What boats qualify as Affordable, Low Maintenance, Blue Water??
- Thread starter Prairie Virgin Sailor
- Start date
I'll second the recommendation that you look at this website, and hire them to take you bluewater sailing:
www.mahina.com
And I'd start on the east coast of North America for my first self-guided experiences. Lots more places to duck into if you get into trouble. The west coast is not at all forgiving if you are travelling N and S, as capta has said.
You have said you are a loner. If that extends to your sailing, then another level of variables needs to be factored into to your decisions on which boat to buy and how to equip it.
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WELCOME Mahina Offshore Services was founded in 1976 with my book, Log of the Mahina, that chronicled my sailing adventures through the South Pacific. This book launched offshore cruising seminars, boat selection consultations and starting in the 1990, offshore sail-training expeditions. If...
www.mahina.com
And I'd start on the east coast of North America for my first self-guided experiences. Lots more places to duck into if you get into trouble. The west coast is not at all forgiving if you are travelling N and S, as capta has said.
You have said you are a loner. If that extends to your sailing, then another level of variables needs to be factored into to your decisions on which boat to buy and how to equip it.
OR ............................................ read this book about a army doc that walked into a marina, bought a boat, shoved off the dock and sailed to tahiti, .....had never sailed before.
While sailing to Hawaii is relatively easy riding the winds and currents...
Here are a couple of solo sailors...
Here is a guy doing it a second time.
Here are a couple of solo sailors...
Here is a guy doing it a second time.
Sailing to Hawaii is easy, get to the trades and its all down hill. Sailing back is the hard part. You have to sail north to get over the Pacific high and then east to the coast.
I prefer to sail to Hawaii at 35,000 feet.
Found one!That simplifies things!.... find a good Cascade 36. End of discussion.
There is a good sreason they are known as "the affordable circumnavigator".
Robert Smith NA, designer. Hull is solid layup - roving. Fast and weatherly. Get lucky and maybe even find one with the tiller. We have at least 4 friends that have done extensive cruising in one. For less $, find a Cascade 29 -- same design and build pedigree.
The only time I have endured gale force conditions, we were delivering a Cascade 36 down the west coast. Surfing down 19 footers with only the vane driving, for 36 hours, at one memorable point.
Trivia: a friend of mine that has finally downsized from sailboats to a trawler in his retirement, still raves about the fun times decades ago with his young family on his Potter, and also the great social fun of the owners' group, the Potter Yotters...
Greg
Especially this winter (at least in the Midwest)!Sailing to Hawaii is easy, get to the trades and its all down hill. Sailing back is the hard part. You have to sail north to get over the Pacific high and then east to the coast.
I prefer to sail to Hawaii at 35,000 feet.
Wife and I came out to Maui for a 3 week vacation and after hearing about the snow and cold weather back home, we extended for 2 more weeks...alas, I was working remote for the the 2-week extension... but up at 4:00am (8:00 back home) done working by noon or so and still had the afternoons on the beach!
Headed home this weekend though as I hear the snow is melting snd I still have some boat chores to get done before launching in April ;-)
At the “office”, watching another fantastic Maui sunset and the worlds best Mai Tai!
Anyone recognize the boat anchored off Cove Park ?
It all beats this...
Cheers,
Greg
I have done that trip on a cruise ship @ 21 kts (four days), and on a jet airliner outbound, and inside a KC-135 back to the states. Would love to make the trip on my boat, but am wondering if I have waited a decade too long. We shall see..... "The future is out there!"Sailing to Hawaii is easy, get to the trades and its all down hill. Sailing back is the hard part. You have to sail north to get over the Pacific high and then east to the coast.
I prefer to sail to Hawaii at 35,000 feet.
What good it is to be here if I can’t rub in it a littleGo ahead Greg, rub it in.....
The more realistic descriptors would be a good value, well maintained, seaworthy craft capable of safely crossing open waters—words which would not be oxymoronic. “Affordability” means nothing to a third-party observer. Who knows what another person can “afford?” Consult a financial advisor for that. We could, however, make recommendations on what might or might not be a good value vessel.
“Low maintenance” is also a meaningless search metric. Basically, all seacraft are high maintenance by landslide standards. Avoiding teak is not going to make a craft “low maintenance.” In fact, teak is on vessels b/c it is a wood that can withstand harsh sea conditions with little maintenance. The teak that receives the kind of “maintenance” you fear is on boats that rarely leave theIr slips.
Finally, the question regarding “blue water” should more generally be one of seaworthiness for crossing oceans. Often this is related to its displacement, definitely to its condition, and its “seakeeping” ability.
So, the question might be one of looking for recommendations for a mid- or heavy displacement vessel with good seakeeping characteristics, one requiring only minimal crew, two persons perhaps, that has been well maintained. Try looking at the Pearson 365. But what to look for in a well-maintained vessel? Good thread question. Maybe next.
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Greg,
Glad you can enjoy Maui. Beats the heck out of winter around Lake Michigan.
As for me, you couldn’t pay me to go back to Hawaii one more time. My mother in law lived on Oahu in a nursing home, and insisted she was in Michigan. She was physically healthy but Alzheimer's took its toll.
I made the trip over 15 times to help my late wife manage her mother’s medical and financial affairs. The flight alone is enough to cure me of wanting to go again. Being 6’7” and flying Chicago to Honolulu in coach qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. Sailing there isn’t that great. I’ll stick to the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay.
This is an excellent reframing of the question. The question really could not be answered as originally posed.
with KG about the way you need to consider boat selection.There is another factor that you may want to consider in association with "Sea Worthiness of Crossing Oceans". It is often labeled "comfort quotient" or "Comfort Ratio".
It is a metric developed by Ted Brewer which refers to the way the boat design moves through the ocean. The boats measure of comfort as it moves through/over waves.
Here is a link to provide more detail about the comfort ratio.
In the Comfort Ratio
While sailing is always good for moral, a lack of physical well-being in a cruising boat usually obliterates any sense of physical and psychological well-being. Therefore, The comfort ratio, create…
beyondthesail.com
As others have suggested you do not know what these factors mean to you until you have experienced different boats on the waters you are planing to cruise. As an example. I bought a boat with large cabin windows (ports). The coastal cruising on the Washington / BC coasts while beautiful often the crew wakens to fog/limited visibility and chilly temps. A good heater, a cup of tea/coffee and a view (from a boat that does not feel like a cave) makes the experience comfortable while awaiting the ground hugging clouds to rise.
While this meets my present boat comfort level in my chosen sailing area, if I was planning to cross oceans these big windows would become a liability. I would need to find a way to protect the boat from seas washing across the boat, window breakage, or alter the window arrangement. Crossing an ocean instead of coastal cruising would more likely cause a change of boat to match my new aspirations.
Perhaps you should consider this boat thing as an adventure with different stages, requiring different equipment along the way.
Now there’s a thought. How soon do you want to head offshore? Do you really want to head offshore? I know there is a lot to see and explore here on the west coast. I’ve been sailing here, as far south as Seattle and as far North as Ketchikan, for more than 60 years and haven’t seen it all yet.
