Why Did You Buy Your Boat?

[sailhunter1945]

Just when I thought I knew what I wanted

A twelve foot Sea Snark on Silver Lake many years ago. An assortment of small sailboats since. An Oday 22 to get my wife interested. Success. Another Oday 22 at a yacht club to learn to race. Not much success. A yearning to sail on big water and even live aboard. Must be 38' (I'm not a small person) and all the amenities for living aboard. Blue water capable. Then a request to work on a boat to get it ready to sell. Sure. A 1978 Hunter 30. A sloop with a diesel auxilliary. 6'4" Headroom and a standup shower. A decent galley with adequate cold storage. Solid, a floating battering ram with a keel and mast. 1.9 capsize ratio. A history of trips to the North Atlantic and South America. Very capable. A little money and one of my Odays and I now own it. Getting it ready to do what it was born to do. If you told me I would own this boat a few years ago I would have laughed. Always keep an open mind. I'm loving it.

 

[PrincessoftheLake]

No short answer to this question for me. The first boat was a Seidelman 24.1 and the reason for that was the yacht broker I bought it from convinced me it was a great boat for sailing and racing on White Bear Lake. He was right. After 3 years of racing phrf I wanted to try the one design fleet so the next boat was a Capri 22. Never did love that boat, not like I loved the Seidelmann. By this time I'd had a taste of cruising and had been on some bigger boats in different destinations and knew I needed to go bigger both in terms of what I sailed and where I sailed. The next boat was a Hunter 34 in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. Loved that boat for 3 years and then it dawned on me one day that I was paying for a 40 ft slip (couldn't do a 30 ft slip because the marina only allowed 3 foot of overhang) so decided I might as well have a 40 ft boat. My dock neighbor was looking to sell his Hunter 40.5 and the first time I boarded her and saw the huge cockpit and went down below and saw the spacious cabin I knew I had to have her. So I did. I still think she's a great boat and I like the way she sails. She is a good boat for the islands and the occasional lake crossing. Is this my last boat? I don't know. Never say never!

POTL

 

[wrbeglin]

I bought my Beneteau 323 in 2005 and have been in love with her ever since. It looks great, sails great and has been extremely trouble free. It single hands easily, is very quick and responsive has a nice open cockpit that people love to be in. the massive aft berth is very comfortable and the bathroom, without exception is one of the largest and best laid out you'll find on most any boat.

 

[eusjim]

Why I bought and love my Hunter 34 - it is all around GREAT.

The Hunter 34 is a lot of boat for the money.
Great cruiser with excellent lines. Great for club racing. Really roomy in cockpit (including high boom) as well as down below. With good head room/ stove/large cold storage/oven/AC/hot water/shower/deep kitchen sink/roller furling/good lighting/large Vberth/ good rear birth/great conversion of center seating to large sleeping birth. Drop the swim ladder off the stern and enjoy.

Lots of places to store all the odds and ends that a well loved boat accumulates.

This boat is built well and a lot of fun for someone who doesn't want to mortgage the house.

In the dock/harbor the boat will turn on a dime..both forward and reverse. No prop walk problems, which my others had in spades.

Excellent, reliable, 3 cylinder Yanmar diesel that runs for 9 hours on a 6 gallon fill-up.

Sails are well balanced. Has stood up in many a blow.

Kids like to lean out over the bow pulpit.. ala Titanic, and lie in the sun on the foredeck.

At the wheel, a large wheel, seating is curved so that when she's heeling at 20-30 degrees the skipper still has a nice angle to sit at.

Can be singlehanded rather smartly with Auto Pilot.

Before this I had a Pearson 26 (one design racer), Catalina 30(roomy but slow), Beneteau First 235 (great lines but small), J22 (excellent one-design club racer with unfortunately a low boom), Capri 25 (bit unstable in a blow), and S2 7.9 (26 footer/swing keel) (rock solid, but cramped below).

Wonderful/wonderful boat.

Jim Oursler

I note that there are lots of posts on this site asking for help in selecting this or that boat. I love to wander -- and wonder -- around big boatyards in winter (when my boat is up on the hard) and look at all the different models, designs, and makers. One man's beauty could be another's beast. It's all in the beholder's eye, of course. Yet picking out the "right" boat is like a Rubic's Cube in terms of optimizing all the different aspects one could, or rather should, consider. How and where will the boat be used? Racing or cruising or both? Prevalent wind conditions? Deep or shallow water? Who will crew and maintain it? How much cockpit/cabin/deck space is needed? Sloop/yawl/ketch/cat rig? What kind or type of aux power? And what will all this cost -- upfront and every month thereafter?

So, why did you buy the boat you have? Is it the perfect boat for you or are you thinking of another?

 

[Bill Roosa]

After returning from Iraq I needed an apartment and was setting on a $100K divorce settlement. I was also looking at taking 9 months off and it was early spring. At $900+/month and all the roaches you can count I decided to purchase a boat and pocket the $900+/month.
I knew I wanted something near 40 ft after owning a 37.5 with the EX. The 37.5 was just too cramped with three boys and wife on long weekends. Also wanted a shoal draft as I'd be sailing the Chesapeake Bay. Settled on a slightly neglected (Sorry Bill J) Hunter 40.5. She had some corrosion issues in the electrical system, a cracked anchor spirit and a really odd AC power generation scheme.

 

[todoc]

My wife and I were at a boat show because we had nothing else to do that day. After 3 beers each we couldn't come up with a convincing reason NOT to buy a boat. We've been happy with our decision ever since.

 

[docon48]

Because she said I could.

 

[kenn]

Some really interesting replies. Yet I would say that after considering all the objective criteria for boat selection, one subjective criterion stands out: how your boat looks (and makes you feel). I wonder how many sailors are like me: after every sail, I always look back at my boat as I walk up the dock and really like what I see....

Beauty is more than just optics.

When we bought her, our boat was basically sound, but a bit beat-up - oxidized topsides, bottom needed paint, some rot in wooden bulkheads - which I used to drive the price down.

After some quick mandatory fixes, which took under 3 weeks, we started sailing. That first year, her beauty was that this inexpensive little vessel was fun to sail.

Last year, I had just about all of the functional repairs done - including replacing some waterlogged foam, and replacing the rotted wood bulkheads with glassed marine plywood - that I could start in on polishing the hull and deck, and now she is becoming truly beautiful to the eye.

 

[noanker]

i bought my boat because it is therapeutic for me and i have something to show for my money....beats the heck out of watching a shrink getting his therapy on a boat i bought for him

 

[nielsdeterra]

Why the current one?

I note that there are lots of posts on this site asking for help in selecting this or that boat. I love to wander -- and wonder -- around big boatyards in winter (when my boat is up on the hard) and look at all the different models, designs, and makers. One man's beauty could be another's beast. It's all in the beholder's eye, of course. Yet picking out the "right" boat is like a Rubic's Cube in terms of optimizing all the different aspects one could, or rather should, consider. How and where will the boat be used? Racing or cruising or both? Prevalent wind conditions? Deep or shallow water? Who will crew and maintain it? How much cockpit/cabin/deck space is needed? Sloop/yawl/ketch/cat rig? What kind or type of aux power? And what will all this cost -- upfront and every month thereafter?

So, why did you buy the boat you have? Is it the perfect boat for you or are you thinking of another?

I'd always had Beneteaus and a friend tipped me off about the Hunter 356, which was and is light years ahead of the Beneteau equivalents, better built, better designed and cheaper.

 

[Jimmy P]

Why I bought my boat?

To fulfill a dream and enjoy life. Haven't looked back since!

 

[Patrick S/V Shangra-La]

It's funny I went out of town and out of state looking for my boat. It took almost two years to find it. After liiking to the ends of the region I found this one in the Back Yard. This one had every thing I wanted. Davits, Auto pilot, Spinnaker, Air Conditioning and so on. I was really lucky too. The PO already had his new boat and needed to dump this on and was open to a deal.

This is the last boat I'll buy. I can single hand it easily, and it meets all my needs.

 

[rwdsr]

Started with an MFG Sidewinder. Wanted something I could sail all day then go below and sleep in. Also singlehand because I thought I would be the only one in it out on the lake. Got a Compac 16, and the family loved it! Had to get a bigger boat and price was right for the Catalina 22.

 

[Pegfrayne]

My husband and I joined a local Yacht Club but we were power boaters, not sailors. One afternoon some of the sailors came in from a race and started talking to us about getting a sailboat. After and hour or so we jumped into a car and drove around looking at every sailboat for sale in the area, and before we knew it we settled on a 1983 Hunter 20. It was the fall so we didnt get to sail it till the next year and then discovered that the sails were horrible, the outboard was shot and it needed a roller furler. We invested in all of them and discovered that we loved the boat. I have since recovered all of the cushions, and made new cockpit cushions. It has a swing Keel so that allows us to sail in Barnegat Bay in NJ where the average depth is about 6 ft or less. Its not a great racer, but we now spend more time on it than on our power boat.

 

[Jumpstart]

First boat was a Sabre 28. Loved it. Great club racer and coastal cruiser. Totalled in a storm in 2008 Mills race. Next boat criteria- PHRF rating between 162-183 to fit into Wed. nite racing fleet, decent accommodations for weekending with stand up head room, good light air performance and stable in a blow, points well, 30 feet or under, good looking, and under 25K. We picked a C&C 29-II and are very happy with the choice. It performs well against the S2 7.9s especially upwind. It is very comfortable for 2 people to handle and it looks great with the vivid red Awlgrip paint job.

 

[WayneH]

After the admiral and I spent a week on the 21 foot sailboat with kneeling headroom, she says "We NEED a bigger boat."

We thought about it a while and I laid out my requests. Shallow draft so we could gunkhole the shallow Texas Bays, classic lines because I hate destroyer bows on sailboats (the admiral agrees), 30-40 feet for offshore capabilities.

The admiral wanted a tiller, standing headroom, a separate galley and a real head.

And then she started seriously shopping around. We settled on a 1980 Tartan 37 with a centerboard. She drafts 4'2" board up, has standing headroom, galley and head and she LOOKS like a sailboat in my opinion. She sails beautifully. She is a project on the inside but her outsides really shine.

The only thing we didn't get was the tiller as we couldn't find one with a tiller. Which has been interesting at times when tiller hands move a wheel.

 

[fifedog]

Right boat. Right price. Right time. Right place.

Right boat. My wife and I spent many an hour looking at boats the first half of 2009. I actually became "acquainted" with our Hunter 27 early on in the search. It was nice. Woodwork inside was way above average condition compared to many of the other boats we looked at. Not much ornamentation, kind of the homely girl at the dance. Lots of possibilities, and nary a mark on her hull. I was probably "doomed" after giving her a nick-name.

Right price. Was able to purchase her for under 7 grand, so we didn't need to take out a loan, and rationalized that because we were buying an "empty canvas", we could adorn her anyway the wife wanted.

Right time. I am in a stress involved job. In my 40's. I needed an "escape" of sorts. Had always been around motorboats, but after a chance outing on Lake Champlain, my wife and I fell in love with the idea of owning our own sailboat. My wife loves to travel, and loves the water.

Right place. Actually bought our pocket cruiser from the marina owner that I first saw her at. After he showed me the boat, Phil said, "Even if you don't buy from me, you're welcome to slip your sailboat here." The guy just knows his sailing. He loves his sailing. And the marina is just 20 mins by water out to the Bay.

Our 27 footer is no longer the homely girl at the dock. We dressed her up nicely, added new non-skid, as well as a name. She is easy to handle, and is very forgiving when I make a wrong tack. Every one who has sailed on her: kids, parents, nephews, friends, all love the experience. And it has provdied me an "escape" from the stresses of my world.

 

[Dan Johnson]

I'm with Jim O...

Bought my first keel boat, a '72 27 footer and put way too much money into it to bring it up to useable condition. Served me well, but the wife felt uncomfortable in anything more than light air. Small outboard was not strong enough in a blow, but the boat was like a rock. Crowded cockpit with four adults.

Co-worker was trying to get out of sailing as his kids were getting into sports. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse on his H34 and we've been happy as Jim ever since. Great boat for the money. Known faults and work-arounds. Sails well, powers all day long, takes big wind and water nicely, sleeps comfortably, has yet to scare us.

 

[JerryA]

With you Warren

I'm with you Warren. I do like looking at my boat. Good looking boats just add to the pleasure of sailing. Just like good looking cars.

JerryA

 

[Andy1237]

First boat for me (Hobie Cat), next two boats for just the two of us (Gulf Coast 23, Freedom 21), then a boat for the family (29.5) and now a boat for the grown family (340). Then next boat will be for ...Like All of them have been..your next boat[I ]is always going to be your last boat![/I]