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Offshore cruiser questions
On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 08:58:38 -0600, "Wendy"
wrote: I know Westsail is a definite possibility, but what other boats should I consider based on my plans and price range? You are going to get a lot of advice here. I will withhold my valuable (in other words, free) opinion until I know more about your plans. Are you single-handing for instance? Are you fit? Are you able to go on a foredeck in a storm and not fall off? Do you have lots of time or a schedule? Fast or safe or both (that's the most expensive!) Stuff like that. I do not have a lot of sailing experience- some time on 30' Catalinas and a Hobie Cat. I crewed on a 90' motor yacht in the Caribbean for a year and also ran 40-50 foot dive boats out of a resort for another couple years, so the basics of boat operations and upkeep etc are no mystery to me (I know what I'm getting into here, and must admit that I am wondering about my sanity You have more sailing experience than a lot of people if you've crewed for a year. I would suggest that the best course you could take is to offer to crew on a transatlantic delivery in return for instruction and practical experience. In conjunction with this I would encourage you to take some sort of professionally recognized sailing competency certification such as the "Six Pack" from the U.S. Coast Guard or the "Yachtmaster" courses in the UK from the Royal Yachting Association. Those bits of paper will make you desirable crew, which will inform you directly as to what is desirable in an offshore cruiser. On your off-watch, you can read the Smeetons, the Hiscocks, the Pardeys, Hal Roth, Don Street and a few others from the last 40 years or so who did things the hard way in ocean cruising so you don't have to. With the exception of GPS/EPIRBs, hardly any of the "improvements" that will make your journey a safe and pleasant one are particularly new or involve electronics. The good news is that there are a lot of unfashionable (narrow, dark, overbuilt, no wet bar) old boats that are very suitable for offshore work, can be altered cheaply and bought for a song because everyone wants a big-arsed Beneteau to impress the yachtie crowd. There are some excellent ocean going cruisers made today, but not at your price point, and most of them are not the "popular" names. An example of a "good old boat" is the Westsail 32 "Satori". You could look that up and learn how a well-made boat can survive even a "Perfect Storm". It's not like the movie had things, by the way. Your mileage may vary. The best scenario, quite frankly, is getting the boat of some fastidious perfectionist who died putting the latest bulletproof roller-furling on his immaculately maintained old 36 footer, leaving a wife who hated sailing and just wants to get rid of the thing. Skip Gundlach's saga on this list will inform you mightily. It's worth it to take the time necessary to decide, because a thousand miles offshore, there's no tow truck, is there? G Good luck, R. |
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