we love it
My wife and I are just finishing our third season with our B473 (#272). We have a roller furling main, shoal draft keel, and 3 cabins.
Overall, we love the boat. We frequently sail just the two of us but we wanted three cabins so our two children each have their own cabin for weekend trips and the occasional week long cruise.
My wife and I just finished an 8 day cruise around Long Island Sound, Fishers Island, and Block Island.
I find the boat very easy to handle with just the two of us (although my wife will quickly tell you that it's primarily just me). I've always been please with the performance and balance under both sail and power. In fact, our Raymarine autopilot failed on the first day of our recent cruise and we spent 8 days without an autopilot. It's so easy to balance the sail plan that I could still leave the helm for short periods to attend other items.
1. How comfortable is this boat for long trips?
For just the two of us, it's extremely roomy and comfortable. Our longest trip has only been 8 days but it's easy to see that a longer trip would be an easy extension (in fact, we've started talking about a month long trip for next summer from Long Island Sound to Maine and back). I wish the galley had more storage for food but I've designed a storage system that I will build and install along the centerline wall in the two aft cabins that will add tremendous storage for food and other items.
2. Does it feel safe on overnight passages with a husband and wife team?
We've had some late night sails and rough weather were we've rigged our jack lines. With the roller furling main and head sail we don't have to leave the cockpit to reef. I haven't done an overnight on this boat but based on my experience on many others I don't see any problem. There's only one really good "single sea berth" that you can rig a lee cloth but I suspect most would just use the lee side of any of the double berth cabins.
3. How does it handle heavy weather (which we are planning to avoid of course but we need to be prepared for it anyway).
The "heaviest" weather we've seen is about 30 kts and 8-10 foot seas. We had three reefs and the boat felt fine. Still easy to balance and track. I suspect the standard keel would help reduce heel but we were fine. Even with the roller furling main (which has about 7% less sail area if I remember correctly), I start to reef (when I'm being conservative) when the wind start to hit a steady 15. I take a 2nd reef at 20 and the third at 25.
4. Any things I should be aware of on this model. We see way too many for sale which makes me nervous and think, do owners know something I do not know? That is one of the reasons why I am asking.
I see many for sale but it's a popular model and almost 300 were made in just 7 years. The boat, like all the x23 series, sits low in the stern. We also have a generator which adds ~400 lbs in the stern which doesn't help.
5. Any other points will be greatly appreciated.
Overall quality is very good but it's still a "production boat" compared to higher end boats. Some of the fit and finish could be a little better but the biggest item that I would address for longer term cruising is storage. One way they keep the price so low, compared to much more expensive semi-custom boats, is the amount of cabinetry and associated storage. I've identified many opportunities to add simple storage compartments, systems, etc. that I would make (for negligible cost).
6. The B43/423 is another option.
I initially wanted the 423 but my wife greatly preferred the 3-cabin layout and galley in the 473 (I certainly wasn't going to argue!). The extra length and space has been fantastic. Although I was initially apprehensive about the size (we were moving up from a 38'), the boat is so easy we quickly adjusted. We also have the bow thruster so even tight spaces and docking are no problem (just this past week we found ourselves having to circle in very tight spaces waiting for a bridge opening and the bow thruster (and shoal draft) proved very helpful).
The extra length pays dividends in performance - we can easily out sail (or power) smaller boats that are more performance oriented (with our Gori prop in overdrive (which increase the pitch by about 2") we can cruise at close to 9 knots at 2800 rpm's when needed).
Hope this helps. Enjoy.
