Is this Hull Bluewater Capable ? (Pictures / Finessa 33)

[SaltyMonkey]

PSC's are crafted overbuilt expensive and well equipped oranges and i want one for xmas

[barnakiel]

OK. Once you get one bring it along and I will add six layers of glass rowing and epoxy and ask twice the price ;-)

Yes. Nice boats. But there is a (34?) model down here and I look and look again and not sure it is as good as it looks.

b.

[manitu]

I've finally started on the boat, project thread here:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...3-a-83350.html

.manitu

[gjordan]

Manitu, if the cockpit has a good bridgedeck it is a very good seagoing cockpit. Deep foot well and high coamings make for a comfortable sea going cockpit. I agree with the comments on needing pushpit,pullpit and stantions but most of what is written here is from people that have not cruised on small boats. Sew up weather clothes for around the cockpit and attach them with shock cord, not solid line, so that if you take a wave the cord gives instead of the stantions. Get the lightest windvane you can find and learn to love it. I would not modify the cabin other than maybe making up some storm windows if you are worried about the cabin windows. The dodger is a little high and bulky, but you will love it going to weather. I would incorperate a boom gallows into the dodger or just in front of it. As far as getting it 3 hours to your home port, just spray hardware store expanding foam into the keel voids and go. Sail for the summer and deal with it next winter. It will dissolve with acetone next winter and you can do a proper repair. I speak of this from having sailed almost 9000 miles in a smaller, narrower, less freeboard Scandinavion boat,(Contessa 26) and loved (almost) every moment of it._____Grant.

[manitu]

And the conclusion is:

We moved her from the harbour where she's been the last month , while I were home.
We misjudged the weather window a bit, and got caught in a thunderstorm, current from north,heavy wind from south. Heavy chop , about 3,5-4 meter waves close, close together. This was just inside koster lighthouse outside the swedish/norwegian border,going around the Hvaler islands She behaved beautifully , not a single drop of water on the deck! Luckily , I knew we could get in trouble , so we used the yankee but we came close to being overpowered when reaching.

We did four legs against the wind going south against the weather, fell off to port to a E-NE reach, the wind slightly aft of beam,surfing the waves, before we gybed around to NW straight into the Viker harbour.

Despite terrible weather helm (can't get the main to fly properly) , I felt safe the whole time. she can take much more than that. Specially when I get better sailing. I've just bought a book on sail trim, so I hope I'll improve.

But.. If it got much worse, I would have fun for a while , but I dont know if I could take days of such a ride. And she is a bit cramped. And..I've fallen in love with the boat wich place I borrowed, a Hallberg Rassy 31 Offshore..

I'll keep the finessa for a year or two , learn to sail properly. She reacts instantly when I trim the jib, So when I get diagnosed the mainsail problem , she should be a great learner's boat.

.manitu

[gjordan]

manitu, dont worry about the feeling that you need a bigger boat. When I was cruising in the 26 footer and socializing with lots of other cruisers in small boats, we all used to laugh about having 2 footitis. We thought life would be better with 2 foot more length. We were probably all correct except that many of us would not have gone cruising if we had to buy and outfit a larger boat. You will be able to get as much gear on your boat as you really need, but maybe not as much as the deep pocket gurus here think that you need. Do the work that makes the boat more comfortable and safer, and then cruise it. The more you sail this boat , the better choice you will make on your next boat. Good Luck_____Grant.

[manitu]

Only time will tell how big a boat I'll need to feel comfortable where I want to go. I'll definitively gonna keep her for now. I'm allmost ready to rent out the house and live in the boat full time for a year. It would pay the loan and enable me to outfit the boat properly.

manitu

[capn_billl]

I would rather have a small boat that I could handle well, and had confidence in my ability to control. That I had taken out in steadlily worsening conditions, so I knew it's weaknesses, and how to compensate. And exactly how it would handle the wind speeds I was expecting,....

Than a giant oversized boat that I was unfamiliar with, and if something went wrong, like a roller furler jam, or full main stuck in the groove, or a torn, and flogging sail, that was too big, and too heavy with the rolling deck, and the force of the storm for me to be able to fix.

Thats my opinion anyway.

[micah719]

Have you looked at Roger Taylor's MingMing? He solo sails the north Atlantic up to the Arctic...might have some useful tips for you.

Introduction to the junk-rigged Corribee Mingming

[ArtM]

Here's a concrete opinion: No.

This boat looks like a nice weekender. If you own the boat for a year or two, and develop your own opinion, then it would make sense to try her out on the open water. Intuition, however, tells me there is no way this boat will be comfortable for open water, and is likely just plain unsafe due it's small size.

[boatsail]

When I was buying my boat, I noticed that there was a large difference in asking prices, but each needed to be totally rebuilt to get what I wanted. I went for the cheaper boat so that I did not pay for sails that almost needed replacing, electronics that half function or were great 15 years ago, same with all lines. My intention was to get a solid boat for cheap and remodel the entire thing

[majdrew]

Myself, I would say no. I would look for something along the lines of a folkboat. Good luck.

[manitu]

This aint a nordic folkboat (NF) or a international folkboat (IF),both shorter LOA. but it's still a variation of the scandinavian folkboat design.
Most people i speak to call it a "9 meter" copy of a swedish wooden folkboat.

.manitu

[majdrew]

You know the Bruce Robert's Tom Thumb? That's my idea of a small ocean hopper. But I have unusual tastes!