Mercedez of Sailboats

[Steve Dion]

How much money do you have.......

Mark:How much money do you have? That may be a better starting point. If you want to start at $400-500k you can have most anything you want. On the other hand most any boat will float. I would start with a budget and then back into the potential vessels in your price range. Remember that as you get into larger vessels the cost for repairs, maintenance, INSURANCE and retrofitting go up exponentionally.

 

[Ken Cobb]

Divide the question

into two parts. Coastal cruisers tend to be fairly lightly built and rigged compared to blue water cruisers, and of course cost much less. Coastal and blue water cruisers really are different classes of boats.Naturally if you make a list of blue water cruisers, you are going to say they are better built than coastal cruisers. They also displace more water and are slower in light air, with less space inside per each foot of length.We wouldn't ask the question, of all sedans and trucks, which one is the best built? We might get a Mack Truck semi cab as the answer, because it can go 500,000 miles. Such a question confuses the issue by combining the different vehicle classes. The relevant questions here are, which coastal cruisers are the best built, and which blue water cruisers are the best built?

 

[David Nichols]

So where did my posts go ?

Sounds like a case of heavy handed censorship !My posts were on subject, were neither false and did not contain obscene language.

 

[Glenn Harvey]

Mark..

I agree with Teleman. Try to make it to the boat show to see the different models. Also, in case you didn't know, the 'painkillers' he refered to are cocktails not pharmaceuticals! They use Pusser's rum (#3 on my list) and are available in four levels of toxicity! Good Luck.

 

[joe]

There are none...

... since "production, coastal cruising quality" would eliminate all of the boats mentioned in the aforementioned "A" list.

 

[David]

Blue water vs coastal build quality

Ken:There are some basic differences perhaps in coastal versus blue water cruisers- storage volume and fluid volume being two. But a well built coastal cruiser will have the same list of features as a well built blue water cruiser.As an example, we just bought a J/32 here in San Diego. It is a rather well built but light performance cruiser. It has most of the build characteristics of a Pacific Seacraft (my gold standard of production sailboats). But the PS is heavier and suitable for an around the world voyage, whereas the J/32 is not.

 

[Sam Lust]

This is FUN! My nomination:

My Idea of the Mercedes of sailboats would be any of the current Dehlers. German designed, engineered and built, production, not unrealisticly priced for what they provide, great features, not bad to look at and generaly neat boats. Look at one at the next shoew you can get to.