Bajansailor
Well-known member
Thanks for the perspective on marinas. It confirmed my suspicions.
BTW, why would you want an extra dinghy?
Its a bit of an ask, but I could stretch to that Ovni. Would be great for going to the Bahamas. However its a conventional main sail, and I'd rather have a furling main sail coz it will only be two of us sailing most of the time. Mind you, the sails and the rigging on that Ovni are probably due for replacement soon, so maybe now would be a good time to change them and get a new mast with an in-mast furling system at the same time.
Do aluminium hulls get hot in the sun (too hot to walk on in bare feet), or does the sea act as a great big heat sink and keep them cool?
Re an extra dinghy - my take on this is that an extra dinghy is always useful as soon as you have two or more people on board - not everybody wants to go everywhere together all the time.
And out here in the Caribbean the statistics re dinghies going on walkabout are quite worrying - some drift off because they were not tied up properly, others were stolen.
If your dinghy disappears one night, you are stranded on the boat unless you can beg a lift ashore (or flag down a water taxi) to report it (and / or to look for a replacement). And dinghies have been known to disappear even if they are attached with a lock and cable (the thieves know all about cordless grinders, hacksaws and bolt croppers).
When we used to go on cruises to the islands we always carried two dinghies (an Avon inflatable, and a 2 part home built nesting dinghy), and both got regular usage.
It sounds like your maximum budget is around GBP 300,000 - have a look also at John Rodriguez's cruising yacht brokerage - he specialises in the type of boat that you are looking for.
And he posts on here occasionally as 'Jonic' (his wife's name is Nicola) -
Cruising & Blue Water Yacht Brokerage - UK based ABYA Yacht Broker
Re a 'conventional' fully battened mainsail, you can always retrofit a better track system for the cars (and upgrade the cars) to reduce the friction - I know a few people who have retro-fitted sail tracks from Tides Marine, and they are very happy.
SailTrack and Slide Systems | Tides Marine
If you release the halyard with one of these track systems, and you have good quality batten cars, the sail literally falls down into the Stack pack bag, and then all you have to do is zip it up.
And you can have an electric halyard for hoisting the sail if desired.
This would be a lot easier than converting from a conventional mainsail to an in mast furling main.
Re aluminium hulls - they do not HAVE to be painted (as they are built with marine grade aluminium) - however it is prudent to paint the decks in white or a very pale colour so that they do not get too hot.
They will usually have insulation on the inside of the hull down to the waterline.
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