Boat Design/Selection

Andy Schell sails offshore more than most, and is my goto guy for the positive view on all things. We had a great chat about buying second hand fibreglass boats.

John just returned from the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland. Here’s a report on the boats that caught his eye, along with some thoughts on getting out there in an affordable way.

So is it possible to get a real offshore cruising boat for around US$100,000, ready to go? John suggests a possibility for those willing to go smaller and older.

John and Phyllis want to buy a 40-foot sailboat. There are thousands of second-hand boats for sale, but most of them are not fit to go offshore. So how do we weed through all the junk to find a decent and safe boat at a fair price? And what about refitting an older boat? This is the first of a series of articles to answer those two questions.

John links to a must-read article on hull design for heavy weather and highlights a couple of really important things he learned from it.

A thought on yacht design that will help us end up with a better boat.

The debate is incessant in the cruising community: what is the best cruising boat? John comes up with an answer that may surprise you.

Meeting up with Steve and Linda Dashew is always both fun and fascinating, with a lot to learn about offshore voyaging in boats of any size, even though their designs are way beyond the reach of most of us. John shares two of those lessons.

Mick and Bee have cruised for 15 years and over 70,000 miles on less than US$250,000 all told, including the purchase price of their gaffer, Hannah. And they have numerous northern high latitude cruises under their belt. Mick writes about what it takes to make live-aboard cruising possible on a tight budget.

If you are looking to buy a new or used boat, you need to read this book, because it will save you a lot of heart ache.

I rarely attend major boat shows these days, and sincerely don’t regret it. In the past I spent many a day on stands for whoever it was that I was working for, or supporting, at that time, generally in the foul aired mausoleum that housed the late, lamented (?) London Boat Show at Earl’s Court. Not […]

Designing an offshore cruising boat is an iterative process with many steps.

Some time ago I posted here with my views on the suitability of spade rudders for offshore cruising. Having lost a spade rudder that looked to be in A1 condition, naturally my thoughts at the time were coloured by that disaster. Despite the fact that I had up until that time owned three yachts that had […]

There was an age, not all that long ago in the grand scheme of things, when technological progress was a slow, measured affair. Revolutionary new developments in materials science, in hull design, in manufacturing processes and in many other engineering fields were few and far between. The “state of the art” progressed at a pace […]

A fundamental fact of yacht design is that if you want to move a given displacement—which is the only sensible way to compare boat sizes—through the water without planing, the most efficient hull form is long and thin, as demonstrated by Steve and Linda Dashew’s 83-foot motorboat, Wind Horse. A boat that can move her […]

12 Meter Gleam, 1937

Question [edited for brevity]: I was perusing the boats for sale on the web and came across a number of ferro-cement hulled boats and I was wondering what you thought of that material in general for use in a cruising boat. Is it ever a good idea or is it a matter of manufacturer and […]

Many of you will be aware of the sinking of the sail training vessel Concordia off the Brazilian Coast last year. The Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) have now completed their report. I see lessons in it for all of us that go to sea, albeit rather different ones than those trumpeted in the media.

When we arrived in Lagos, Portugal, I recognised a very smart looking cutter berthed near us as belonging to people I knew, so when I could see there was someone aboard I wandered over to say hello. After a brief chat, I was told that this obviously ocean-ready yacht was now up for sale due […]

Whenever we lift our OVNI out at a boatyard, she soon attracts a lot of attention. Partly that’s due to the sight of a sizeable boat (seemingly) without a keel, sitting on her bottom, but especially the rudder in its kicked up position, pointing out behind her.

There’s no mistaking the profile of certain boats, so it was easy for us to recognise the red yacht transiting the Caledonian Canal one day in early April, despite the near blizzard conditions at the time. Vagabond is a well-known yacht in polar circles, and there is really nothing quite like her visually.

After nearly 20 years of going North, our decision for 2010 was to head South in search of new horizons and the sun. Last year in the Hebrides was wonderful, but when the weather broke in August we were glad to move on, and we know we’ll be back one day.

[We just got a great comment by Lawrence Trimingham from Bermuda, on our post on a late season crossing in a MacGregor 65, that we thought was so interesting that we are putting it up as a post. Lawrence has literally lived with the boat “man and boy” since his father bought Bermudian Escape 20 […]

In the last couple of weeks we have written about some ways to get out voyaging without spending a huge amount of money, at least relatively speaking, and in turn got several great comments from our readers. In the same vein, last week we had dinner with an interesting couple who built their own boat […]

Continuing the theme of making the right decisions when selecting a voyaging boat, this chapter tackles the thorny question of engine space, cockpit space, and a covered area to operate the boat from. Can you have it all? Read on to find out.

Those of you who have read some accounts of boats wintering over in the polar regions may have visions of dented hull plates, narrow escapes and three inches of frost on the INSIDE of the boat. That is not the Polaris way.

We have come across a couple of Saga 43s in the last two years. I can’t say we have made a close evaluation, but they do seem like nice boats with good and moderate lines, that avoid the problems caused by excessive beam, particularly aft. The designer, Bob Perry, has a history of wholesome offshore […]

McCurdy and Rhodes, designers of Morgan’s Cloud, have a new and very classy web site. The firm is now run by Ian McCurdy, whose father, Jim, was a founding partner and designed our boat.

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?

As I mentioned in a previous posting, one of the most attractive features of our new OVNI is the protected rudder, which we think is an essential feature for a long distance boat.

How much do you have to spend to get a safe and functional boat to cross oceans with? Here we answer exactly that question for a reader.