When is it time to trade up to a bigger boat?
The time to get a bigger boat was always clear to me.
I had a 23' boat on Lake Champlain in VT that was perfect for the water and me at that time. Then I asked a girl to go sailing,.... The 23' boat was still handy for us on the lake.
Then I got the cruising bug and asked if she would like to skip a winter in Vermont. Again, she was game. Soon we were headed down Champlain, in a snowstorm, toward the Hudson River on a Cape Dory 28'. The 28' was perfect and affordable. We spent a year away, had our fill, and came back to VT with our first baby, not yet born.
And soon after, we had another (baby). The 28'er evolved including a starboard settee that would convert to a family sized couch or a folding pilot berth over,...
,...and a port settee converted to dinette that could hold baby chairs.
This worked so well in fact, we stole away the better part of another VT winter and took a 2 and 3 year old to the Bahamas in the 28'er.
The 28'er took us up the coast, past the Hudson this time, to Maine. It was a good boat to leave for weeks at a time and commute from VT for weekends, etc.
We moved that boat slowly up the coast over several years. Eventually, it sailed us into what would become our residence.
After a few more years I realized we had used it up. I'd run out of conversion ideas in the space, my family was growing.
A friend told me about a donated old Alden for sale. It was a big boat (in 1999), 38'. Cockpit, decks, below, I could see our sailing life nicely fitting the boat with room to spare.
2 kids, 2 pilot berths, no more conversions. You could walk by the cook in this boat. Everything fit inside the lockers, with room to spare. The wide decks all around opened new space we'd never seen.
I made an offer that was accepted quickly. A few months later, I was handed a check for the 28'er - that was exactly the amount remaining that was owed on the new boat,...the day before the closing.
The biggest surprise was the range this boat added to our sailing. More miles easily covered in heavier conditions. Time spent onboard stretched out. Everyone was content and the four of us sailed through life
Time marches on. Over the last 20 years, 38' has shrunk to a 'medium sailboat'. It's mostly the two of us now so what was ample with four, is luxurious with two. We deserve that, I figure.
Bigger in our case was truly better. But
bigger is relative. I say, fill your cup.
