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Good to see you sticking with the dream. If you like open water, as in coastal salty open water, I would recommend a different boat than if you wished to go offshore. If you want to voyage...I'd have one range of suggestions, but if you wish to merely club race or weekend gunkhole or even liveaboard, I'd have others.
PBZeer's suggestion of an Ontario 32 is one of the few boats I would recommend that is good for all of the above for a single-hander. I personally think that 32-33 feet is around the sweet spot for single-handing, because it's big enough to take the real sea, but small enough to work without getting hurt or overwhelmed. A Niagara 35 is good, but they can get pricey because Canadians are huge fans of them and our dollar parity now means we can scoop up American-owned boats at lower-than-local prices.
A Bristol or a Pearson or a Tartan are all good choices for coastal, up to "rough, near-gale coastal". But if you are going offshore, check out the Contessa 32 or even the dreaded Westsail 32...dreaded because they are frankly pokey boats in light air, but they are very difficult to kill (see "A Perfect Storm"...the real story!) and they are "get you home" boats.
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