should we change our priority's

[libellula]

Philip
Where can I find info on this boat- checked yacht world -no joy

[Jeannius]

Originally Posted by libellula

Philip
Where can I find info on this boat- checked yacht world -no joy

It's this one... YachtWorld.com Boats and Yachts for Sale= actually a 395 that has never been sold. Not quite sure why it has hung around as it is a reasonably attractive price ( at least it is in GBP! ) but then the 395 didn't sell well and has now been dropped after a little over two years. Basically it is the old Privilege 37 updated slightly.

[libellula]

I think I might go see this boat
Thanks

[Troutbridge]

I don't think the perfect boat exists. Even if you designed one yourself & had it built professionally I bet after a month you'd find things you wish you had done differently. I gravitated to the BB385 because once I decided on a new boat, the finish was better (in my eyes) than other European boats that I looked at. There were two clinchers: I think the boat is possibly stronger than some of its competitors and BB were willing to make modifications in terms of layout and additional storeage.
Trysail tracks etc can always be added later, but changes to the basic layout have to be done during manufacture otherwise the boat will look like its been 'hacked about'.
I looked at Lavrezzi, Fontaine Pajot, Lagoon and a couple of South African boats. One point, although the BB 'headline' price is very competitive, it works out about the same by the time you've put on some factory options. To give you some idea, to equipe the boat for a planned circumnavigation has cost me (including the boat!) around £200K, say $400K US.

[philip van praag]

we saw this boat two years ago in US it has solomon drive and is the 37 galley up layout.
both these options are not very popular but bargin hard and you could get all you want at a good price.
look at the lagoon page for some background in the electric drive they started with solomon but have moved away

[philip van praag]

Originally Posted by Troutbridge

I don't think the perfect boat exists. Even if you designed one yourself & had it built professionally I bet after a month you'd find things you wish you had done differently. I gravitated to the BB385 because once I decided on a new boat, the finish was better (in my eyes) than other European boats that I looked at. There were two clinchers: I think the boat is possibly stronger than some of its competitors and BB were willing to make modifications in terms of layout and additional storeage.
Trysail tracks etc can always be added later, but changes to the basic layout have to be done during manufacture otherwise the boat will look like its been 'hacked about'.
I looked at Lavrezzi, Fontaine Pajot, Lagoon and a couple of South African boats. One point, although the BB 'headline' price is very competitive, it works out about the same by the time you've put on some factory options. To give you some idea, to equipe the boat for a planned circumnavigation has cost me (including the boat!) around £200K, say $400K US.

snap we paid 155k for a 2000 priv and spent 40k fitting out for liveabord and long term crusing.

[SeaKing]

Check out the two 47' Mayotte's on YachtWorld. Big wide boats. That company sold and bacame the Voyage. That boat is like the Voyage 500 now only 3' shorter. Interior is basically the same only the hulls were lengthened I believe.

[daydreamer]

Originally Posted by libellula

My wife and I have placed a premium on:
easy access into the boat (sugar scoop or the like)
standing headroom for me (I am 6'5")
the ability for my wife to handle the ground tackle and sails
single handed sailing
seaworthiness (safety)
reasonable sailing characteristics (seakindly motion and performance)
[...]
This is so we are comfortable when we reach our port of destination and stay to explore and enjoy the culture.

We've cruised our Privilege 42 several months a year for 3 years in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands. Some of the non-sailing, non-seaworthiness features that we love about our boat are:

+ Our wonderfully large and usable cockpit. On our last 6 month trip, we ate in the salon just 3 times, the rest outdoors. Every mono-huller comments on our cockpit and 2 out of 3 actually gasp. Our cockpit is the thing we love most about our boat.

+ Cockpit engine access. I can no longer even imagine having to tear apart a bunk or the interior to check the oil or change a shaft seal or replace a water pump belt while entering a channel.

+ Large, usable refrigerators. We have two front-access fridges (total 12 cu. ft.) and a front-access freezer (3.5 cu ft). We use one fridge for drinks, one for food and love this arrangement. You might talk me into a top-loading freezer though.

+ Usable galley. Our boat (like 3 or 4 other P42s) has the factory option of converting what would be the head near the galley into refrigeration and storage, freeing up the original fridge space for even more storage.

+ Transom steps, easy access to the dinghy, great for swimming and snorkeling, and no need to gaff the fish.

+ Deck space and bow seats. Our deck is a great place to just hang out and my wife has spent untold hours watching the world go by from our comfy bow seats.

+ Lots of space. Our boat has 4 cabins: we live in one, one is our guest room, one we use as a pantry, one we use as a workshop. With dedicated workshop and pantry, we are not crowded for space and can easily access anything on the boat without hassle.

+ Comfy cabins. We sleep with a large hatch right over our heads, providing great breeze, a view of the stars, and first-hand knowledge of weather outside. Because our bed is oriented beam-to-beam, not fore-and-aft, we don't have to crawl over one another to get into bed and our double bunk is as usable as a queen because the walls keep us from rolling out. Also, we have good headroom for sitting up and don't feel confined when reading in bed.

+ Good headroom. I am 6' 1.25" (186cm) tall and greatly sympathize with your 6' 5". Our cabins have exactly 186 cm of headroom, the common areas much more. The bunks are long enough, but not much extra. When originally boat shopping, it broke our hearts to walk away from some boats just because of headroom, but I'm glad we did.

+ Beauty. The exterior of a Privilege is maybe not great, but definitely not bad. However, the interiors are absolutely beautiful. Privileges use lots of wood and no fiberglass is visible inside. We like the darker Cherry of our boat more than the lighter Beech of some. We love the interior looks of our boat and really feel lucky when we see some other catamarans, as we did not appreciate this aspect nearly enough when boat shopping.

Some things that we are not so fond of:

- We have a separate, walk-in shower, but wish its space was a little more usable and that it was a little closer to the water heater.

- We miss the his and hers walk in closets we have in our land-based home. We make do, but a little more hanging space would be welcome.

- Our salon is big, but not really very usable or comfortable. Ideally, the settee would be wider for napping and sleeping at sea, the table would not block access to the seats, and there would be places to sit and recline with your feet up. The saloon is our least favorite feature of our boat; and we are scheming up ideas for a remodel.

Greg

[Badgerman]

Voyage boats tend to slam alot. I would check out a Lagoon 440.....really nice to have the whole group on the flybridge helm. Pretty fast, great ride.....room for washer/dryer/ watermaker....all the goodies. We had her out in 25-30 knots outside north of Anegada and had great fun......felt safe and good ride in pretty good sized seas. More than adequate room.

[Jeannius]

Daydreamer..

Greg, it sounds as though Privilege listened to someone like you when they built the 435 to replace the 42. All of the good points of the 42 seem to have been retained and the features that you are not entirely happy with have changed.

There is headroom for at least 6'5" throughout and the berths are 6'7" long.

The saloon is much bigger and the cockpit still a very good size.

The only thing I'd change on mine is the saloon table. I'd have it at coffee table height as that would make the saloon much more comfortable for just lazing around.

[philip van praag]

greg
thanks for joining in you are our big brother we are the 37ft.
we had similar problems with the saloon and made some mods
we removed the back rest cushions on main seating as they were 4" thick and put in 1/2" pad around lumber hight. this alowed the seat base to be mutch deeper and you can lay out on it.
we took 12" of the length of the table to inprove accesss as we do not need to seat 6 down one side and two ends.
the last thing was two custome oblong seats which fit between table base and main seating and then form a good sea berth as the table would stop you roling out, this is also the best place for anyone who is sea sick. we pull the oblong seats out at ancor and use them all round table and even out in cockpit, also longways of the main seat and you have a lazeboy.
good storage for us little ones to.

[libellula]

Thanks daydreamer for the info
great stuff

[schoonerdog]

A couple things made us choose the St Francis.

Cost vs Room, the St Francis was reasonably affordable allowing us to leave earlier.

Sailing ability, not in the surviving the perfect storm sense or have to be the fastest boat afloat, but not having to rely on the engines. Heavier boats can't point well or sail well in lighter winds, which is what you'll encounter in most passages. That means a lot of motoring time and a lot of cost associated with using the most expensive and complex piece of equipment on the boat. Most of the people we know who've given up crusing did so because the costs of sustaining the engines, which became emotionally and financially too great. The person we know whose spend the most time cruising around on his catamaran has a shuttleworth tek 35, a speed demon powered by a single outboard. He's sailed for thousands of miles with no working engine other than his dingy engine simply because he can make 4 knots in 6 knots of wind.

Heads, we have a small child and having two bath tubs is a great thing. Most kids will not like showers at all, but having a bath for them is far more necessary that you would thing. So that alone probably elimated 4 hours of constant battles each week.

Galley down to have more room up top in the saloon area for playing and not having the child playing in the same place where we have our hot oven, boiling water, propane lines, open stove top flames, kitchen knives, lots of 110 outlets, microwave, etc. Galley down meant we could have a completely toddler friendly saloon.

Builder with reputation for building a boat which can withstand anything.

Easy clean everything. Didn't want veneers and have a child who just found the ballpoint pen (eliminates a battle once a week).

Lot's of reserve bouyancy and large crash compartments. No one seems to think about this anymore, but if a breach happens at dock, or at anchor, odds are we're going to be away from the boat. I like the idea of working with a hull that has a foot of water in it than being completely under water. This also works against having a heavy boat.

Windows which provide visibility instead of just sunlight in.

Well lit hulls with plenty of storage, we didn't like the dark torpedo hulls found in some boats.

Flat decks so we wouldn't fall off with toe rails.

Synthetic core was also a desire because we've had friends boat with extensive balsa core damage (a blister on the deck which after sanding it they simply couldn't find the ANY dry area and filled it with fiberglass and sold the boat).

Weight eliminated half of the boats. A good percentage of the remaining lighter boats didn't have good storage or had dark torpedo like hulls. Of the remaining makers, St Francis was the only one we found which was affordable (to us), a size we needed for a family (over 40 ft), a very good sailor (I think it's in the top 3 in terms of SA/D), had a great saloon area, great heads and a solid reputation.

[Pblais]

with this in mind i was wondering with all the talk about what boat to go cruising in. the focus seems to be on its ability to sail through storms, lots of boats are slated for there inability to weather a storm,

Well depends on if there is a storm or not. Some day there will be one and you'll be hoping you made the right choice. Most days really are not about battling storms because if it was like that most of the time there isn't anyone here that would be out there even one day a year. There is the bigger picture. You may be in one place a long time and suddenly you need a spare garage so you can have more stuff. In a storm all that crap you brought along is worthless and a penalty but at anchor it may be your life line.

If there are too many storms then you are anchored in a very very bad place.

[philip van praag]

Originally Posted by Pblais

Well depends on if there is a storm or not. Some day there will be one and you'll be hoping you made the right choice. Most days really are not about battling storms because if it was like that most of the time there isn't anyone here that would be out there even one day a year. There is the bigger picture. You may be in one place a long time and suddenly you need a spare garage so you can have more stuff. In a storm all that crap you brought along is worthless and a penalty but at anchor it may be your life line.

If there are too many storms then you are anchored in a very very bad place.

the idea behind this thred was to take it for granted that every one had found a boat that meets there sea wortheyness requirements .
i wanted to know some of the other things that influance peoples desisions
such as
we have disregarded boats that you cant sit up in bed and read on the grounds that if one of us was ill for a time and confined to bed, they would need to eat and read while getting better. this also meens that we wanted at least two good cabins for more comfort when this happens.

pblis you post a lot do you not have some things to add on the subject (dont say storms)