The Search
I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted in a boat. I had read a multitude of books at this point and came to one conclusion: no two authors agreed completely on what a good cruising boat should be. There were many common threads, but some people thought small and traditional was the way to go while others on the opposite end of the spectrum thought the biggest modern design you could afford was the answer. I decided that both sides were correct. After all, you can find many successful cruisers on both sides of the argument. However, one has to choose which cruising style better suits them.
KISS. I tend to believe that simple is usually better. I've read too many stories of people giving up cruising in defeat after spending all of their time fixing complicated systems in far flung locations. I tended to lean towards authors like Lin and Larry Pardey, Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger, and a number of others who espoused simple, sturdy boats. And as a military helicopter pilot, I assume the worst will happen at any moment; while flying, I am always looking for a way out in case X or Y happens. With that in mind, I had two major, non-negotiable criteria. First, she had to be a bullet proof, blue water boat. I wanted a boat that would take care of us even when we couldn’t. We have been sailing for awhile now, but are not what anyone would call experienced, especially in bad weather or new situations. So, the boat had to have a solid pedigree for crossing oceans, be able to withstand our mistakes, and make reasonably comfortable passages. Second, the boat had to be easy(ish) to work on. Nothing floating in sun and salt water lasts forever, and since I couldn’t afford a brand new boat, I was going to be replacing and fixing things. Everything else was going to be a trade off. No boat is perfect, and I knew that tough decisions were on the horizon.
Money is always an issue and factored greatly into the decision. We were lucky and frugal enough to have over $100K to spend on the boat itself, which gave us a lot of options. But here was the first round of trade-offs: big or small, new or old, turn-key or fixer upper. In the end we chose smallish (32-38’), and not a fixer-upper. A smaller boat was high on the list, because it would be cheaper to buy, cheaper to upkeep, be easier to handle by the two of us, and cheaper and easier to find slips. The search began…hello Yachtworld.
I started a list of brands of boats and read as much as I could find on them. Practical Sailor has an outstanding two volume boat buying guide with reviews on the most common used boats. I cross referenced that with other books on seaworthiness and compared sail area, displacement, comfort, and capsize ratios. I looked at good attributes for blue water boats, like proper hand holds, cockpit designs, sea berth arrangements, etc. Soon my enormous list was whittled down to a workable level. We then contacted a broker in Annapolis and began to look at boats. Our short list came down to Westsail, Tayana, Cabo Rico, Tarten, Island Packet, Pacific Seacraft, and boats similarly designed.
After months of looking and crawling through more boats than we remember, we came down to the Island Packet 35/38 and the Pacific Seacraft 34/37. I loved the full keel of the Island Packet and the enormous cockpit and cabin. However, it violated my second non-negotiable requirement. IP did two major things that I didn’t like. Their fuel and water tanks are installed in the bilge and then the cabin sole is fiberglassed over them. In other words, the only way to replace a tank is to cut up the wood and fiberglass sole. Second, they fiberglassed their chainplates into the hull. While incredibly strong, you cannot replace the chainplates without tearing out the cabinetry and grinding into the hull. A search on the internet confirmed to me that both of these problems had been encountered on older boats, causing much work and $$ to repair. Again, nothing living in salt water lasts forever. Lastly, engine access while not bad was not ideal either. Had I had the money for a brand new boat I probably would have bought an IP and not worried about the tanks and chainplates. But, since I was looking at 20+ year old boats it would have kept me up at night, especially when the wind was blowing.
So it came down to The Boat.
KISS. I tend to believe that simple is usually better. I've read too many stories of people giving up cruising in defeat after spending all of their time fixing complicated systems in far flung locations. I tended to lean towards authors like Lin and Larry Pardey, Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger, and a number of others who espoused simple, sturdy boats. And as a military helicopter pilot, I assume the worst will happen at any moment; while flying, I am always looking for a way out in case X or Y happens. With that in mind, I had two major, non-negotiable criteria. First, she had to be a bullet proof, blue water boat. I wanted a boat that would take care of us even when we couldn’t. We have been sailing for awhile now, but are not what anyone would call experienced, especially in bad weather or new situations. So, the boat had to have a solid pedigree for crossing oceans, be able to withstand our mistakes, and make reasonably comfortable passages. Second, the boat had to be easy(ish) to work on. Nothing floating in sun and salt water lasts forever, and since I couldn’t afford a brand new boat, I was going to be replacing and fixing things. Everything else was going to be a trade off. No boat is perfect, and I knew that tough decisions were on the horizon.
Money is always an issue and factored greatly into the decision. We were lucky and frugal enough to have over $100K to spend on the boat itself, which gave us a lot of options. But here was the first round of trade-offs: big or small, new or old, turn-key or fixer upper. In the end we chose smallish (32-38’), and not a fixer-upper. A smaller boat was high on the list, because it would be cheaper to buy, cheaper to upkeep, be easier to handle by the two of us, and cheaper and easier to find slips. The search began…hello Yachtworld.
I started a list of brands of boats and read as much as I could find on them. Practical Sailor has an outstanding two volume boat buying guide with reviews on the most common used boats. I cross referenced that with other books on seaworthiness and compared sail area, displacement, comfort, and capsize ratios. I looked at good attributes for blue water boats, like proper hand holds, cockpit designs, sea berth arrangements, etc. Soon my enormous list was whittled down to a workable level. We then contacted a broker in Annapolis and began to look at boats. Our short list came down to Westsail, Tayana, Cabo Rico, Tarten, Island Packet, Pacific Seacraft, and boats similarly designed.
After months of looking and crawling through more boats than we remember, we came down to the Island Packet 35/38 and the Pacific Seacraft 34/37. I loved the full keel of the Island Packet and the enormous cockpit and cabin. However, it violated my second non-negotiable requirement. IP did two major things that I didn’t like. Their fuel and water tanks are installed in the bilge and then the cabin sole is fiberglassed over them. In other words, the only way to replace a tank is to cut up the wood and fiberglass sole. Second, they fiberglassed their chainplates into the hull. While incredibly strong, you cannot replace the chainplates without tearing out the cabinetry and grinding into the hull. A search on the internet confirmed to me that both of these problems had been encountered on older boats, causing much work and $$ to repair. Again, nothing living in salt water lasts forever. Lastly, engine access while not bad was not ideal either. Had I had the money for a brand new boat I probably would have bought an IP and not worried about the tanks and chainplates. But, since I was looking at 20+ year old boats it would have kept me up at night, especially when the wind was blowing.
So it came down to The Boat.