Performance vs comfort

[CalebD]

Endeavor or Irwin 32' are nice boats

The Endeavors are from the 80's while the Irwins are earlier (it is rumored that the guy who ran Endeavor Yachts won the hull mold off the Irwin guy in a poker game). I am familiar with the Endeavor 32' which is a nice, if slightly older 32' boat (my friend's is from 1982).There is some exterior teak but not a whole lot (no decking) and it has (or should have) all the systems you need for cruising and racing and whatever. My friend got his E32 for $10K, kind of a fire sale price with a working diesel and sails and he keeps it on the Chesapeake (Rhode River, near quite a few of you folks). I was on this boat in early June of this year with 30+ knot gusts and just 1 reef in the main and it handled like a champ. I am not crazy about wheel steering but on a boat this size it kind of makes sense to have the mechanical advantage (and an autopilot to avoid the tyranny of the tiller).The Endeavor came in a few hull designs: shoal keel, deep keel and maybe even a C/B. My friend's boat is naturally the shoal keel (about 4 - 1/2 foot draft) for the Chesapeake. Having just touted the Endeavor/Irwin 32' design I just read a Piratical Sailor revue of the Pearson 32' which gave quite high marks to that good old proven boat design. In any case, I own a Tartan 27' and think that they make quite a good boat too, if a bit expensive. There are lots of choices in boats and I believe that it is still a buyers market so I hope you and your Admiral can find a boat you like to sail and just love. I would vote for a more sea kindly/overbuilt boat and even the double enders like the one Donna Lang took around the globe recently http://www.donnalange.com/ or any boat that tickles your fancy.I am not sure which Geneva you live in by your profile so I don't know what body of water you would be sailing on. I can assume you are in Geneva, NY but that might be naive because there are towns/cities named Geneva in about 10 states of the US, unless you live in Geneva, Switzerland or elsewhere. Could you give us a clue as to what body of water you would mostly be using?

 

[Nice N Easy]

Singlehanding

Moonsailer, from what you have said I am assuming that I am a little bit older than you. I am not married, so I single hand a lot. Older requires much more comfort. The most recent gulf crossing I have made was four days, with myself and one other crew. ( Clewless) It wasn't at all bad, and the weather was very good. And the H33 we were on is surprisingly comfortable, at least in fairly calm seas. We did six hour watches at night, which split it up pretty good, and then we mostly just took turns as we felt like it during the day. I have done some 24 plus single hand trips, and what I usually do is go the first 24 and just suck it up. That gets me to the second morning. So I sleep off and on during the day. Turn on the auto pilot, turn on the intrusion alarm on the radar, and can sleep pretty well that way. I never sleep at night when offshore single handing. But the difference in how much it wears you out depends an awfully lot on the boat. I used to could manage long single handed passages on the 28, but don't think I could, or would these days. It is all relevant I guess, thats why they make different makes and sizes of boats. If I was going to be primarily on long offshore passages, I would certainly have me a big, heavy, full keel boat. It might be slow, and take an extra few days to get there, but as someone else stated, I wouldn't need a dentist to re install my fillings when I got there.

 

[Nice N Easy]

A note for cdennyb

Don't know where your from, but I think you have a total mis understanding of what happened with Katrina, since you seem to think people tried to run. I have a very good idea of what happened, as I live in Slidell, and the eye of Katrina, virtually went right over my house. Oak Harbor marina, less than one mile from me, was totally destroyed, and I don't think there was a boat there that escaped damage, and many were sunk or totaled. Lots of them ended up in the parking lot, and some actually in the apts. But of all the boats around here, I do not know of a single one that tried to run. Some went up rivers or into a back bay, but no one tried to run. No one knew far enough in advance which way to run, even if they wanted to. Would you go east, motoring over into the ICW and all the shallow bays and back lakes over there. Go west, and spend at least two days motoring in the ICW, winding your way through the bayous. Or head due south, right into it. Most did like I did. Tie up as best they possibly could, and hope for the best. For me it worked, for many it didn't.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Did I miss something in the question?

He said: "We don't really do extended cruising so we don't necessarily *need* a blue water rated boat.."Many of the answers got turned into a discussion of blue water boats.I don't get it.OK, buy a Catalina 34, or any other 34 foot boat of recent vintage (1970s and on) and you'll find one very important thing: you'll love looking at the boat when you're sitting in your dinghy rowing to or from the boat.The proportions of a 34 or 30 to 36 footer just can't be beat in the coastal cruising types built in the last 30 years.How do you balance? Figure what you like, so far, in your own experience, then go sit on a lotta boats. However, you HAVE TO get into the bunks you plan to sleep in before you buy. The C34 has the LARGEST V berth of any boat in its size range, but some don't like the midships head or smaller aft cabin. Some like other features. The answer: only YOU can decide, so GO SEE AS MANY BOATS as you can, apart, and together. You said you have some time. USE IT.Good luck, and fair winds.

 

[MoonSailer]

Repeat lay in bunks!!!!

We almost bought a Cape Dory 30. I am not a big guy but I could not lie down in a bunk on the CD30 without bending my knees!!!! We ran into that on several boats. Sleeping with bent knees is uncomfortable!!! I guess the designers wanted to put in a lot of bunks without considering comfort.

 

[T37 Phil]

Thanks

for the wonderful discussion. It's Geneva, OH by the way and Great Lakes sailing. Erie gets up a bit of chop quickly when the winds switch on. As far as boats, Pearson is a possibility. The PSC 34 or even the 37 is high on the list, though perhaps out of range at the moment. We love our Catalina 27 as far as getting out there goes; it's just a little cramped and a lot vanilla. It's no lightweight and that has turned out well. If we go for flat out performance or furniture at the cost of stability/comfort than I believe we will go out much less. On the other hand, fickle winds are often light and a heavy displacement cruiser might just keep us tied up too. A couple just obtained an Irwin 41 this year and are stunned by its poor light wind performance. We hardly ever see them take it out. In the end, I'm young enough (but not so young any more) to feel that the boat I have now that gets me out there is the perfect boat at the moment. The next boat will be a compromise (another one that's come up - small cockpit for seaworthiness vs large cockpit for taking out family/friends), but it too will be perfect in its own way.As far as blue water cruising, what we do doesn't require that serious of a boat, but those are the boats whose lines tend to attract my eye. I do singlehand when possible and therefore look for something 'forgiving' in terms of handling too. Down the road things may change. We've talked of someday taking the canal route out and cruising to friends locales in the Chesapeake; and they talk about heading from there down to the Caribbean. I never thought we'd own the boat we have, so now I take such dream talk a little more seriously. It would be nice to be able to sit on many of these boats and evaluate and ponder. But the truth is that the vast majority of boats in the area are Catalinas, Hunters and Beneteaus. Maybe I'm going about it all wrong, maybe we should move away from the North coast over to one of the sides?

 

[Jadedcrew]

Performance versus Comfort

Make sure it has the performance to keep you happy, the comfort to keep the Admiral happy, and the look that you like to see when you are rowing away to shore. There are a lot of fast boats that I cannot stand to look at!