Questions About Sailboat Design & Selection
Index
Limited Production Run of Aluminum Expedition Sailboats
Interior Layout and Boat Selection
Voyaging Safely on a Small Budget
Homebuilding a Boat
Stability
Used Boat for the High Latitudes
Motorsailer Versus Sailboat
Which Motorsailer
Macgregor 26M for Trans-Atlantic
Used Boat for Trans-Atlantic on a Budget
Aluminum Catamaran
Used Colin Archer Design
Fiberglass Sailboat in the High Latitudes
Limited Production Run of Aluminum Expedition Sailboats (12/2009)
Question [edited for brevity]: I have this notion of building a modern expedition (aluminum) fast cruiser that would include many of your ideas/opinions, not necessarily because they are your opinions but because you and I have reached many of the same conclusions. In considering a project, the thought has become, not to build ONE, but to build a number of hulls (to amortize some of the costs). Can you make any estimate as to what the depth of the market might be for such a boat?
Answer: It’s an interesting idea, and in fact one we have considered from time to time ourselves. I would guess that there might be a market for several boats, maybe half a dozen. The problem is that the potential buyers tend to be very experienced ocean sailors with their own very specific and different ideas of what will make a good boat. For example, Polaris and Morgan’s Cloud are radically different but still both great offshore expedition boats. We would not build a Polaris sister ship and I’m sure Michael and Martina would feel the same about Morgan’s Cloud. So the difficulty is to come up with a design that would appeal to enough buyers to work economically.
Having said that, it has been done. For example, some French friends of ours just completed a limited production run of three high latitude expedition boats (see http://site.voila.fr/fredoya). But there have also been failures such as the Labrador 40, one of which was built and aggressively marketed some years ago, but with no additional takers, at least as far as I know.
To make this work I think the person who conceives and promotes the boat will need to have an established and long term record of successful expedition voyages, both to have the experience to make the correct design decisions, and to have the credibility in the market to successfully sell the result. Also, the boat should be designed by a mainstream and successful marine architect, since I think that a relatively unknown designer may have been part of the Labrador 40’s problem.
Probably the best model for such a project would be Steve and Linda Dashew’s two limited production runs: the Sundeer sailboats, built in the nineties, and their offshore expedition motor boats, in production at the moment in New Zealand. However, Steve and Linda are a hard act to follow with their combination of huge smarts and 250,000 miles of experience with the credibility that confers.
In summary, boat building is a tough business and expedition boat building perhaps doubly so.
Update (02/2010):
Check out the Boreal 44 if you're looking for a great aluminum expedition sailboat.Back to Index
Interior Layout and Boat Selection (09/2009)
Question: I am looking at a cross-Atlantic trip and was thinking about a 1978 A Plan Endeavour 37, mainly because of the layout. Would you advise against this boat for such a long journey even with a good survey?
Answer: I can’t give an opinion on a particular boat’s suitability for an ocean crossing without having seen the boat in question, or at least a sister ship, neither of which I have done for the Endeavour. I would say that buying a boat for such a journey based on the interior layout would not be the way I would approach the selection process: I would be looking for good sailing ability, strength and seaworthiness first.
However, I can say that the layout looks less than ideal for offshore work since the double bunks will be useless at sea, unless divided by lee-cloths, and the salon area forward of the mast will be unusable in any sort of sea due to motion. Also, this many berths (six) will be less than ideal for cruising since there will be little room for storage.
If you really love the boat, you could go a long way to solving these problems by ripping out one of the aft berths and installing a good sea bunk. This process would probably improve engine access too and you might even be able to squeeze in a work bench and some additional storage.
I also found this teaser for a Practical Sailor report on the boat that I would strongly recommend that you buy and read.
Having said all that, there is no reason that you
should not be able to get a decent ocean-going boat in this price range,
see the post below for some suggestions on how to do that.
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Voyaging Safely on a Small Budget (05/2009)
Question [edited for brevity]: I've been dreaming about my Europe to Caribbean trans-Atlantic trade wind voyage for years, but now I've decided to do it in the next 5 years time. I know I won't have the money to buy an expensive boat so I'm trying to figure out what is the minimum budget to do it without being a fool.
A Vertue 25 at Svalbard.
Answer: Though we have recently been talking about expensive gear, such as carbon fiber masts, we don’t want to give anyone the impression that they have to have a lot of money to go cruising safely. Here are some ideas of how to get out there without having a huge budget:
- The Boat: There are big, very expensive, and unseaworthy boats and there are small, relatively inexpensive, but very seaworthy boats (e.g. the Contessa 32, the Nicholson 35, the Vertue 25, the Dana 24, etc.). For more on this, see Twenty Affordable Sailboats To Take You Anywhere by Gregg Nestor.
- The Gear: A disaster at sea is often due to a lot of small things that add up, so paying attention to detail, making sure that your boat’s gear is strong enough and properly maintained, and knowing how to fix things "when" (note I didn't say "if"!) they break, will go a very long way to making your journey a safe one. Doing your own work also saves money, meaning you can have a significantly smaller cruising budget than if you rely on boatyards to do the work for you; plus, when you do the work yourself, you can trust it, which isn't always true of work done by the "professionals".
- The Crew: The most seaworthy boat, if handled incorrectly, can get into trouble. We always encourage anyone interested in going to sea to do so with other experienced sailors and on other boats before doing so on their own boat. It sounds like you have been getting experience on a variety of boats, which will stand you in good stead when you buy, outfit and sail your own boat.
- The Budget: You can get a small, relatively inexpensive but still seaworthy boat, do as much of the work yourself as possible, and safely sail within a small budget, especially if you keep the boat simple; i.e. minimal electronics, no refrigeration, no hot running water, etc. Another way to save money is to buy second hand gear through eBay, yacht club bulletins, and nautical flea markets. People are so caught up with having the latest and greatest that you can get some incredible deals on good quality, if dated, equipment.
- Further tips: Once you have your own boat, we encourage you to really get to know the boat before you go offshore. Then go on an offshore shakedown cruise in some heavy weather, returning to shore to fix whatever is broken, before you head out on your crossing. Also make sure you have a heavy weather strategy in place.
One last thing: Whatever budget number you come up with for maintenance
of the boat, you should double it!
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Homebuilding a Boat (10/2008)
Question [edited for brevity]: I am a novice at sailboat construction, but found a beautiful fiberglass hull on Ebay and couldn't resist the challenge of building my own [boat]. It's 45’ LOA, 36’ LWL, 5’-3” draft, 14’ beam and 9’-6” depth of hull amidships.
The hull is believed to have been built in the early 1970s, but there is no documentation and no plans that go with it. On the plus side, it has remained, since its construction, in a warehouse, protected from the elements. It is really a shell sans bulkheads, frames or stringers, but with exquisite lines. The construction appears to be ½” Airex core, skinned inside and out with ¼” fiberglass.
I want it to be a center cockpit schooner and was hoping that you could steer me to some place where can I get some kind of professional help for bulkheads and the like.
Answer: Over the years, I have considered building a boat a few times, but have always chickened out of taking on such a mammoth task. I also have a huge amount of respect for people who pull it off.
On the positive side:
- A home builder knows his or her boat inside and out, making repairs easier when required.
- Successful home builders get a tremendous sense of satisfaction from completing the project.
- A successful home builder gets a custom boat at a price that is substantially less than the cost of building a custom boat in a yard. However, be careful on this one. Unless you have a huge amount of experience, what you think will work well when building a boat may not be so great when you actually come to sail her.
What I have learned from watching others who go for it is:
- It is almost always far more work, takes far longer and is much more expensive than the builder anticipated.
- It is rarely, if ever, cheaper than buying a good second hand boat. This is even true if you cost your time at zero and will be particularly so now with the fantastic bargains out there on the used boat market due to the economic downturn.
- I would guess that if you are boatbuilding full time it will take you three to five years to finish the boat and at least ten years if you have a full time job.
- A home built boat, no matter how well finished, will always have a lower resale value than a factory built one. Incidentally, we were only able to afford to buy the current Morgan’s Cloud because she was home built.
If you decide to go ahead with the project, keep the following in mind:
- Before starting, make very sure that this hull is sound. Remember that the hull is about ten percent of the cost of a boat, but if there is anything wrong with it you will be out the other ninety percent that it takes to complete it. To be sure that you are not trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, you need a really good survey from someone that understands fiberglass construction and the associated engineering. I would even go to the extent of taking core samples—maybe you could do this in the way of the through hulls—and have them analyzed in a lab that specializes in fiberglass laminates.
- You need to hire a qualified and experienced naval architect to design the rig and bulkhead layout. Don’t skimp here; get this stuff wrong and your boat will be disappointing to you and probably near worthless to anyone else. A naval architect can also take off a set of lines and give you an idea of how the boat will sail before you even get started. You may wish to talk to Ian McCurdy of McCurdy and Rhodes (mccurdyrhodes@aol.com) who designed Morgan’s Cloud. If Ian is not interested in taking on the project he might know someone who would be since he teaches naval architecture.
Reader comments:
-
[edited for brevity] Most custom boats have a dreadful interior...Probably due to a lack of overall vision at the start or lack of budget as the project progresses. Another problem is the layout which is often very personal. One thing many custom builders seem to forget is that one day they may have to sell the boat again. As a result the final product is too much custom (and personal) and too little mainstream.
- I'm actually building a boat. I'm in touch with many other
builders all over the world and can agree with certainty that the comments
about it taking longer and costing more are universally true. My build
is near completion after almost four years but we planned on it taking
about two and a half... It's cost about a third more too, and we tried
to be very pessimistic with our original costing. That said, I've enormously
enjoyed about half of the work and got considerable satisfaction from
finishing most of the other half!
If you decide to self build be prepared
to be pushed to the limit mentally, physically and financially; don't
do it unless you actually want to BUILD a boat, if you just want to
go sailing, this is not the way!
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Stability (08/2008)
Question: I recently had an interesting discussion about stability with a cruising yacht owner, and I thought this topic would be of real interest to any high latitude sailor. And I also suspect that you would have traversed this terrain long ago and have an opinion.
After the 1979 Fastnet race, the Joint Committee on Safety from Capsizing made the following recommendation: "The most significant contribution to the resistance to wave-induced capsize would be to increase the roll moment of inertia of yachts". For a sailing yacht, adding mass at the top of the mast would increase roll inertia more than adding mass anywhere else (hulls are normally designed to support a given keel weight and depth, and adding additional weight to the keel is not recommended).
At the same time, various regulatory agencies and yacht racing bodies have firm guidelines, even rules, to ensure the highest possible Angle of Vanishing Stability (also know as Limit of Positive Stability). For a monohull, removing that same mass that we placed at the top of the mast, would have a more beneficial effect on the LPS than shifting the same amount of mass anywhere else on the boat.
Unless I am overlooking something, there's contradictory advice here. To prepare a yacht to resist wave-induced capsize, do I favour an increase in roll inertia, or do I favour an increase in LPS? If I favour LPS, I would probably end up doing things that would diminish roll inertia (like keeping weight close to the deck).
Do you favour one approach more than the other, and why?
Answer: First off I should say that I’m no naval architect, so this question is getting pretty close to, or perhaps exceeding, the limits of my competence. Still, I will have a go and also talk a bit about our own thinking on stability as it relates to our boat and other boats we would be willing to go to sea in.
The contradiction you outline is a good example of the dangers of taking one conclusion of a long and complex report and trying to apply it to the incredibly complex and still only partially understood dynamics of sailboat capsize in breaking seas. Yes, it is true, although counter intuitive, that making the mast heavier actually increases a sailboat’s resistance to capsize—this is why dismasted boats are often repeatedly rolled in breaking waves. However, as you point out, increasing mast weight also reduces the boat's ability to recover from a capsize or knockdown. Like almost everything around boats it’s a compromise. The naval architect designing a boat needs to balance these two conflicting requirements to come up with the safest possible, but still practical, cruising design.
For us, when balancing the two conflicting variables, we would always lean toward a higher limit of vanishing stability and even more importantly, a higher ratio of upright stability to inverted stability (within reason since a boat that is too stable can be horribly uncomfortable at sea with a very quick motion).
Our reasoning is that we believe that whether or not a boat is capsized in a given situation is far more about how she is handled than her intrinsic resistance to capsize. Any boat, no matter her design, will be rolled if caught abeam by, or broaching on, a large enough breaking wave. Conversely, a boat, even a poorly designed one, that is masterfully prepared and handled, with the right gear deployed, will probably come through the same situation upright. (See our Heavy Weather Series for some suggestions on gear and handling in heavy weather.)
However, once the boat is on her side or, worse still, upside down, no amount of skill or preparation will bring her upright; only her own intrinsic tendency to return to an upright position, and the right wave, will save the day.
Over the years, we have substantially lowered Morgan’s Cloud’s center of gravity by removing her teak decks and changing to a carbon fiber mast when our old aluminum one wore out. In addition, we always try to go to sea with our fuel and water tanks full since they are in the keel stub and have a substantial lowering effect on the boat’s center of gravity.
Here are two additional things that should be kept in mind when evaluating a boat's stability numbers:
First, size has a positive effect on a boat’s resistance to capsize that is far more than linear. I believe I’m right in saying that no boat over 40 feet was rolled in the 79 Fastnet disaster. In other words, smaller boats, particularly those under 35’, need to have very much higher limits of positive stability than larger ones to be safe offshore. When looking for a safe smaller offshore boat, think about something like the Contessa 32, the only boat in her class that finished the 79 Fastnet.
Second, although, as far as I know, there is little real science around to prove it, I’m convinced that too deep a draft can actually make a boat more prone to capsize, not less. This is because such a keel will catch in the water preventing the boat from skidding sideways and thereby dissipating wave energy when hit. Any high performance dinghy sailor (I used to sail 505s) will tell you that the quickest way to wear the boat as a hat is to have the center-board too far down, particularly when reaching. This is probably one of the reasons that many lifting keel boats such as the OVNIs, that don’t have very high stability numbers—although, contrary to some opinions, they are respectable—have still compiled enviable track records of safe offshore voyaging. (Our guest writer Colin Speedie has done a very good post on stability as it applies to his new OVNI.)
In summary, there is a lot more to this than can be summed up in a few
numbers, and no boat is safe if she does not have the right storm survival
gear and a crew that know how to use it.
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Used Boat for the High Latitudes (05/2007)
Question: We are looking for a used boat to buy, and wonder if you could give us any pointers. We plan to cruise the high latitudes and circumnavigate with two people. The features we are looking for in a boat are:
- Full keel
- 32 to 37 feet long
- Cutter rig
- Over 11 foot beam
Answer: If you were planning a standard tradewind circumnavigation, I would say that any good production fiberglass boat should be adequate, but since you have added the high latitudes to the criteria, this will substantially narrow the field. Generally, I would be looking for a metal boat, preferably aluminum, although that is not to say that you must buy a metal boat (more on aluminum boats).
I would also suggest that you modify your selection criteria in several ways: First, drop the length and beam criteria and instead set a minimum displacement that you will be satisfied with. This change will give you more options and reduce the risk that you will buy a boat that is too short and beamy to be comfortable offshore (more on boat shape).
Second, I would drop the full keel criteria, since a boat with a moderate fin keel will generally be faster and more maneuverable with little or no sacrifice in comfort or tracking. It is a common misconception that full keel boats track better; tracking is actually a function of many other design parameters. Incidentally, my old boat, a Fastnet 45, tracked very poorly and the present Morgan’s Cloud steers like she is on rails—they are both fin keel boats. This is not to say that I would rule out full keel boats, only that I would consider moderate fins too.
Third, I would not worry about a cutter rig since I don’t think that the additional complications are necessary or even desirable on a boat below about 35,000lb (16,000kg) displacement. (I’m assuming here that you are talking of a true cutter in which the mast is further aft than a sloop and the staysail is used all the time when the wind is forward of the beam.) Note that I do believe that any offshore boat, regardless of size, should have running backstays to stabilize the rig and a removable internal headstay that can be set up easily to take a storm jib—both are relatively simple modifications to most sloops.
Whatever boat you settle on, make sure you get a really good survey and keep a substantial amount of money in your budget for a complete refit. To make many, perhaps most, used boats ready for the high latitudes you will be looking at new rigging and sails, and possibly a new engine, as well as substantial upgrades to most other gear. If the boat is over about ten years old, or has a substantial amount of miles on it, the steering gear and chain plates need a very careful look that should include complete disassembly. On fiberglass boats, be particularly wary of chainplates that are encapsulated in fiberglass and foam filled fiberglass rudders, both can hide metal corrosion just waiting to cause disaster. Keep in mind that bringing many older used boats up to an adequate standard for the high latitudes could cost you as much again as the boat and so a newer more expensive boat may be a better deal in the long run.
France
and Holland are good places to start your search for a rugged metal boat.
You could also look at really good quality fiberglass production boats
like those from Hallberg-Rassy, although the teak decks are a concern.
You may wish to take a look at www.yachtworld.com to
get an idea of what is available.
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Motorsailer Versus Sailboat (05/2007)
Question: We are considering the purchase of a 52' motorsailer and wanted to know your thoughts regarding at what age (we are 62 and 60) should a couple consider a trawler versus a sailboat. After reading your very detailed descriptions regarding handling of sails while voyaging we were just wondering if we are taking on a bit much as we plan to passage to Alaska, Hawaii and beyond.
Answer: Assuming no physical or health limitations, other than the standard aches and pains that go with the age, I see no reason not to be ocean sailing into your sixties or even seventies. If a motorboat is really what you want, then fine, nothing wrong with that, but don’t go that way just because of your age.
After all, many of the most daring and arduous sailboat voyages of the last 50 years were made by people over 60, and many of those sailors were not immune to the ravages of age either: Francis Chichester was fighting cancer, Miles Smeeton’s arthritic knees were so bad that at times he could barely walk, and H.W. (Bill) Tillman suffered from intense chronic back pain.
I have a friend that is pushing 80 and still offshore voyaging under sail; he has circumnavigated the world twice since celebrating his sixtieth. I have another friend in his middle sixties who is currently preparing his 32 foot boat for a voyage to Greenland. These are not super-people either; both of them have had serious and debilitating battles with cancer. I guess what I’m saying here is that I think that whether we go on sailing (or do much else worth while) as we age is more an attitudinal issue than a physical one.
I’m only four years behind you and hope and plan, barring serious illness, to be sailing Morgan’s Cloud with her big rig and manual winches, well into my sixties. Sure, hoisting the main is harder now than it was ten years ago and I guess there is even a small chance that the exertion could kill me—better that way than shoveling snow.
I can’t say what is right for you, but for me I think that pampering myself and avoiding exertion because it hurts a bit or makes me more tired than it once did is a slippery slope to the rocking chair. I’m not suggesting that all of us can or should emulate Chichester or Tillman (I know I’m not that tough) but I do want to go on pushing myself past my comfort zone, even if only a little.
By the way, if you think that I’m one of those hard men that is never sick and has no sympathy for those that are, just talk to anyone who knows me well; they will dissolve into gales of laughter at the thought.
If you do decide to go with sail, I would be thinking more about a real sailboat, albeit with a powerful auxiliary engine, than a motorsailer. More on that in Which Motorsailer.
Reader Comment:
Carl writes [edited for brevity]: We have known in exercise physiology for more than 50 years that, when you decrease your work load, your body will very quickly atrophy down in fitness to match that work load (within as little as two weeks). This means that, if you decrease your work load because you are getting old, you will get weaker so that the decreased work load will be just as hard and even harder to manage. If you work harder to keep a higher level of fitness than is required to achieve your desired task, the desired task will be much easier. We have also known that, when elderly people cut back on their physical work load, they atrophy down in fitness faster and age faster becoming incapacitated sooner. Therefore, the key for cruising into your later years should be to keep active and maintain a higher fitness level than is required for cruising and not cutting back on activity and fitness unless you have a significant ailment requiring you cut back on activity.Back to Index
Which Motorsailer (05/2007)
Question: We are a couple aged 60 and 62 considering a 52’ motorsailer for extended cruising to Alaska, Hawaii and beyond. We have attached some details on the boat and would like your opinion of its suitability for our plans. The #1 reason we like the motorsailer concept is the raised and fully enclosed pilothouse, the layout (galley and saloon area) and the large engine.
Answer: I’m afraid that I’m just not a fan of this kind of boat for offshore voyaging. Motorsailers of this type are, in my opinion, just a way to put too much interior in a hull of a given length resulting in way too much volume in the ends of the boat.
I know that these wide boat interiors can be very seductive, but a boat, whether motor or sail, or something in-between, should be primarily a machine to move safely and comfortably through the water. A soft fast ride with no pounding and nose diving will go a lot further toward making your cruise fun, safe and comfortable than a huge salon and galley. See No Excuse to Pound for more on this.
You can get all of the features you mention, albeit downsized a bit, in a modern pilothouse sailboat that will be faster under both power and sail and easier to handle than the big bruiser you are considering. I would suggest looking at something like an Abel Marine Apogee 50. If you must have an interior of the same volume as the motorsailer, a Sundeer 64 would be an option. Interestingly, the Sundeer 64 weighs almost exactly the same amount as the motorsailer you are looking at, but will motor or sail rings around it, while being far more comfortable offshore. Both the Abel and the Sundeer would be around the same price as the motorsailer if bought second hand. Remember, boats are priced by the pound, not the foot.
A big engine is not the exclusive preserve of the motorsailer either. By coincidence, our own Morgan’s Cloud has exactly the same engine, although not turbocharged, as the motorsailer you are looking at. But with MC we are talking about a boat that has won her class twice in the Newport Bermuda race, not a likely scenario with the motorsailer.
You may be wondering why I’m emphasizing speed so much for a cruising boat. Well, aside from the obvious benefit of being in harm's way for less time at sea, and perhaps counter intuitively, fast boats are generally easier to sail with lower loads than slow ones: You can shorten sail more and earlier with a fast boat and still keep the boat moving, and if it all becomes too much, you can shorten right down and motorsail a real sailboat way faster and more comfortably than a motorsailer.
A rough sketch of the motorsailer’s deck profile
superimposed over a picture of Morgan’s Cloud. Keep in mind that the boats
weigh about the same; in fact, in a fully loaded comparison MC is probably
lighter. Also, the profile difference is much more dramatic than this image
shows since MC has a lot of reserve buoyancy (flare) in the ends. A water
plane plan of both boats would show a much larger difference.
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Macgregor 26M for Trans-Atlantic (2007)
Question: I am a 46 year old professional in fairly good health and in good shape. I am wanting to reverse the steps of my great-great-grandfather, sailing from Belfast, Maine to Bantry Bay, Ireland. I plan to leave June 3rd, 2011. The boat I want to take is a Macgregor 26M. Is this solid enough?
Answer: In a word, no. The Macgregor is an ultralight
trailer sailer designed for coastal sailing, not the North Atlantic.
I know that smaller boats have crossed the Atlantic safely but they are
generally very different in construction and design from the Macgregor.
For example, I would not hesitate to cross the Atlantic in a Contessa 26,
a Virtue 25 or even a Dana 24. Well, maybe I would hesitate, my days of
going to sea in boats that small with the attendant level of discomfort
are long gone, but there is nothing intrinsically dangerous about an ocean
crossing in any of these three boats. All of them are heavier and substantially
more expensive than the Macgregor, but you get what you pay for.
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Used Boat for Trans-Atlantic on a Budget (2007)
Question: I am trying to buy a boat to go cruising with my family. Over the course of a few years, we will cruise in the Chesapeake and then the Med with a trans-Atlantic in between. My budget is modest (US$50,000 give or take 20%). However, the choice of boats is MIND BOGGLING! Is there a site, or a person, or a process that you could share with me that helps one to narrow down the choices? Are there boats/brands from the last 40 years that simply must be avoided in general and all of the rest are more or less OK?
Answer: I think that it will be very difficult to get your goals met at the budget you have set. The key issue here is that you want to cross the Atlantic safely with four people. If you just wanted to coastal cruise or just wanted to cross the Atlantic with two it might be doable, but doing both is going to be a problem. Even if you could get a boat that is fundamentally seaworthy for that price, she will almost certainly be old and require substantial upgrade and repair to get into ocean ready condition, which will strain your budget.
Having said that, you might just mange to meet your goals by buying a good and strong old boat, possibly damaged, investing sweat rather than money and buying good used gear. To take this course you need time and a lot of experience maintaining sailboats. Also, keep in mind that you might end up with a safe boat, but she will be small, cramped for four people and very basic.
A Ted Brewer designed Hullmaster 32, an example of an older but solid boat that could probably go to sea if carefully checked over and upgraded (this one is). This boat is not for sale and I have no idea what she is worth.
As you look for boats, keep in mind that the vast majority of boats, particularly in your price range, are not something you want to take yourself and the ones you love offshore in. When looking at boats, be particularly careful of boats built during the production sailboat boom of the seventies; many were cheaply built then and are way past their best before date now.
It is hard to recommend brands, but an old Hallberg-Rassy, Pearson (watch out, there are some poorly built ones around), Nicholson, Pacific Seacraft (probably too expensive), or Contessa (see www.sailingmagazine.net/UBN_1003.html for an example) might be types to look at.
With boats of this quality, it is likely that any that fit your budget will be old and worn, so a really good survey will be essential. The chain plates (Nicholsons had problems here), mast step, bulkhead attachments, rudder and keel root are all places where major trouble that can cost a lot of money to fix or sink you can lurk.
As to a web site or person to help you select a boat, you may wish to contact John Neal at www.mahina.com who provides a boat selection advice service. If nothing else you should read John's excellent boat selection tips.
We also provide the same service although our expertise is more in larger boats and boats being built or fitted out for the high latitudes.
Reader comment:
I recommend having a look at:
- Practical Sailor magazine
- Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere by John Vigor
- Used Boat Notebook by John Kretschmer
- Voyaging On A Small Income by Annie Hil
- www.setsail.com/s_logs/martin/martin.html. This family cruised around the world on a heavily rebuilt Cal 25, certainly not anyone's ideal choice for an ocean-crossing boat—they started off as a couple and added kids along the way over 7 years—but it certainly can be done; they later bought a 33ft steel boat and cruised to the Arctic.
Steel boats can be very good buys since they're typically less desirable than fiberglass boats, primarily for two reasons: they're not well known in North America (as opposed to Europe) and there are many examples of very poorly home-built steel boats for sale. That being said, if you know what you are looking for, and have a survey, it is possible to get a VERY good deal on a well-built, used steel boat that will take you just about anywhere you want to go in the world. The cost will likely come in gear and other upgrades to make the boat safe and comfortable.
Finally, have a look on www.yachtworld.com (Advanced
Search, select steel hull as a search criteria, length 30 to 35); or
have a look at this project steel boat for sale for very cheap (www.seamuffin.com/?page_id=51).
I don't know the boat, but it looks like it could fit the bill for what
you have in mind.
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Aluminum Catamaran (2007)
Question: I would like to do some cruising in the high latitudes and am in the process of planning a boat to take me there. You and others, like Jimmy Cornell, are very partial to alloy boats and I agree it seems to be the way to go. But I also like catamarans. I can have a cat made from alloy. What do you think of sailing in the high latitudes in a catamaran? I was thinking at least 50' long with thin hulls to help her point well. I would like to visit Alaska and Antarctica, among many other places.
Answer: As I answer this, please keep in mind that I have had no multi-hull experience since a summer skippering a 50ft day charter (head boat) catamaran some 30 years ago. Having said that, I see no reason why an aluminum catamaran would not be perfectly practical for the high latitudes; in fact, some real advantages come to mind:
- Shallow draft enabling the boat to get away from drifting ice.
- Could be built to easily dry out on the tide.
- The potential for fast passages, thereby reducing the chance of getting caught out in heavy weather.
I think that the main issues will be making the boat strong enough to withstand the demands of high latitude sailing as well as capable of carrying the necessary equipment (particularly ground tackle) without making the boat too heavy. As I understand it, the key to safety in multi-hulls is keeping them light. I can remember that the charter cat mentioned above used to scare me in a breeze when we had a full load of tourists aboard and, in fact, my predecessor as skipper flipped it in that condition, luckily without loss of life. Of course multi-hull design has come a huge distance since then.
There is even a French yard that specializes in aluminum catamarans,
albeit large and expensive ones; see www.yapluka.fr.
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Used Colin Archer Design (2006)
Question: We have reached a stage now where we want to be cruising very soon (world in 4 to 5 years, local waters well before that), and so we are looking at boats to do this. In two weeks or so we will travel interstate to see this boat: She is a Colin Archer design, 43' in steel built by a Dutch yard, about 25 years old, appears in very good nick, also very strong (16mm keel, 6mm below WL, 5mm above, 4mm topsides). Safe, too: watertight doors, good helm and fitout etc. (The name and colour are a bit of an issue...) We would have her surveyed of course. But it is her design which I would ask your impressions of, because we would want to take our boat to South Chile and the Horn, and bring her home again. As a heavy displacement boat she will be slow, maybe 7 knots at best, and I accept this, because her seaworthiness is the most important. But I thought you might have had your ear to the ground about cruising design for a bit longer than I, and am wondering if you could offer your thoughts about her as a boat to go most places.
Answer: Some thoughts on the boat, in no particular order:
- 'Colin Archer' can cover a wide gamut of designs from exact copies of Archer’s boats to poor copies. It's important to make sure you are comfortable with the designer and the design.
- The pilot house looks great; however, the windows are very large. I would want very strong storm covers for them before going to sea.
- I think she will be slow and you should be ready to motor a lot. I think that seven knots may be optimistic. She might hit that from time to time but the averages will be much less. I’m guessing five knots. Morgan’s Cloud is 56’ long with a fin keel and big rig and comes from a racing pedigree but we feel fortunate to average seven knots over a 24 hour period. If you look at her as a motorsailer you will be happy; if as an auxiliary sailboat I think you may be disappointed. This might just be my personal prejudice since I'm a great believer in fast boats for offshore sailing on the basis that the longer you are out there the more likely it is that you will get thrashed.
- 25 years is old for a steel boat. Many steel commercial vessels are considered ready for the breaker’s yard at that age. She may be fine, but make sure it is a really careful survey from someone that knows steel boats and uses a plate thickness meter. The surveyor needs to get into EVERY corner, even if it means taking the boat apart. If you can’t do this it’s not a good enough survey. Beware of corrosion behind insulation and in difficult to reach places like under the engine.
- The Dutch are among the best metal yacht builders in the world.
That is all that comes immediately to mind. Hope it helps
and good luck.
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Fiberglass Sailboat in the High Latitudes (2005)
Question: Would you cruise the high latitudes in a fiberglass hull?
Answer: There are two parts to the answer: Depends on the fiberglass boat, and depends on the area of the high latitudes. (On this last I will restrict my thoughts to Arctic and North Atlantic since I have no Antarctic experience.)
Given that the boat is a good offshore vessel capable of keeping the sea in heavy weather, we would want to see the following for high latitude sailing:
- The boat should be constructed strongly enough to withstand a full speed grounding. There are far too many fin-keeled fiberglass boats that will suffer catastrophic hull failure at the keel to hull joint in the event of even a slow speed grounding.
- The boat should be able to stand up to heavy weather at sea without leaking through the decks or hull. Many fiberglass boats are so flexible that as soon as they are really stressed offshore they start to leak from every port, hatch and chain plate. There are few things more unpleasant than coming below to a wet bunk after a long watch in cold, windy conditions.
- Water tight bulkheads (good idea for a metal boat too). Collision with ice—or, particularly in the Barents Sea, logs—is always a possibility and fiberglass, no matter how strong, tends to crack when hit, unlike aluminum or steel, which stretch a long way before rupturing, thereby absorbing much of the blow.
- Insulation. An uninsulated fiberglass boat will weep condensation in cold weather wetting everything below—miserable. Most metal boats are insulated with foam.
The where:
- Svalbard (Spitsbergen), west coast of the island of Spitsbergen: Sure
- Svalbard (Spitsbergen), Hinlopen Strait and Nordaustlandet: No
- Greenland, west coast to Disco Island: Sure
- Greenland, east coast: No
- Baffin Island: No
- Labrador: Sure
The places I have answered "No" to
have high ice concentrations, poor or non-existent charting and little
or no help is available to a damaged boat. Having said all that, fiberglass
boats having few or none of the features mentioned above have made safe
and seamanlike voyages to the high latitudes. The foremost example being
Willy Ker who has made a series of incredible voyages to both the Arctic
and Antarctic—that make ours in Morgan's Cloud look like a walk in the
park—in a standard Contessa 32. Like so many things in cruising there
is no right or wrong answer, just opinions, of which this is ours.
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