Moody 471 Custom as a blue-water cruiser?

[Jack Verschuur]

Good morning,

In our quest to find the 'perfect' bpat for us, I stumbled upon the Moody 471, of which several are currently offered for sale.
Reading up a little on them, they appear to be well-reputed vessels with good construction and design, a sea-kindly hull and made for sailing rather than hanging about in the marina, with good masts/rig, winches etc.

47 ft with a displacement of 12,5 ton and 5 ton ballast, it is a wide boat with a beam of 4,4mtr. The only drawback I hear about is that the rig could have beena little taller to get the potential out of the hull, perhaps not the fasted boat in the fleet.

Another drawback to most would be the teak decks. One of the offered boats had them removed, but deep inside I love the look of them and time would have to tell if I can live with the maintenance. There'd also is a big scare there: Were these decks glued on or screwed on? The prospect of a kazillions screws and balsa deck-coring may not be pretty.

Any opinions and advice welcome!

Best,

Jack.