Buying a Boat!

[Dave35]

Im an australian located in Europe, have done a bit of sailing in my younger days but not on bigger boats. Thing is that I would like to buy a Liveaboard boat for me and my young family so that we can spend holidays aboard the boat in the Med ..with a long term plan of crusing back to Australia in 5-6 years time. I have read the comments on this board , their seem to be much knowledge here. I am looking at a 45 -55ft boat that I could sail single handed (with the wifes help), it has to be spacious and relatively fast, cheap on fuel and above all proven and tested in demanding blue ocean conditions..I have looked at a few boats but would like any recommendations on what the board would think best..

I have looked at the a 1991 Dufour 54, a Jeanneau International 50 ,a Beneteau 50, a Bavaria 50 and soem Bruce Roberts steel hulls.

Are steel hulls a necessity in blue water cruising ? ...if you had to buy a yacht for the above venture that would be suitable to a family of 4 what would you get and with what type of essentila equipment.

Regards

David



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[Deleted member 478]

David

A book could be written on this topic...

Having been cruising now for nearly a year, I have to ask if you've considered a catamaran? And then again, a book could be written on choosing a cat.

IMHO, a cat is the only solution because of the space and stability at anchor and at sea - will keep SWMBO happy, and depending on the cat, they are faster than monohulls which means you will reduce passage time and be able to out-sail bad weather systems.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stingo.co.uk>http://www.stingo.co.uk</A> - now cruising nowhere near you</font color=blue>

 

[bruce]

steel has been the material of choice in the past, but now who knows. when contact with ice, containers and coral, steel wins, and is easier to repair, welders are everywhere.

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[Sunnyseeker]

Our experience and that of many cruiser couples is that anything much over 40' becomes quite a handfull, nearly all the 45-50' seemed to have teenage crew as well. and quite a few harbours have plenty of space for a 40' but quite a bit less for 50' many of the berths were near the limit of our beam (4.0m)
As to choice, theres everything out there crossing oceans, from wooden folkboats to one off Al 60 with geriatric couples one with a wheel chair, he had a big door in the stern that you could walk through into his aft cabin!
Ours was absolutely brilliant, a 1991 Bavaria 390, they used to build them stronger in those days (I think) she even had Kevlar reinforcement around the bow above and below the waterline, to give a bit of added impact protection.

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[Dave35]

thanks for all the replies..the catamaran choice really interested me is all that you say true Stingo? As an aussie i have heard that they have a tendency to break in half in a heavy sea..or is this an old wifes tale?, Stoingo juts out of interest I used to play a bit of rugger and enjoy the odd beer..hope your enjoyoing the trip on your own..you should have stopped into the med and picked up a couple of birds! ..its too late for me my wifes here ..

Anyway, any recommendations on a good spacious cat ...steel hull , that doesnt have a tendency to break in half and is easy to berth ...or is this a silly question?

Cheers

David

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[Sybarite]

Cat Flotteur 41

http://www.prometa.fr/indexA.htm
http://www.reducostall.com/HTML/pagetwo.htm
http://www.antoine-islands.com/
http://www.loisirsnautiques.com/forum_read.php?f=1&i=1764&t=1764

John

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[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

The biggest worry of a catamaran is turning the thing over, either by capsize or pitchpole. This is actually a lot less of a worry than many will lead you to believe, especially with cruising catamarans. Racing Multihulls are a world apart from their cruising cousins. Sailing a catamaran is 'different' to a monohull, you will not be told by the boat that it is time to put a reef in. It will often feel wrong reefing so early, but when you read the log and see you are still flying along in my case at 8kts in a 26ft boat it all feels ok again.

Steel cats, not a very good idea, the whole ethos of a catamaran is to keep th weight down. Glass fibre is the material of choice though Wharram cats are wood with glass sheaving.

I have never heard of a modern cruising catamaran breaking in half, the whole design of the bridgedeck is extremely strong, the deck, saloon and nacelle all becoming part of the bonding structure.

As for boats to look out for, I really like the Broadblue 38. This is a truly massive boat for short handing, but just small enough to go places. One of the problems with 'BIG' cats on the med is parking them. Stern to mooring will give massive surcharges due to beam, with many moorings unavailable to such wide boats.

I would say a Broadblue 38 would be equivalent to a 60ft monohull with regard to living space and then much more with respect to deck space.

Hope this helps

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>

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[Dave35]

Jools,

Thanks for your response the Broadblue looks like a great craft ...and I will be looking to see if I can test drive one...what is the beam on these things? will they fit in a 50 foot normal monohull berth?

Any other recommendation with regard to cats out there ?

Dave

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[StugeronSteve]

Strictly for the hammer heads I would have thought (UK S. Coast marinas anyway).

<hr width=100% size=1>Think I'll draw some little rabbits on my head, from a distance they might be mistaken for hairs.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Two hulls vs one

Not wishing to knock cats, but if you are thinking about one then some things to bear in mind are:

Essence of cat speeds is that lighter is faster Fast cats are light cats. By the time you've loaded a cat with all the paraphanalia of an extended family cruise, speed advantage over a monohull could well disappear.

Upwind, most cruising cats won't point as high as an equivalent mono. This won't matter if you route to avoid too much upwind work.

Cat's don't heel, which is more comfortable. OTOH, cats have a much jerkier ride than a well-designed mono, and are thus less comfortable. You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.

Parking - on a mooring or on an anchor, cats will move differently to monos, so if you are in a crowded parking lot, you might spend a bit of time fending off, or at least worrying about it. Parking a cat in a marina is likely to be more difficult in terms of availability of berths, and more expensive.

Capsize - Cruising cats don't, unless very seriously provoked or extremely unfortunate in terms of weather. Even if they do fall over, although they won't get back up again, they tend to remain afloat, providing some measure of continuing shelter and resources. If a mono goes over, it usually comes back up again, but often with its rig around its ears, so it will be severly handicapped from then on.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>