ok, the delema. I hate things that brake. Doubly so if I can''t fix them. From years of hanging out with gear heads, working on motorcycles, rebuilding cars and trucks, and helping with a wide assortment of motorized vehicles, I have come to a conclusion:
I am completley mechanicly inept.
I have also spent some time sailing a few diffrent vessles. Not the wide assortment of people who''ve been doing it for decades, but I''ve come to realize that I''m halfway decent with a tiller and a set of sails.
I''m also 24, in good shape, and can make myself handy with a set of sweeps if need be.
Now, I''ve been talking with some of the cats over on the wooden boat form, and know there''s a host of boats you can build yourself through a variety of methods, to be able to cruise engineless. Of course, that all consider a 20 footer a large cruising boat!!!
So, presuming I wanted some luxeries like... a real galley, standing headroom below, and a simple
rig (yes, a gaff
rig is absolutley breathtaking, either from looking at it, or trying to handle it in bad weather, either way, I cant breath when I''m done.) Give me a simple marconi rigged sloop. Give me a tiller and a rudder mounted on the transom where if worse came to worse, I could take a fire axe to it and put up emergency stearing.
Seaworthyness, Simplicity and enough size to be comfortable for 2 for extended cruising (of the circumnavigation type)
If you were me, where would you start looking for something like this?
I have some room, I''ve got basic woodworking and prety decent electrical skills, I can buildup from a hull, I could probibly put a hull together if the construction was simple enough (stitch and glue, multi-chine, etc) or if the perfect boat exists already, in light, low maintenance glass, all the better.
Basicly my question is thus:
If you were to chose a boat for enginless cruising, what would you pick?
Thoughts suggestions?
Thanks.
-- James