A Motorsailer For Offshore Voyaging?

I think the real question is where do you want to go with the boat. A motorsailer or trawler might be much better in the Pacific Northwest because of the light air and climate. In the Caribbean the constant wind and warm, outdoor living really favor a sailboat.

I have just turned 70 and I am preparing my new boat (new to me) to sail to the south pacific. During my life time I have put in cruising time on both sail and power boats. About 60K miles sail and 20K miles power. I just went through the same question and decided to go with a light weight sailboat with a long waterline and simple systems and all the lines lead to the cockpit. She is 46 feet with a 39 lwl and only displaces 19,000 pounds. The light displacement means I only need to handle the size sails you would expect on a 38 – 40 boat but I have the speed of a 46 foot boat.

I think the biggest mistake older people make when selecting a boat it that of trying to duplicate their home on the water. Basically a smaller boat requires less muscle especially if you are new to cruising. When everything is going right a big boat is not a problem, young or old.

If you buy a sailboat get one with a good powerful engine and plenty of fuel. Most cruising has 50% powering on average.

John

I bought an Etchells / Pearson 46 which had been in use by a major university. If you know what an Etchells 22 looks like imagine the same shape hull in 46 feet. She was built in 1972 using high tech methods, as a racer with modest cruiser comforts to be campaigned by the owners of the Pearson Yacht company. She was a big time winner, on both coasts back in the 70’s. She is still very fast but her PHRF rating is 57 which means she has to race against much longer boats. I am in the process of fitting her out as a long distance cruiser to be run by two senior citizens.

I’m enamored of many of the decisions which motorsailers allow, such as a forward facing & protected position while keeping watch, good access to engine spaces and technical gear, and the possibility of nice views from living spaces while at anchor or underway.

There are designs like Chuck Paine’s Steadysailer as drawn by Ed Joy which do this in a narrow hull, or an ugly-duckling aluminum pilothouse now for sale in Hawaii named “Minke” which I find intriguing. If choosing this route, its really just an acknowledgment that much of the while time underway many cruisers ARE motorsailing, and that these priorities make sense. If you can tolerate/assume the lower performance under motor, then the sailboat you buy is simply better set up for the anticipated cruising style.

It would also be important to minimize the complexity and expense of the sailing rig and ensure it’s reliability by downsizing the size of the sailplan in order to be somewhat cost-effective. The expense of the rig is largely to promote comfort, extend range and provide occasional moments of quiet travel. If these are important, then the design criteria make sense.

Notably, comfort in the Steadysailer is also achieved by using outriggers, adding expense, unique hazards and becoming really cumbersome when sailing a beam reach. At anchor though, they could eliminate rolling in many circumstances.

Minke is quite an interesting vehicle, since it uses keel-cooling in one of its two keels, which are shallow and provide for drying out on its hull. It has a Alaska fishery type of anchor reel on the bow, and no paint topsides. Someone lucky will certainly find that boat just their type and scarf it up!