Which boat would you get for 1-2 year RTW cruise on a $900k budget?

[guitarrich]

Beneteau and the like are great for comfortable family holidays, but I wouldn’t want to go far offshore. Different horses for courses. I would love to drive a big 4 x 4, but my suburban lifestyle would make it pointless!

For our 2.5 year sabbatical, we saved up £100,000, took out a loan for £80,000 and bought an old Trintella 45 ketch.

At the end, we sold the boat (suburban family pressures - couldn’t justify the expense of keeping that beauty), used the proceeds to pay off the loan and later bought into a syndicate for a great holiday boat based in Greece - a Jeanneau 37.1 in fact. Ideal for summer holidays, and wonderfully economical with all costs divided by 5.

I’d never have looked at syndicates when I was younger, but you quickly get used to them - they still deliver on the desire for freedom and family cruising, while the annual cost to us is around the same as a one week family holiday!! And that’s also 4 fewer boats sitting decaying in a marina!

But I digress.

For your project, I would find a quality used yacht such as Contest, Trintella, Discovery or Oyster, borrow say $500,000 for the purchase, but actually use your savings to buy it, spend $100,000 doing it up. Then draw down on your loan each month for living and running expenses. That way you’re paying almost no interest, (at least at first).

Finally, with a relatively short time-frame, focus on the well-worn paths. They’re popular for a reason! Also consider “shipping” across oceans. You have to sail one or two yourself, but mostly they are simply an endurance test. Once you have nothing more to prove, save your time and enjoy archipelagos and coastal cruising.

Don’t miss US east coast - fascinating from top to bottom, Bermuda, (on the way back down) Cuba, Bahamas, ALL the Virgin Islands, Antigua, various other Caribbean paradises, varying levels of interest, comfort, security and …. Atlantic swell!!

The Med can occupy you for a lifetime, but the eastern end is unmissable. Spain and France less interesting.

For likers of northern latitudes, Scandinavia in the summer is utterly stunning.

The eastern pacific islands I don’t know much about, but Tonga and Fiji are special. Visit New Zealand by all means - but in this short time-frame you won’t see much there to compete with the rest. Don’t get me wrong, you could spend a very happy year or two there - but your time is short. Also, avoid winter there!

You can weave an interesting path to Australia from Fiji, and Sydney is reportedly a feast for the sensations, but we made landfall in Cairns, and went north and west. Darwin was insufferably hot, but the passage through the Torres straits was memorable!

Thailand is stunning - in the right seasons.

Obviously this is only scratching the surface, but maybe one or two useful ideas! Best wishes to you.

[DeValency]

Thumbs up for everything guitarrich!

Ocean crossings freight is an interesting suggestion, especially for those on a schedule. Freight costs are now more than doubled and scheduling it is challenging with the shortage in ocean freight services.

[mako]

Nice thoughts @guitar, except personably I would disagree with Thailand. Have been there many times and I find it vastly over-rated. It is however worth at least one long visit.

[donradcliffe]

We met a number of ARC World dropouts. The front of the ARC fleet is multi milllion dollar boats, some with paid crews. If they arrive at the end of the leg a week before you, they will be itching to go when you arrive.

The admiral, who has 2.5 circumnavigations under her belt, says take multiple laps of the South Pacific, and forget the rest.

Beware modern boats that have queen sized berths. They are no good in a seaway.
I do like the outbound boats, but they were a bit out of my price range.

I have attached a picture of what NOT to buy. It caught my eye this week as I walked the docks in Ensenada. The boom is at least 12 feet off the water, and you will need both hands to hang on when working it in a seaway.

[dhenline]

Damn interesting photo, since it is of a Bali, which I was considering getting to do a pacific tour. In fairness, I am planning on a catspace which is their small one. It seems to me that Catamarans are tailor made for the South Pacific? why not a Bali? Or is it all Cats, you frown upon?
I am currently planning on doing the trip with a friend who sailed from Florida to Australia in a 35 Benetau. He says it was fine, albeit a bit small for wife and kid
don

[jmh2002]

Regarding that photo I understand it's not about cats in particular, or even a specific brand - it's about models that have a fly bridge which then means the boom (and the entire centre of gravity of the rig) is so much higher above the boat.

Those design 'features' really start to remove some of the advantages of a catamaran with it's normally wide stable safe platform and a boom at waist height.

As well as the enormous reduction in sailing ability too.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Beware modern boats that have queen sized berths. They are no good in a seaway.

My center island queen came with lee clothes on each side from the factory. I fit a center lee cloth. It works fine. The benefits of both people being able to get out of bed with no one having to crawl over the person, or be crawled over, are huge.

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

The boom is at least 12 feet off the water, and you will need both hands to hang on when working it in a seaway.

Those are pretty awful. I've been up on hardtops more than once trying to fix something. Add solar panels to the mix and the near universal absence of handholds and those high booms are very problematic.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

We met a number of ARC World dropouts. The front of the ARC fleet is multi milllion dollar boats, some with paid crews. If they arrive at the end of the leg a week before you, they will be itching to go when you arrive.

The admiral, who has 2.5 circumnavigations under her belt, says take multiple laps of the South Pacific, and forget the rest.

Beware modern boats that have queen sized berths. They are no good in a seaway.
I do like the outbound boats, but they were a bit out of my price range.

I have attached a picture of what NOT to buy. It caught my eye this week as I walked the docks in Ensenada. The boom is at least 12 feet off the water, and you will need both hands to hang on when working it in a seaway.

And you know this because you sailed one just like it???

[DeValency]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

My center island queen came with lee clothes on each side from the factory. I fit a center lee cloth. It works fine. The benefits of both people being able to get out of bed with no one having to crawl over the person, or be crawled over, are huge.

Those are pretty awful. I've been up on hardtops more than once trying to fix something. Add solar panels to the mix and the near universal absence of handholds and those high booms are very problematic.

+1 and another +1 on these comments:

The aft cabin center queen is well protected by cabinets on both sides at about 2/3 of the way. As it is on the aft, the movements, at most cases, are minimized. In addition, The V berth has two panels (normally closed under the mattress) on pivots along both sides to reduce rolling and as Contest, like HR has a medium displacement and no flat bottom, there is no pounding either. Not that it is so much fun to sleep in the V at a very heavy weather. We prefer the saloon or cockpit for overnight naps.

IMHO, these cat's with fully elevated flybridge, with the boom somewhere closer to mid mast, etc. are made for very light weather Bahamas style motorsailing - should be fun at such conditions, nothing more...

[smj]

Originally Posted by DeValency

+1 and another +1 on these comments:



The aft cabin center queen is well protected by cabinets on both sides at about 2/3 of the way. As it is on the aft, the movements, at most cases, are minimized. In addition, The V berth has two panels (normally closed under the mattress) on pivots along both sides to reduce rolling and as Contest, like HR has a medium displacement and no flat bottom, there is no pounding either. Not that it is so much fun to sleep in the V at a very heavy weather. We prefer the saloon or cockpit for overnight naps.



IMHO, these cat's with fully elevated flybridge, with the boom somewhere closer to mid mast, etc. are made for very light weather Bahamas style motorsailing - should be fun at such conditions, nothing more...

I’m not a fan of the fly bridge cats, but facts show that they are constantly crossing oceans with no problems.
Maybe few problems would be a more accurate statement.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by DeValency

IMHO, these cat's with fully elevated flybridge, with the boom somewhere closer to mid mast, etc. are made for very light weather Bahamas style motorsailing - should be fun at such conditions, nothing more...

The flybridge boats are generally also tricky to get on and off the flybridge. When a watchstander responds to a call of nature in the middle of the night, or just wants a drink or a snack, there is risk there just moving around the boat. I won't go so far as to say that characteristic makes them unsuitable for passagemaking, but it is worrisome.

Have we talked about docking? Flybridges seem to all come with hard tops so at least one aft corner and usually two are not even close to visible from the wheel. How do you back into a US slip much less Med-moor?

[Linguini]

Your question have 1.000 variables :-)


https://www.boat24.com/de/segelboote...detail/487954/