Not in a C320
Having just purchased one myself (hull#831), I can't answer your question directly. However, the nature of your question suggests that you probably picked the wrong boat. Every boat design is a compromise of form & function & cost. To me, the C320 is a very nice, comfortable boat designed for the day sailing and coastal cruising that most of us weekend sailors do, and the budgets we can deal with. A great value for its class of use! However, I wouldn't pick it for serious offshore use (i.e., "bluewater" cruising). While it seems rugged enough for an occasional short offshore hop in relatively good weathe/moderate seas, it doesn't appear to be designed to take the long-term stresses of long-term motions and stress conditions of bad weather encountered in passagemaking. The hull shape seems to have good form stability for its designed function; how it would fare in a knockdown, or with serious boarding waves, I don't know. Take the cockpit, for instance: it's spacious and relatively comfortable as a "salon" for socializing, but how comfortable would you feel while close hauled into heavy swells? I'm over six feet tall, and my legs can just barely reach across to brace against the opposite side. Look at the ports/hatches; can they withstand the steady pounding, flexing, etc.? I would suspect they'd leak in fairly short order. Other owners have told me that the C320 has a tendancy to bury her bow into waves. (That could be due to excess anchor/rode weight on the nose.) That isn't a feature I'd like at sea, as it will tend to amplify any problems of steering, stability, and stresses on ports/hatches/etc. Do you feel the C320 has the proper amount of water, fuel, storage, etc for offshore use? I don't. Also, you'd want better sea berths. I'd want more of a keel on a cruising/passagemaker, too. The list goes on. Reconsider your intended purpose/needs/budget, and look for a boat suited for that market niche. Just for comparison, look at a Pacific Seacraft Crealock 34, or an Island Packet 350, and compare features, design, and cost. There are many others, too. Good luck --Ron
