Another which boat to buy post.

[Noah78]

Question is whether its better to be squished in a heavily loaded etap or have the same weight in a less safe, lower quality boat which is bigger. Budget around low 20's k euro. Going from black sea (obviously) to south america. Couple with a bunch of rescue cats (we can no longer fly commercial or even travel in Europe as we are well over the five cat limit). Dogs are under discussion but for sure we need a boat bigger than we can afford. Would like to get an etap as there is zero chance of getting the whole family in a life raft in the dark if we spring a leak. We can only afford an etap 28 or 30 and most of the cheaper etaps are northern europe / ireland which means i need to go get it as trucking costs 8k-11k and there is a risk of additional cost if something breaks at sea. If we go non-etap we can afford larger boats, 37ft (76 De Vries Lentsch Motorsailer - over our budget so would need some negotiation but carries a ton of stuff and honestly its just a beautiful boat with loads of room for our family) or even over 40 foot (scruffy custom carter 41 or 1947 Berthon Gauntlet 14 Ton 42ft) within our price range which appear to be seaworthy although I understand wood is not as good as fibreglass. There are also some good brands in this price range such as a hallberg rassy and an S&S which are 31 / 34 foot but which are close by in the med (Italy / Greece which makes collection easier faster cheaper). Our provisions are much heavier than most due to cat litter and 2 months of pet food etc. Plus we like to eat well ourselves and always have a ton of supplies. Plus personal effects. It helps my thought process just to write this out, but would appreciate the view of experts on this. Having animals will likely make it tricky to stop in some places for supplies so we are planning to take sufficient supplies for the whole journey, even though I understand it may be possible to leave cats on the boat and only check in myself, but we prefer to be well prepared. This is my first yacht. First ocean crossing. I plan to pay for help on the delivery and hopefully learn something before we go. My mum calls me sometimes as she is worried "your training certificate just says inshore!".

 

[fredrussell]

Have you considered building an Ark?

Seriously though, if you want to cross an ocean in your first boat, a cheap n cheerful one at that, that’s one thing, but do you have to subject the poor animals to it too?

 

[penfold]

Do you like woodwork, scraping, painting and varnishing or can afford to pay someone to do these tasks annually? Buy a wooden boat. If not, give it a miss. Buying a boat on the basis it's ideally suited to carrying the overload needed to do a 25-30 day crossing with a dozen cats and a pet store's worth of pet food seems like an absurd edge case and is restricting your available choice; overloading a smaller boat (within reason) won't necessarily make it less safe/seaworthy, but is likely to impact performance/daily mileage. 40' boats have 40' boat bills. If the difficulties of abandoning ship in the dark occupy your thoughts to a significant degree I question whether oceanic crossings are the right choice.

 

[MisterBaxter]

Just to clarify, the proposal is to sail from the Black Sea to S America with more than five cats in an Etap 28, which will be your first yacht and your first ocean crossing? I'm no master mariner myself but that sounds both unwise and really exceptionally unpleasant.

 

[Praxinoscope]

To subject a ‘pounce’ of cats (most cats hate travelling although a few seem to be OK with it) to an ocean crossing in a first time smallish boat seems to me close to animal cruelty.
And don’t forget, if Heaven forbid the worse we’re to happen and you had a disaster, most rescue services would be unwilling to rusk their lives to rescue the cats.
Far better to leve the cats in the care of someone you trust and do the trip minus the animals.

 

[Wansworth]

I imagine any profesional help at least those that I have known don’t put to sea in an unsafe vessel without good safety equipment and I doubt with a menagerie

 

[Habebty]

Do not do this.

 

[ylop]

Even without crossing oceans 5+ cats on a small boat sounds unpleasant.

 

[Supertramp]

Not sure about the suitability of cats for ocean crossings......... ?

 

[KevinV]

I'd strongly recommend hiring a boat for a week and piling everything and everyone on board and staying on board for the whole week, including a long, boring, sea-sickness inducing downwind leg. Then spend another week cleaning the boat. Then think again and buy a bus to travel the menagerie in instead.

If you persist, then a deeply unfashionable but tough as nails ferrocement boat will give you maximum bang per buck.

 

[DownWest]

Frankly I don't think you have any idea of what this entails. I have known single cats as pets on boats, but the idea of 'many over' five is something else. Not to mention, it sounds as if your budget might just buy a boat, but doesnt extend to fitting it out or running it for a considerable voyage, esp with no experience.

 

[MisterBaxter]

The other issue that occurs to me is that if you intend to do the trip in long passages not shorter sails, to avoid complications about entering different jurisdictions with lots of animals, you will necessarily need to take the weather as it comes, rather than being able to wait for a weather window. A big ferro boat would be much better for that than a smaller boat. A big steel boat in need of hull maintenance might be ok too if the rig is in good condition - it won't rust through during the passage, and on arrival, after a few months of living in a litter tray snow globe, you might be inclined to hand on the long term maintenance to a new owner.

 

[xyachtdave]

Cats on a Boat, the new film staring Samuel L Jackson.

He ain’t getting on no mother clucking boat full of mother clucking cats!

 

[Kelpie]

I'm beginning to wonder if the OP is simply suffering from nominative determinism.

 

[Frogmogman]

Question is whether its better to be squished in a heavily loaded etap or have the same weight in a less safe, lower quality boat which is bigger. Budget around low 20's k euro. Going from black sea (obviously) to south america. Couple with a bunch of rescue cats (we can no longer fly commercial or even travel in Europe as we are well over the five cat limit). Dogs are under discussion but for sure we need a boat bigger than we can afford. Would like to get an etap as there is zero chance of getting the whole family in a life raft in the dark if we spring a leak. We can only afford an etap 28 or 30 and most of the cheaper etaps are northern europe / ireland which means i need to go get it as trucking costs 8k-11k and there is a risk of additional cost if something breaks at sea. If we go non-etap we can afford larger boats, 37ft (76 De Vries Lentsch Motorsailer - over our budget so would need some negotiation but carries a ton of stuff and honestly its just a beautiful boat with loads of room for our family) or even over 40 foot (scruffy custom carter 41 or 1947 Berthon Gauntlet 14 Ton 42ft) within our price range which appear to be seaworthy although I understand wood is not as good as fibreglass. There are also some good brands in this price range such as a hallberg rassy and an S&S which are 31 / 34 foot but which are close by in the med (Italy / Greece which makes collection easier faster cheaper). Our provisions are much heavier than most due to cat litter and 2 months of pet food etc. Plus we like to eat well ourselves and always have a ton of supplies. Plus personal effects. It helps my thought process just to write this out, but would appreciate the view of experts on this. Having animals will likely make it tricky to stop in some places for supplies so we are planning to take sufficient supplies for the whole journey, even though I understand it may be possible to leave cats on the boat and only check in myself, but we prefer to be well prepared. This is my first yacht. First ocean crossing. I plan to pay for help on the delivery and hopefully learn something before we go. My mum calls me sometimes as she is worried "your training certificate just says inshore!".

The obvious choice would be a catamaran.

 

[Wansworth]

I'm beginning to wonder if the OP is simply suffering from nominative determinism.

What does that mean ?…ok googled it?

 

[Kelpie]

Re-reading the OP, I can sort of understand the attraction of an Etap. A cat sounds like the last thing you'd want in a liferaft. Unless you can get a raft with an integral scratching post?

 

[Noah78]

What does that mean ?…ok googled it?

this is funny

 

[john_morris_uk]

this is funny

With as much respect as it deserves, so is your original post.

 

[Wansworth]

this is funny

You have no sense of humour