY

Capt. Rob wrote:
Why don't you tell us how you bragged all summer
3 years ago that you were planning a trip "out of sight of land" but
then never quite got around to it! How many times have you been 50
miles from your slip? Once, twice? How many times have you been out
longer than two nights? Once?

So everyone knows you're not lying, please post where I "bragged" about
a trip out of sight of land.

Bob claims he never brags about trips he plans to take. All of these
are from different posts:

"One of the trips we're thinking of doing is a Nowhere-Trip"

"That's pretty much what we were told....We talked about it last
night. Suzanne is excited by the idea. Spindrift has radar, epirb, 3
vhf radios, radar reflector and so on....we'd use it. That what it's
there for. We'd try to pick a safe weather window. "

"Someday? This summer we will take Alien out of sight of land. "

And here we get 2 for the price of 1:
"We are also planning our cruise to nowhere straight offshore in about
4 weeks. I'm really looking forward to that. We'll head out and away
until we lose sight of NY/NJ and sail back.
We're also looking into the Around LI Race, but we have yet to secure
a proper liferaft as required. I suppose we could just "race" without
entering officially, which we may do."

"This summer we plan to do the around LI race, block island and our
cruise to nowhere. "


BTW, while looking I found what Bob really thinks of Hunters. And he
calls me a "boat-basher"?

"Just so lurkers are not misled, Hunter is much like Bayliner. They
build very cheap boats for people who won't or can't spend on the
quality stuff."

"Hunter and Beneteau have built some of the cheapest and ugly boats.
Hunter continues with ugly designs while Beneteau builds a fast, but
way-cheap product. There are far better boats out there so keep looking. "

"Up to a point. While they rival Beneteau is cheapness, at least the
Beneteau boats sail well. Even Mac26x owners seem to live in a world
of pain, knowing they bought at the bottom, but Beneteau and Hunter
owners are dilusional, thinking they own good boats. "

"At one point I was interested in the Hunter line. I read up on the
history of the boats, spoke to people on the web and at clubs about
new models and old. I have friends that work in yards as well as doing
special surveys. It didn;t take long to learn that the Hunter is
terribly built. Beyond that it's one of the ugliest things on the water."

"Don't choose a passionless design from Hunter as they are mere
marketing objects. Beyond very light cruising it will dissapoint you
in many respects. "

"Like the Coronado's and Bucaneer's, people will look back on thier
Hunter's and Mac26x's and say, 'It seemed a good idea at the time.'"



I actually only asked about it. 50 miles
from our slip? Plenty of times, but not this summer.

Plenty of times? Even your trip to The Thimbles was under 50 miles.
Your trip to NJ probably wasn't that far, as the sea gull flies. So
what are we left with? One trip to Gull Island. I guess in your mind
that's "plenty of times." And as everyone knows by now, if you left
the dock at all, everyone has to hear about it!

Longer than two
nights? Too many times to remember.

sure thing, Bob. Sleeping at the slip doesn't count.

Like I said, Jeff. I'm a troll.

Bob was proud of his record of trolling on ASA. While most of us
tried to be at least somewhat civil, Bob was proud of his pathological
lying. He bashed everyone's boat, while he bragged incessantly about
his possessions. Now he's trying to say none of that really happened.

Charlie Morgan wrote:
Porta-bote!

I see you changed out the oarlocks. Good move.

Yeah, after using that 12' Porta-Bote almost everyday for 2 years in the
tropical sun, we've got some pretty strong opinions about it. Most of
them positive and a couple negative. Overall, we are very happy with it
and I really can't see us ever going back to an inflatable.

I've posted detailed reviews on the Bote here and other places, so I
won't go into detail except to correct something I said in an early post
(a couple of years ago). Back then, I said that getting into it from
the water was more difficult than getting into our inflatable Avon. I
was wrong. We just hadn't figured out the technique yet. After getting
back into it after snorkeling untold dozens of times, I can now state
definitively that they are just as easy to get into from the water using
a couple of different techniques.

Dan, he's a troll...

Dan, (the other guy) is a troll...

In the couple of weeks I've been back, I've seen valid comments from
just about everybody as well as some irritating "he's a troll/no he's a
troll" bickering. That, quite frankly, I'd just as soon do without. A
lot of it seems hang on the questioning of someone's credentials. As
far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter. I don't care whether someone
taught the Pardeys everything they know or is just beginning. I've
learned something from people at both ends of the experience spectrum
and like to think that a few people have benefited from what I've had to
say from time to time.

Good advice is good advice and there are enough people hanging out here
that bad advice will be challenged and fail to be accepted. In fact
there are enough contrary people here that good advise is often
challenged. The difference is in whether or not it stands up to the
challenge and is generally accepted by the group as sound.

Claiming that someone can't have a valid opinion because he's never been
out of sight of land or doesn't have a captain's license is a pretty
poor way to debate an issue in my opinion.

Tell the original poster why you think (don't think) a hunter 34 is a
good offshore boat. If you wanna bash each other personally, I'd just
as soon you took it offline. Better yet, trade land addresses so you
can get together and really duke it out. Let me know when and where and
I'll even sell tickets to the event and split the proceeds with you (grin).

I concur
"Dan Best" wrote in message
...
Dan, he's a troll...

Dan, (the other guy) is a troll...

In the couple of weeks I've been back, I've seen valid comments from just
about everybody as well as some irritating "he's a troll/no he's a troll"
bickering. That, quite frankly, I'd just as soon do without. A lot of it
seems hang on the questioning of someone's credentials. As far as I'm
concerned, it doesn't matter. I don't care whether someone taught the
Pardeys everything they know or is just beginning. I've learned something
from people at both ends of the experience spectrum and like to think that
a few people have benefited from what I've had to say from time to time.

Good advice is good advice and there are enough people hanging out here
that bad advice will be challenged and fail to be accepted. In fact there
are enough contrary people here that good advise is often challenged. The
difference is in whether or not it stands up to the challenge and is
generally accepted by the group as sound.

Claiming that someone can't have a valid opinion because he's never been
out of sight of land or doesn't have a captain's license is a pretty poor
way to debate an issue in my opinion.

Tell the original poster why you think (don't think) a hunter 34 is a good
offshore boat. If you wanna bash each other personally, I'd just as soon
you took it offline. Better yet, trade land addresses so you can get
together and really duke it out. Let me know when and where and I'll even
sell tickets to the event and split the proceeds with you (grin).

Was it mentioned that you'll want your surveyor along for
the sea trial?
Sorry, if I'm repeating.

SBV


"DSK" wrote in message
.. .
Dan Best wrote:
Also, no one has pointed out the obvious, so I'll go
ahead and do so.
The purpose of a sea trial is to get the boat on the
water, exercise all
it's systems and verify what works and doesn't work.
Get the sails up
so you can see how they set, try the boat on all points
of sail in an
attempt to detect problems in it's handling, etc. In my
limited
experience buying boats, this is not a relaxed "day on
the bay", but
rather a quick businesslike checkout of the boat and
it's systems.

Yes, exactly... except it can take most of a day, with a
boat that has more than just a few simple systems on
board.


.... You
should be treating it as an opportunity to discover
things that are
wrong with the boat that can be used to either beat the
owner down on
the price or to cause you to walk (run?) away from the
deal.

Also to check how all the systems were installed; for
example do the vented loops actually break a siphon (best
done at dockside), and if there is a raw water feed to the
pacjing gland, does it actually flow? How hot does the
gland
get when run at full power (for that matter, what about
the
engine & tranny)? Do any of the electronics affect the
compass? This can be very important for boats with an
autopilot! Any quirks in the running rigging? How about
all
the sails? Better hoist & set every single one of them.
Reefing gear?

This is one reason to bring along a captain, so that the
seller (if he comes along) can show the buyer how
everything
works, without either having the distraction of trying to
drive the boat at the same time.

DSK