Well I spent last weekend down in Seattle - boat shopping. Initially
my wife and I were looking at boats between 36 and 38' but somehow we
ended up in the 40+ boats and of course we fell in love with one.
After we got home, we figured out how much the thing was going to set
us back including maintenance, needed upgrades, insurance and moorage
and decided against it. The boat was a beautiful Passport 40 but it
was old (1980) and needed a lot of work (wood decks to boot). The
work doesn't bother me as much as the expense in upgrades. Boat was
$120K+ and then add a bunch of other stuff on top just to get it ready
to go to Alaska (+$10k) and we were just out of our affordability
range.

Now we're trying to get refocused and once again looking for a well
built sailboat in the 35-38' range that is capable of offshore
passages, performs fairly well (don't really want a slug) & something
that isn't so old that everything needs to be replaced before
cruising. We can put down $60k and still have another $10k for
extras and getting it back up to Alaska. I don't mind taking out a
little loan if the price is up around 80$ for the boat, but I really
don't want to have to borrow so much that I'm tied to the dock and a
job paying the thing off.

Yesterday I was looking at a 36' Cape Dory on Yachtworld, but the
thing has a PHRF of 180. The Passport has a PHRF of 140 and most
people said that it was a slug. Now I'm confused.

Any recommendations on what boats to focus on?