I Need Some Help - Boat for Atlantic Crossing

[atlantic cruise]

We are a family of three. we want to buy either a motor sailer or a catamaran sailboat. both need to have a transatlantic capability under power alone. Trajectory will be from south east USA to western europe.
We are looking for a no less than 4 cabin boat. It needs to be able to harbor a tender and a big life raft. GPS, Sat Phone, AIS and depth finder are a plus, but can be installed by us. I would like some input on different brands and types of aforementioned boats.

[Bash]

The only motorsailer I know of with that sort of range would be the Nordhavn 56, but it will cost you more than a million $$$.

Might be cheaper just to learn how to sail.

[Unicorn Dreams]

I don't know about fuel consumption of cats, but you will probably need at 250 to 300 ga;;on as a guess. That's a lot pf weight dor a cat.

My 43' mono would probably take 400+ gallons.

WHY BUY A SAILBOAT IF YOU ARE GOING TO BE A POWERBOAT???

[witzgall]

Why do you want to motor a sailboat cross the Atlantic? Is this requirement based on experience, or something you were told was needed? Or something else?

[Dockhead]

What they all said. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. You do not want to motor across the Atlantic, and you certainly don't want to motor across in a sailboat. Sailboats have sails for a number of good reasons -- crossing oceans is one of them -- a sailboat sailing with its sails up is quiet, stable, and doesn't run out of fuel no matter how many thousands of miles you go. Motoring and with its sails down, it is less stable, noisy, stinky, and will need more fuel than almost any sailboat which costs less than a million dollars can carry without a lot of modification.

2. Whether or not you're motoring, you can't just draw a line from wherever you plan to depart from, to whereever you are hoping to go, and call it your course. There are currents and wind and weather patterns to consider, and you also need to choose the right season. West to East is the hard way across the Atlantic. The pleasant trade wind route is East to West from the Canaries to the Caribbean. There are a few ways to do it West to East but they all involve greater risk of bad weather and unfavorable wind, than the other way around. If you dig around in the archives here, you'll find a lot of information on it.

[MarkJ]

A friend on a 47 foot cat last year used 1,200 liters of diesel and that only got him half way.

For Bash: I thought the Nordhavn 56 was about USD $2 million being $1.3 base price and electronics / fitout taking up the rest. Theres a 2009 for $1.6million. a 2010 for $1.8 million

So the original poster can know the ball park he's playing in

If one could afford to fill with diesel in the USA to get to Western Europe that would be fine... but the price would be truly staggering to fill in the Med to get back!!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you here on the forum. Many folks have crossed the ocean with a lot less and been very happy doing it.
If those are your requirements then yes you'll need a very large expensive boat.
kind regards,

[mrohr]

Fly to europe,maybe charter something in the med. Learn the ropes ,then start your education.
There ,I just saved you a couple of million. Probably saved your marrige too.