Why Did You Buy Your Boat?

[Warren Milberg]

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?

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Any sailboat will sail but my wife liked only one.

 

[DannyS]

I'm with Don on this one...I bought my first boat, a 1972 Cal 20, ridden hard and put away wet, literally. The deck was saturated to the core. I met my wife and she has upgraded us twice to the boat we have now, an O'day 35. We love our boat but I also love that she is always looking at other boats.

 

[tigerregis]

Sorry to be contrary, but I bought my boat to escape my wife.

 

[KMm]

The boats I choose all have the same thing in common, they are easy to single hand which I do about 70% of the time. I buy them bare and rig them for single handing, Im working on my 12th. and my first Oday. I guess I just like to work on boats cause I always sell them within a couple years after the work is done.

 

[bljones]

"Whiskeyjack" was the one boat we saw that ticked all the boxes- wheel steering, inboard diesel, shoal draft, dodger, bimini, enclosed head, 6' headroom, accomodations for four, furling jib, lines led aft, under $7500.

The downside is that it makes it hard to find the next boat- the bar is already pretty high.

 

[Dave602]

Sold our old H22 about 5yrs ago as it needed some work to find a plethora of leaks. We never lost the bug. We always said our next boat would have stand up head room and a fixed head. Our H29.5 is set up great for the two of us and has every thing we wanted in a boat. And as others have said above "She who must be obeyed" loved it.

 

[stephen Penny]

I ditto Don.

I purchased my first sailboat, a 1987 Hunter 31, in November 2009 for day sailing and occasional overnights. I loved it. I spent every weekend on it sailing and updating her.

But over the first year's ownership my wife came to realize she wanted additional features So we window shopped all the used Hunter 36 – 386’s for sale in the SF bay area over the last 6 months. Then in early February of this year we found a newer 386 that addressed all of her requirements (and mine) at a local broker and purchased it. My Hunter 31 received 2 matching offers 1½ weeks later. I sold it with the benefit that I can still sail it in the local beer can races and fly its new a-spinnaker any weekend. Sailboat ownership is infectious.

 

[vikki0730]

Well built blue water rated boat that wasn't so heavy we would need 15-20 knots of wind to get her going.

 

[Prime Time]

Criteria

Blue Water Capable
Built like the proverbial "brick s-house"
Shallow Draft
Sails well
Easy on the eyes
Stall shower
Pleased my wife

 

[sandpiper10471]

Every boat I have bought has been based on sailing ability. Not that they have all been performance oriented. To the contrary - they have all done just what they were supposed to do extremely well.

 

[arknoah]

I was looking for a boat that was larger than my little racing boat (17 ft.), and found boats for sale by a non-profit in Annapolis, CRAB, Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating. They receive boat donations and use the boat sales to finance their operations. I wanted a boat that was reasonably simple to operate, could be trailered, and wouldn’t overwhelm me with systems, parts, etc. A MacGregor 25 in really good shape (including an outboard with only 10 hours on it) fit the bill. And it certainly has space in the cockpit for our family of four.

 

[heart of gold]

We kicked fenders on at least 16 boats up and down the PNW, some way better sailors than others. The admiral took one look inside our H34 and said "Say, I like this" and I knew it was our boat...

 

[JK_Boston_Catalina310]

I'm with Don

Any sailboat will sail but my wife liked only one.

My first choice would have been a bluewater boat, like a Pacific Seacraft or Tartan, but to me the most important thing was that the Bride was comfortable enough on the boat to enjoy it.

We ended up with a Catalina 310. She is a respectable sailor, has walk around queen birth instead of the vee birth and a good galley. The cockpit is huge and can fit 8 adults easy.

I figured we would spend more time on the water if she got the boat that made her happy. And the time on the water was the ultimate feature in a boat for me.

 

[All U Get]

I note that there are lots of posts on this site asking for help in selecting this or that boat. I love to wonder around big boatyards in winter (when my boat is up on the hard) and look at all the different models, designs, and makers. 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've been looking since we bought our boat. I paid cash for our present boat, hence the name. The problem is now we want to step up to a bluewater boat style but it isn't in the budget. I talked with a few lenders and they won't look at anything 25 years old. So if we have one for 10 years and then tried to sell, it would have to be newer than that same 25 years. We've seen some very nice boats that had been refitted from the late 70's and early 80's, what a shame. :cry: The quest continues..........
All U Get

 

[sinnettc]

Boat 1 - Laser - Hand me up from my sister. Dad shipped it from Maine to Oregon with some furniture.

Boat 2 - 2004 Capri 16.5 - Donated to local charity housed in the building my wife works in. She showed it to me, found out how much they wanted, and found a buyer for the Laser practically before I could react. The same day it showed up for sale in the paper I took them a check.

Boat 3 - 2001 Capri 22 - 2nd summer after we bought the Capri 16.5. Went out on an Olson 25 for a 4th of July sail. When we mentioned we eventually wanted something bigger the owner told us about the Capri 22 for sale three slips down from him. A couple weeks later my wife asked if I was going to contact the owner, so I did. A week after that she asked if I was going to look at it. So I did. Then I went to the bank and they gave me the money, which was nice because there's way more mosquitoes in the campground than at the docks.

I'm currently doing everything I can to keep her off the Corsair F-24 & F-27 at the marina, because I know I can't afford one of those!

 

[zeehag]

passion. PURE PASSION. i love her lines and love her depth and her weight. best of all is how these boats look with a bone in their teeth--- sooooo magnificent!!!
and a sweet teak interior--rooomy for me. makes the heart beat.....

 

[JerryA]

My wife & I started with a Precision 13, but she wanted to be a little further away from the water and dry. We bought a Hunter 170. Very pretty boat, but I convinced her we needed something bigger to overnight on. We sold the 170 after 2 years for slightly less than we paid and bought a 2 year old Precision 23. We still have both Precisions. Our P23 is big enough for us, sails well, and we can maintain it ourselves. It just took us a couple trys to find what we wanted.

JerryA

 

[Mike Turner]

For our current boat, we wanted good sailing ability, storage for 2-4 weeks cruising, stand-up accomodations, inboard diesel, a split rig (based on our experience with our 23' Rob Roy yawl), shallow draft for our local cruising waters and some degree of "uniqueness" (also based on the Rob Roy experience). I had hopes for a schooner but figured that realistically we'd be looking at a yawl/ketch in the 32-36' range. My Internet research turned up the Lazyjack schooner as an option; we also looked at Allied Princess ketches (36'), Allied Seawind II (32') and a couple of other ketches. We both were really taken with the traditional lines of the Lazyjack, and she wound up being our choice. We're into the second year of ownership and so far we're lovin' it.

 

[cat38skip]

I grew up in a family that valued the freedom of the outdoors and adventure. We lived in SF Bay Area and I took to the water early. Surfing, swimming and sailing seemed natural. We knew Arthur Piver (trimaran pioneer, designer/builder) I learned to sail dinghies in my early teens and was hooked. I have owned a sailboat ever since, graduating through small cats and and day sailors to racer/cruisers and finally to my current boat. For it, we looked at the bucket-o-$'s that we had (this was gonna be a cash purchase) and the age of boat that we were comfortable getting into without having to refurbish too soon (lets go sailing and stay out of the yard for a while) and what we wanted to use the boat for. Experience with our previous boats, recommendations from other sailors and a couple boat builders who I know, a look at a few surveys and from how far away we were willing to deliver it. Each criteria narrowed down the pool and we went looking at all the boats we could find that were a good fit. Finally it was a close the eyes, hold the nose, write the check and 10+ years later we are still in love with our choice!!!