Clarification

[2ndstar]

I have gone through a lot of the archived threads on this site and have seen many requests from new comers as to getting advice on boats they are looking at. Most the same boats for cruising the caribbean etc. All of them have little to no replys. These folks including myself are seeking advice from those of you who have the experience but none of us are getting any feed back. Should we be going to other sites and asking our questions so we don't make mistakes or should we be looking elsewhere for help? Where can we go to get answers on specific boats that fit our goals? Or should we restrict our questions to what's the best BBQ pit I can get? On behalf of the new comers who have dreams of cruising, thanks a bunch.

[SeanRW]

I can honestly say that here at CW, there are quite a few people who are both experienced and generous with their time / counsel but they aren't "on the clock" and will get back to you in due course.

I see that you're looking for a new boat, having sold yours recently. I won't pretend to be able to advise you myself cause I'm in the same "boat" (pardon the tragic pun) but your post on the 19th is definately in the right section. Give it a few days and someone should respond.

Barring that, try asking in SailNet.com (http://sailnet.com/forums) . You might get a quicker response and I know that there is quite a large community there who're actively posting, bantering, arguing and swapping commentary on all things nautical.

Best of luck !!

SRW

[mikesailin]

I'll try to answer some of your questions, if I can. My wife and I just moved into a house after living aboard, cruising, charting, teaching sailing, and delivering boats for about 20 years for my wife and the last 10 years for me. I have a boat for sale, but I will not slant my answers in that direction.

The best boat is a very relative thing that depends a lot on you and what you really want to do with the boat. Seaworthiness is discussed a lot, but if you plan to live aboard and cruise, then ease and cost of maintenance mean as much.

Tell me about your sailing "dream" and a little about you and I'll try to help.

Capt. Mike

[2ndstar]

I will be mostly single handing the boat. My hope are to have a boat that supplies some room and comfort. I want to cruise everywhere I can in the Caribbean plus go to the Panama Canal up the Central American coast to the Yucatan. Hopefully we open Cuba legally and Cuba can be used to go from Isla Mujeres back to the Dominican or to Florida. So comfort, something that can be single handed and stay in a budget of 30ish for this boat. I know I'll have to add some upgrades for electrics etc. Tall order? It seems everytime I hear of what I think might be sutable I read an article or an entry on another site that the boat just won't work. I'm not looking to cross the Atlantic. I recently had the joy of seeing a CSY 44 walkthrough. Fell completely in love and there was no mistaking this was a sea worthy anywhere boat. Maybe the next boat after this though a 44 isn't really a singled handed boat though I hear the 37 is nice. One day but not in this budget.

[mikesailin]

One reason that you have been having trouble getting an answer to your question is that there isn’t an answer. At least there is not a general answer that is suitable for everyone with your cruising need. That makes sense if you consider that cruising is not about a boat or a skipper. Cruising is a system that includes a boat as a major component, but the system also includes you as a major component. The cruising system also includes the weather and seastate as critical components. Your knowledge, experience, cruising area, and cruising style have a major impact on the type of boat you need. Here’s what I mean: if you intend to get to the Caribbean via Bermuda or if you intend to cross the Mona Passage when you want rather than when weather dictates, then you will need a boat like that CSY44 and you will need to hone your skills and beef up your upper body strength to be able to solo it.

I now own a Soverel 36 that I would solo in the Bahamas and Caribbean. The Soverel is has a centerboard/keel whose shallow draft would allow cruising throughout the Bahamas and Belize. Its hull is made up of epoxy resin and woven roving fiberglass, resulting in strength that is superior to many boats such as Hunters or Beneteaus. One reason that the Soverel 36 is acceptable in the service you want is that I am a conservative sailor. Simply said – I adjust my schedule to the weather and not a calendar.

An excellent book for you to read is The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South – The Thornless Path to Windward by Bruce Van Sant.

I would be looking for a boat that is older rather than newer. Older boats tend to be better built and stronger like my Soverel because manufacturers had yet to discover how to save so much money through the use of chopper guns and polyester resin. I would also study and learn as much about weather as possible. With solo in mind I would focus on boats in the 30-40 foot range. The larger boats will be more comfortable, but more complex and more expensive to maintain (larger parts cost more).

Frankly the response to your question could be a book. There is much more that I can say. Is this helpful so far?

Capt. Mike

[mikesailin]

In my response above I overlooked adding one of the very most important considerations of solo sailing: KEEP IT SIMPLE! With only one person on board dealing with any breakdown becomes a major ordeal. The temptation is to add many complicated systems to the boat that will aid solo sailing (e.g. self furling main, chart plotter, etc.). When those things break or jam, they can seriously affect your survivability. The applicable engineering principal is that the reliability of a system is inversely proportional to its complexity. You will be happier in the long run if you work a little harder and keep it simple.

Capt. Mike

[2ndstar]

Thanks Capn Mike. I do let weather dictate when I leave port. I watch the forecasts, listen to my marine radio and walk down to the water and take a look. Then I decide to go. Keeping it simple is right up my alley as well. Buget also dictates the simple approach. I will look for that book as well. Some of my confusion comes from type of keel as well. Full vs fin vs center board. The center board sounds like it's just another moving part that can break and be expensive to fix. So Full vs fin and are there exceptions to the rule? I do want to keep the boat in the 33 to 37 foot range. Also, power is a factor. What ever I get I'm going to have to beaf it up. Wind generator and solar panels with a generator as a back up. If I'm held up in a cove on a rainey day I want to throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave and put a movie in the DVD with out too much worry.