Truth or Perception

[waltdrechsler]

That helps. I thought I was going crazy. I will access from my laptop. Funny the link you sent on another search works well. I just needed to change the query......


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[waltdrechsler]

I have done a lot of reading, looking, poking and prodding. Still learning a lot and have along way to go. We are narrowing the girls down a bit but even this list is widely varied.

We like then Morgan 45 CC. The admiral likes the Master Stateroom and we own an older Morgan currently although these are from two different builders.

We also like the Hylas 45.5 or 46. The 44 was nice too but the Admiral likes a swim step. Big jump in price between the 44 and 45.5 / 46

We found a Catalina Morgan 440 close to home so will poke around on it Saturday. Not a center cockpit but the layout seems nice. I like the tank capacity, good HP and it has a lot of old people stuff. (Electric winches, bow thruster, roller boom, etc) Almost double the price of the 45 CC. I found a write up that seemed to point out a lot of positive qualities.

I started reading the thread on Water boats">Blue Water Boats but at 72 pages that will take awhile! One comment I saw that really hit me was "buy the boat you want and leave on it"

I'm pretty handy so I tend to look for a bargain and fix. I think this is not the time for that.

Comments are welcome.

Skipper






Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[robert sailor]

[QUOTE=waltdrechsler;1823336]We are preparing for some extended coastal cruising down the West coast of the Americas (San Diego South) and maybe future across to Galapagos or maybe through the canal into the Caribbean. We are now shopping for a boat, 42 - 45 range that can be handled by a very good looking husband and wife team. I have a few old perceptions that need to be validated or challenged.

1) I like a keel stepped mast for longer cruising (we currently sail Puget Sound in a Morgan 323)
Are the new deck stepped masts ok for what we are planning?
2) Spade or skeg rudder, does it matter?
3) Sail Drive? Any issues, cost of replacement, what to stay clear of, etc.
Not fond of a rubber gasket between me and Atlantis
4) Older heavier boat version newer, lighter designs? The good, the bad and the ugly
5) In mast furling? My thinking is the less moving parts the better.
6) Admiral prefers center cockpit for the island Quean aft stateroom. Any thoughts on this?

Any other comments and / or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,

Walt and Linda Drechsler


I like a keel stepped mast for a variety of reasons, if you were ever dis-masted they tend to leave you a nice long stub to jury rig a sail plus if you have to pull a headstay to get into a smaller travel lift the mast will support itself. The down side is they usually leak and your bilge is never dry. Having said that I now own my first deck stepped mast and its doing OK so... personal preference!

We have a very stout 1/2 skeg which I really like but a spade is the most powerful rudder you can design and easily out steers a skeg or barn door rudder. The issue is that many entry level builders are not building really stout spade rudders and to me the loss of a rudder is just about the worst thing that can happen, I'd much rather loose my mast. So my preference would be a really stout spade (but they are hard to come by on cheaper boats)

I don't like sail drives, I know most all of the newer boats use them but its not because they are so good its because they are cheaper and really easy to install by the builder BUT if everything else was good on the boat I might hold my nose and buy it.

I don't like old and heavy and I'm not a fan of the new full liner boats, I prefer moderate displacement fin keel boats with bulkheads tabbed to the hull. You will have to buy a more expensive newer boat or an older boat to get these features, if your buying older try to limit the choice to the better built boats and get a good survey.

In mast furling is not a good discussion on our boat because I am not a big fan of them and my wife is. The damn boat came stock with inmast furling and I have gotten used to it, actually never had a single problem with it in well over 2-1/2 years of almost constant sailing so I suppose if you operate them as they were designed they work but every-time I am going to weather in lighter air I look up at that sail and I can feel myself on the edge of vomiting, I know I'll get over it but it has been close to 3 years now.

Another of my sore points, wifey insisted on CC and I always thought it was like sailing a layer cake as I'm an aft cockpit guy. At least the Moody is one of the better designed ones and I have gotten to sort of like it, it sails OK and does good passage times and my wife loves the large aft cabin so I've sort of moved a bit to the dark side.

Just remember that all the feedback you are going to get are opinions, some from folks that have sailed a gazillion miles and some that are Velcro'd to a marina dock 95% of the time. Read them of course and then get your ass in gear and spend copious amounts of time on due diligence knowing full well that whatever you end up with is going to be a compromise unless you have a really large bank account.

Its a great way to spend money as it does reward you with real pleasures which is good because most of it doesn't come back but hell we are here for a good time not a long time.