Lagoon 380 for 1 - 2 year sabbatical

[terah]

@jbinbi We could live without AC (might change our minds about that one later!), but appreciate genset, watermaker and washing machine start to load it up. We've looked at older, bigger cats but you don't seem to get much more space, and older boats have their own problems.

@boatman61 Extended cruising with 2 young boys? - I suspect there will be more than a few 'I wanna be alone' moments

@spindreams Assume you're taking VAT into account? Most of the ex-charter will be VAT not paid. Owner's versions are generally a bit more expensive - not sure if that's just due to availability. Charter boats seem to have less kit on them too.

[SpinDreams]

Originally Posted by terah

@spindreams Assume you're taking VAT into account? Most of the ex-charter will be VAT not paid. Owner's versions are generally a bit more expensive - not sure if that's just due to availability. Charter boats seem to have less kit on them too.

You are probably right they don't always make it obvious that a boats VAT has not been paid in adverts and it surprises me every time. Almost worth starting a business just so you don't have to pay the VAT. Actually that is a question I have wanted to ask but I will do a search of the forum first to see if it is already answered.

With regards to kit, yes I agree but also i'm one of those people who would probably replace most of the kit for stuff that I prefer instead anyway. I am pretty handy and a pure techie at heart and in my working life. Strangely one of the things that I am quite looking forward to is the maintenance side of boat ownership.

[jbinbi]

genset & watermaker will fit no problem. Not sure where to put washer. There is a thread either here or on the Yahoo Lagoon forum regarding this topic. Assuming you are talking mostly about just washer and no dryer?

There is tons of unused space in the forward pontoons. But you don't want lots of weight up there.

Tons of room under berths as well. In owners version, possibly putting washing machine into owners shower, though this is best part of boat;-)

As large as the 38 is, there are times I wish I had the 400. I am sure 400 owners wish they had the 42, and 42 owners want the 450...

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by terah

We're planning a career break in 2 years time, intending to cruise the Med in the summer, then the Caribbean for a few months, then either come home after a year or continue into the Pacific to finish in New Zealand after 2 years.

We are a family with 2 boys who will be 9 and 6 when we leave.

At the moment we are very much set on a catamaran, but with a likely budget of £150k GBP we are looking at smaller boats with a few years on them.

There are very few suitable boats in the UK, so a lot will depend on how well the pound is doing when we are able to purchase (hopefully early next year), but for now there are a fair number of Lagoon 380's in our range in France and Spain, and these tick a lot of boxes for us. Coming from a 30ft mono the additional space seems huge.

Are there any obvious problems with a 380 for what we are planning? And are there any specific things to look out for on an older (~10 year old) 380? (I've read 3Eagles 15,500 mile review - http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...iew-36114.html which is excellent, just looking for more recent views)

Are there any other cats worth looking at in our price range?

Thanks.

We did that in 2011/12 with kids age 4&5 at the beginning. They still have lots of good memories, and now they are older still love sailing.
However I guess when they turn 12 they will be lost to hormons and peer pressure.

My advice: So go as soon as possible. Life gets in the way easily


We had a Lagoon 410 for that trip, bought in the Med and sold in the Caribbean. Lots of work to do on the boat, but overall a good deal financially, the boat sold for more than we had invested in it. The daily cost of living was lower than at home. The only real "cost" was the lost income for the year.


If I were you I'd prefer a charter layout. They are way easier & cheaper to get (even those that were privately used) .
So far I don't understand what the owner's hull is good for. Unless you enjoy sitting at a small office desk for your "single moments".
The big shower is only nice when in colder climates. Once in tropical waters almost nobody showers inside.
Overall the 3cabin version has lots of wasted space and doesn't provide significant storage or comfort to me. Its better for resale value, but you pay more upfront so that doesn't help much.

You will enjoy the 4 cabins on long passages, when you can move around as required. Depending on sea condition and wave direction the cabins have slightly different motion and noise levels so chose one that seems ok every night. Plus the additional cabin will allow for passage crew and family visiting.


As for creature comfort and genset I have a differnt view:
Our 410 was originally equipped by some of these guys that plan a circumnavigation and never find the time or guts to go. It came with big, expensive and very quiet marine genset. Add to that stuff like big A/C, 230v watermaker, dive compressor, huge 3kW inverter, washing machine and all that stuff, total weight of these goodies was over a ton.
The 410 was heavily loaded and relatively slow.

We had to run the genset once per day for an hour or two for charging the batteries, while making water, heating water, filling dive tanks, baking bread, etc at the same time. Running a genset means being tied to the boat for that time, costs diesel, annoys your neighbors in the anchorage.

When I bought my next boat, a FP Mahe, I decided to go another way: 560W solar, a quiet small 12v Katadyn watermaker with separate small tank&pump only for drinking water, 1kW inverter. All very light stuff.

And it worked out very well. We made water for a few hours every other day. The Katadyn provided us with all drinking & cooking water, and we used shore water from the main tanks for showering and cleaning. Water is available for free/cheap in most areas, who cares about the quality if its not for drinking.
If there was no water available we could run the watermaker all day long to make as much water as we needed, the small drinking water tank would overflow into the main tanks.
Of course we are not tied to the boat while making water, afterall we don't have a genset running but just a small watermaker that doesn't need supervision.

Batteries are always full, we never used the engines to charge.

Washing machine? We could have used a small top loader camping washing machine on the inverter but decided we actually don't mind visiting local laundries from time to time.

Baking bread in a bread maker? no problem if done around noon. Otherwise batteries would have taken a beating.

AC? no, but we never go into marinas anyway so we always have a breeze


Our next boat will be solar based, too. Much cheaper, no noise, much lighter, less maintenance. If a used boat comes with a decent genset I use it but I will certainly never install one myself.

[django37]

Have just sailed from Denmark to AUS, we are both 70. No problems at all.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by django37

Have just sailed from Denmark to AUS, we are both 70. No problems at all.

cool. Are you going to sell there and take a 747 back or do you plan to do a full circumnavigation?
I'm considering option #1

[django37]

We take a plane home for Christmas, return the 12th of January. In april go north to Singapore to meet a Peters and May ship which will sail us to Greece. In October we will join the CatamaransCup.com

[tuskie]

Originally Posted by django37

Have just sailed from Denmark to AUS, we are both 70. No problems at all.

Welcome to Aus!
Safe and enjoyable sailing on your northern route through the Great Barrier Reef.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by django37

We take a plane home for Christmas, return the 12th of January. In april go north to Singapore to meet a Peters and May ship which will sail us to Greece. In October we will join the CatamaransCup.com

Good plan, a bit pricey I guess but certainly safer.

[terah]

@jbinbi We're getting to the point we can serisouly start looking at boats so were talking about this again last night. Current thinking is our real must haves are the watermaker and genset, with AC and washing machine nice to haves. We'll carry a couple of dive tasks but just get them filled as we go.

@rabbi We would go tomorrow if we could, but realistically summer 2018 is the earliest we can do it. We at least hope to have the boat sometime between now and summer.

I'm thinking more and more about the 4 cabin version. As you say there are a lot more of them and we are expecting to have guests with us along the way. I'm popping out to see someone with a 380 S2 next week, so will have a better idea then.

How noisy is the Katadyn?

[Haywoods]

Hi Terah

Our take on this ..... We don't live aboard but spend around 6 weeks at a time in the Greek Islands on our 380s2. The water maker to us is absolutely essential as the local water is not brilliant quality and we would have to stop to fill up every 3 or 4 days without it.

We don't have a generator but manage perfectly well with our solar and power from the alternator when motoring. The solar will run the water maker during the day and also charge the batteries, but we do have to carefully manage the power levels. (We don't have or need AC).

We too were torn between the 3 cab and 4 cab versions but eventually went for the owners version - great decision !! We just love our owners cabin. The 380 is not really big enough to have 8 on board so we try to restrict it to 6 anyway. When we have had 8, two people sleep upstairs and this works fine for short periods.

Good luck with your new boat - we absolutely love ours and as newbies sailing as a couple most of the time, we are pleased we did not go for anything bigger.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by terah

@rabbi We would go tomorrow if we could, but realistically summer 2018 is the earliest we can do it. We at least hope to have the boat sometime between now and summer.

I'm thinking more and more about the 4 cabin version. As you say there are a lot more of them and we are expecting to have guests with us along the way. I'm popping out to see someone with a 380 S2 next week, so will have a better idea then.

How noisy is the Katadyn?

The Katadyn is pretty quiet but has a somewhat strange whining sound.
Its a slow running plunger pump that does only one or two strokes per second. And each part of the cycle make a different sound, so its actually quite funny.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by rabbi

The Katadyn is pretty quiet but has a somewhat strange whining sound.
Its a slow running plunger pump that does only one or two strokes per second. And each part of the cycle make a different sound, so its actually quite funny.

Sorry disagree. I had the katadyn 80e for 6 years , it was quiet noisy.

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