Absolutely. Do your due diligence with your head to make sure the boat's sound, but one day, a boat will just wink at you and say, Buy me.
That was with the assumption of all other things being equal.
I have a small fast cruiser that is absolutely nothing like a seadog or a pentland or whatever.
Errr, not the Pembroke - that’s the 26ft hull and is, I think, essentially a fin keeled Centaur. The Pentland is the 4th version of the 31ft hull.Get the best pf both worlds, find a westerly pembroke/longbow/renown/berwick ( same boat basically, different configs) in a ketch version
Interesting question, which prompts queries in reply.
Correct, my apologies, I always mix the two Pe’s up
Interesting question, which prompts queries in reply.
What are you wanting from your preferred vessel, relative to those you owned before? The 'brick outhouse' preference suggests solidity commonly associated with heavy motorsailer styles, which do feature on your list. Those also offer a helm with full protection from the weather (but aren't the only designs that do). Conversely, there are open-cockpit 'brick outhouse' yachts which don't offer much (if any) weather protection.
Important to be realistic about exactly what you (and whoever you hope will come with you) will be happy to endure.
How limiting is the cost factor? I noticed you included the Konsort Duo. It's costlier than most others you listed, but the only one designed mainly to make just a couple comfortable, and thereby (very unusually) manages to be a sub-30ft yacht that is always nice - almost luxurious - to be aboard.
For 20 years after it ceased production, I was dismissive of the not-pretty Konsort Duo. Finally I realised how adroit its design is for thousands of UK sailors, who don't even recognise the fact, or choose not to. Most skippers usually sail only with their spouse, and motor a high proportion of their passages in grotty weather. For them, open-cockpit boats with berths for six are comfortless and their layouts irrelevant.
I assume the Konsort Duo's superstructure discouraged more orders than it attracted, but the traditional motorboat visibility from inside allows a quite different approach to yachting, combining best of sailing in fine weather (because it's not based on a heavy trawler-style) but letting all miserable weather and contrary winds be treated as motoring days - get to a windward destination under power in a fraction the time, without even going outside.
I quite like the the Seadog, but it seems to go most of the way to being a motorsailer without offering a weatherproof helm. It also seems to be acknowledged by owners as dreadfully slow. Cute original design and layout though (pics from Yachtsnet).
The Pentland ketch is appealing, but its narrow B-layout-Centaur-style saloon (galley forward, starboard side) removes the snug port-and-starboard forward sitting space that Westerly themselves replaced it with, in the Griffin. I couldn't own a boat whose saloon feels like a corridor.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with the Seadog or Pentland, for the following inescapable reason.
Our unreliable climate ensures our being frequently rained on, wind-blown and routinely chilled to the bone, often in months when it isn't expected. You're still young enough to stay free of (or you may already be ingrained by) the commonplace view here - that sailing isn't really sailing unless you happily (or just doggedly) endure dismal weather that you would never have set off in.
If your choice is inspired by brochure photos of yachts in ideal conditions, try to get wise to that illusion - it rarely applies, especially if you're of working age and busy when the weather's at its best. But...if you buy a boat that you can steer on deck when the weather's fine, and can retreat to helm indoors when it's not fine, the boat will get more (and much happier) use across the seasons, giving better value for the cost of ownership.
.
Interesting question, which prompts queries in reply.
What are you wanting from your preferred vessel, relative to those you owned before? The 'brick outhouse' preference suggests solidity commonly associated with heavy motorsailer styles, which do feature on your list. Those also offer a helm with full protection from the weather (but aren't the only designs that do). Conversely, there are open-cockpit 'brick outhouse' yachts which don't offer much (if any) weather protection.
Important to be realistic about exactly what you (and whoever you hope will come with you) will be happy to endure.
How limiting is the cost factor? I noticed you included the Konsort Duo. It's costlier than most others you listed, but the only one designed mainly to make just a couple comfortable, and thereby (very unusually) manages to be a sub-30ft yacht that is always nice - almost luxurious - to be aboard.
For 20 years after it ceased production, I was dismissive of the not-pretty Konsort Duo. Finally I realised how adroit its design is for thousands of UK sailors, who don't even recognise the fact, or choose not to. Most skippers usually sail only with their spouse, and motor a high proportion of their passages in grotty weather. For them, open-cockpit boats with berths for six are comfortless and their layouts irrelevant.
I assume the Konsort Duo's superstructure discouraged more orders than it attracted, but the traditional motorboat visibility from inside allows a quite different approach to yachting, combining best of sailing in fine weather (because it's not based on a heavy trawler-style) but letting all miserable weather and contrary winds be treated as motoring days - get to a windward destination under power in a fraction the time, without even going outside.
I quite like the the Seadog, but it seems to go most of the way to being a motorsailer without offering a weatherproof helm. It also seems to be acknowledged by owners as dreadfully slow. Cute original design and layout though (pics from Yachtsnet).
The Pentland ketch is appealing, but its narrow B-layout-Centaur-style saloon (galley forward, starboard side) removes the snug port-and-starboard forward sitting space that Westerly themselves replaced it with, in the Griffin. I couldn't own a boat whose saloon feels like a corridor.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with the Seadog or Pentland, for the following inescapable reason.
Our unreliable climate ensures our being frequently rained on, wind-blown and routinely chilled to the bone, often in months when it isn't expected. You're still young enough to stay free of (or you may already be ingrained by) the commonplace view here - that sailing isn't really sailing unless you happily (or just doggedly) endure dismal weather that you would never have set off in.
If your choice is inspired by brochure photos of yachts in ideal conditions, try to get wise to that illusion - it rarely applies, especially if you're of working age and busy when the weather's at its best. But...if you buy a boat that you can steer on deck when the weather's fine, and can retreat to helm indoors when it's not fine, the boat will get more (and much happier) use across the seasons, giving better value for the cost of ownership.
.
Great pictures. It's hard to explain to non ketch sailors the comfort of a reduced jib and mizzen on a decent displacement hull.
This has been discussed at length many times, and despite your claim that thousands of British yachtsmen are in need of such boats every time mass producers have taken the plunge they have failed to attract buyers. The Konsort Duo, and Moody Eclipse are two shining examples. Heaped with praise, initial rush and within 3 years or so the tiny market has bought one and demand disappeared.Interesting question, which prompts queries in reply.
How limiting is the cost factor? I noticed you included the Konsort Duo. It's costlier than most others you listed, but the only one designed mainly to make just a couple comfortable, and thereby (very unusually) manages to be a sub-30ft yacht that is always nice - almost luxurious - to be aboard.
For 20 years after it ceased production, I was dismissive of the not-pretty Konsort Duo. Finally I realised how adroit its design is for thousands of UK sailors, who don't even recognise the fact, or choose not to. Most skippers usually sail only with their spouse, and motor a high proportion of their passages in grotty weather. For them, open-cockpit boats with berths for six are comfortless and their layouts irrelevant.
I assume the Konsort Duo's superstructure discouraged more orders than it attracted, but the traditional motorboat visibility from inside allows a quite different approach to yachting, combining best of sailing in fine weather (because it's not based on a heavy trawler-style) but letting all miserable weather and contrary winds be treated as motoring days - get to a windward destination under power in a fraction the time, without even going outside.
