Deck

A flat deck or a coach roof skinny enough to allow plenty of walking space is desired.  In addition, you want enough room on the foredeck to place your dinghy for longer offshore passages.  Metal or GRP toerails are preferred because teak requires frequent varnishing as the UV breaks it down.   Teak decks look beautiful and give excellent grip.  The teak deck drawback is they require additional maintenance and need to be replaced around every dozen years.  Their replacement cost is very expensive in both time and materials.  If you cruise in a high UV environment the teak lifespan is reduced further.  This is one of the reasons we did not look at any X-Yachts, Oysters, Discoverys, Swans, or Hallberg-Rassys in the boat search.  Stainless tube lifelines as installed on Amels are a great deck safety feature.

Dinghy transport

On long passages it is best to store the dinghy on the deck by use of a halyard.  This keeps the weight off the ends and keeps the stern free of obstruction.  You want to make sure your coach roof allows you enough room to store the dinghy forward.  If you are a small crew, davits are good for short passages and keeping the boat out of the water at night to deter thieves.  An outboard motor crane at the stern is also a good piece of equipment for shorthanded crews.

Length

The Dashews discovered in their decades of cruising and designing boats that length had one of the biggest impacts on overall cruising comfort.  By length we mean LWL vs LOA.  Bigger boats with long overhangs on the bow and stern like a Hinckley or Mason look beautiful but do not deliver speed benefits.  Length buffers the effects of waves and shortens passage times limiting fatigue.  The trade off is to get a boat as long as possible that has a prismatic coefficient that makes the sail plan small enough for a solo or couple to handle with ease.  It also must be able to maneuver within reason in the confines of a marina.  This philosophy goes against the majority of the most current designs that emphasizes beam to create more voluminous interior spaces for shorter length.

New vs Used

Once you have decided on your cruising requirements, you need to decide on a new or used boat.  The requirements for hull stability, construction, keel, rudder, tankage, systems access, and rig almost eliminate high volume production boats such as the Beneteau, Jeanneau, Hanse, Dufour, and Bavaria.  These boats are designed to the needs of charter companies and coastal cruiser/racers vs long range cruisers.  Thousands of people cruise in mass market boats with the requirements deficiencies we have outlined, but why set off in the oceans in something totally different from your requirements?  This leaves you with the semi-custom builders such as Hallberg-Rassy, Hylas, Oyster, Amel, Morris, Southerly, Discovery, and Passport.  Any of these boats new in the 48 to 54 range once outfitted are going to price out into seven figures.  The cost to configure a brand-new boat for offshore cruising should not be underestimated.  Boats are depreciating assets vs investments like real estate.  If you are not retiring early needing to get going quickly without a refit or price is not an object, new is definitely the best route.

If you are on a budget, used may be the way to go.  After the original owners absorb the initial depreciation shock, high quality boats will hold onto a “salvage value” for decades if upkept.  Used cats seem to sell at a premium because more folks want them and there are less of them on the market compared to monos.  Quality GRP hulls can last a very long time where their systems do not.  The goal is to find a well taken care of boat for the lowest price while comparing benchmarks for system upgrades and repairs.  I would strongly recommend not buying a used boat that has been neglected for years. The demographic trend emerging is the average age of cruising boat owners is increasing and they often hold onto their boats after they stop maintaining them. Most books by the cruising experts suggest budgeting 15% x the purchase price for refit costs.  My forecast would be closer to 75+%.  In many cases the engine, sails, generator, batteries, standing rigging, running rigging, plumbing, dinghy and electronics will need replacement if you plan to be a full-time off the grid cruiser.  The good news is you will be able to configure a used boat the way you want it.  Yacht manufacturing is a notoriously boom and bust business model with low margins and inadequate working capital, therefore, there are probably more blue water boats cruising from folded manufactures than current.  In some cases, such as Oyster, a single poorly designed boat can place a yard in bankruptcy.  Used boats with a brand still in business sell at a higher price than those that have closed.

The Boat Search

The evolution of a plan

Our original cruising plan was created in early 2010.  The main points were retirement was to occur at year end 2020 and the vessel was going to be a new catamaran.  The plan was specific that the boat would be either a new Antares, Catana, or Privilege.  In 2018 we decided to move things up and adjusted the plan accordingly.  We completed the requirements analysis above and cut the purchase budget.  This was the point we deducted a used monohull might be the best match.

Boats of interest

Now to find a boat.  The online sites sailboatdata.com and tomdove.com have a wealth of numbers to analyze to narrow down your search.  We also advise reading of Robert Perry’s Yacht Design According to Perry.  Of all the dozens of books read, this one summarizes the tradeoffs and most of the design features needed in an offshore cruising boat.  We limited our search to boats on the US East coast because the thought of moving a boat across oceans before a refit or refitting overseas was not desired.  After researching construction methods and crunching the ratios, we came up with a list of boats to check out on the market.

• Valiant 50 – High quality Texas-made boats that are easy to maintain with great systems access. Solid GRP hull with full skeg hung rudder.  We ultimately decided the swim aboard access on the canoe stern was not desirable in MOB situations or accessing the dinghy.
• Amel Super Maramu – Long track record as an excellent setup for long distance cruising.  We were concerned about large content of custom vs off the shelf parts.  The ketch rig should allow for a couple to easily manage.  We did not like the in-mast furling, but Amel’s is a custom design and has a good track record of minimal malfunctions.
• Amel 54 – We were suspect of this model anyway because the B/D ratio was below 30%.  The ratios on the newest models indicate an even further departure from their offshore roots.
• Hylas 54 – Well made, comfortable passage maker by the numbers.  We liked that some had FG decks rather than teak and in-boom furling rather than in-mast.  We had some hesitation with its 7 foot plus draft.  Hylas is still active so boats have a price premium.  Purchase price plus refit could be costly.
• Passport 470 – Very nice boat.  Made in China with solid GRP hull.  We did not like the center cockpit on this size of boat.  Most of them have in-mast furling which was not desired.  No aft cockpit versions were on the market.  The boat we saw was relatively new and would not need an extensive refit.
• Outbound 46 – Also a quality boat made in the same yard as the Passport.  Outbound extended the swim platform 2 feet from its earlier 44 model.  The boat has an encapsulated lead keel, slab reefing, and great mechanical systems access.  The boat we saw was near new and the only major upgrade required would have been a water maker.  Ultimately, we decided more interior space for gear was needed to live year-round.
• Tayana 52 – Ratios were great and finish was good.  We did not like the access to the systems.  The keel was encapsulated iron rather than lead.  We were concerned with the use of composite foam hull construction in a yard that at the time was new to the process.  We also did not like the large amounts of teak on the deck.
• Sundeer – Would have liked to see one, but broker was not in the town the boat was located and would never commit to a showing date.  Most Sundeers I have watched come up for sale over the years do not appear to be have been maintained well.  While we were cruising Virginia, the eventual buyers of the boat I could not schedule to see came by Renegade while anchored to ask what she was, and I said a tricked out baby Sundeer.