Cruising Boat

[dhenline]

I am a newbie and considering taking up the cruising lifestlye. Most of my experience is renting moorings boats and going around the carribean. My first question is what is a really comfortable liveaboard cruising boat. Money would not be much of an issue, think in the 300 to 500K ballpark. 300k if I could get away with it. Space would be paramount. I don't want to live in a cramped boat. My sailing would be mostly two people with some guests at times. Thoughts on the boat to get?
dhenline

[Boracay]

Could you tell us where you plan to start, where you'd like to end up, an approximate timetable and give us some idea of your physical condition (non PC - age) so we can give better targeted replies.

[maxingout]

In that price range you could get a good monohull or multihull. Having lots of money to work with makes your job a lot easier.

I don't have any specific recommendations of yacht models. Before we purchased our Privilege 39, we chartered the yachts that we were considering purchasing. On the charters, it became abundantly clear that the Privilege 39 was the right yacht for us.

Before I would spend big bucks on a yacht, I would charter a sistership to see how the yacht worked for me. You learn a lot about a yacht when cruising on board for a week or two.

[cdennyb]

Damn, must be nice to not have to worry about the difference between $300K and $500K when it comes to buying a boat...

here I'm trying to decide whether or not to spend $175K or go for a year newer one at $189K with less problems to fix initially.

[sailorboy1]

Damn must be nice to worry about whether to spend $175k or $189k. Here I'm trying to decide whether to spend $90k or $100k -

And while I mean it; you know this is going to get out of hand and is met in jest overall.

[dhenline]

Listen
we all live in a budget. some large some small. The constraints are the same. 175K? in Asia that would be a fortune. My 500K, Paul Allens dingy costs more. It is all relative
so come on give me some good boats to look at

[NYCSavage]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Damn must be nice to worry about whether to spend $175k or $189k. Here I'm trying to decide whether to spend $90k or $100k -

And im debating $2,000 to $10,000! lol

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by dhenline

Listen
we all live in a budget. some large some small. The constraints are the same. 175K? in Asia that would be a fortune. My 500K, Paul Allens dingy costs more. It is all relative
so come on give me some good boats to look at

The real point is that you asked an impossible question! In your budget your choices are endless, how would you ever expect a forum to answer it? Who could know hat type of boat you want better than you?

[dhenline]

OK don that is a fiar reply
so give me some general ideas
How is a center cockpit compared to an aft cockpit in the 50ft range? is the sailing as fun? What boats would have a 2 cabin 2 nice baths layout in that size range? If I want minimum hassels, what is the oldest boat I should be looking at? Lets start with those questions
don

[dhenline]

Originally Posted by Boracay

Could you tell us where you plan to start, where you'd like to end up, an approximate timetable and give us some idea of your physical condition (non PC - age) so we can give better targeted replies.

boracy. I will be 50 yrs old and will probably limit my crusing to the carribean and the med. I doubt pacific will be on the list
lets say couple of years time frame

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by dhenline

OK don that is a fiar reply
so give me some general ideas
How is a center cockpit compared to an aft cockpit in the 50ft range? is the sailing as fun? What boats would have a 2 cabin 2 nice baths layout in that size range? If I want minimum hassels, what is the oldest boat I should be looking at? Lets start with those questions
don

lots of old threads on this site that you can read to answer all these and more

in the end it doesn't matter what we say, it's what you prefer and it is not up to us to go though the thousands of various answers till you have done some research and narrowed down YOUR wants and needs