Quote:
Originally Posted by camaraderie
I'd be looking at boats like those on the Mahina list here (see sticky in Buying a BOAT FORUM) rather than taking a boat designed for other purposes and trying to make it into a cruising boat.
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I may agree with you about the First 40.7 (the tankage is a giveaway), but I just glanced at this year's entries for the ARC and found at least three of them listed again, along with other larger and smaller Beneteau First series boats.
Maybe my mind's being polluted by some of Giu's posts about lighter, racer cruisers. I know it's been common here to group Beneteaus with Catalinas and Hunters, but Beneteaus (and Jeanneaus) are about the most common boat you see in Southern England marinas and they are taken out in all sorts of conditions on a regular basis. I wouldn't want one that had been chartered to death, but it's interesting to research which ones (and what size) move out of coastal cruising to decent offshore ability.
Lisa Copeland's books about circumnavigating with three young sons on a First 38 are interesting, and I was also surprised by John Kretschmer's review and personal offshore experiences of the First 38--
Used Boat Notebook: From the Pages ... - Google Book Search
Some of the users on Sailnet are also out cruising on Beneteau First series--
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/209972-post7.html
(The First 42s7 is another Farr design, for example.)
Beth Leonard has a good section in The Voyager's Handbook about Racer/Cruisers (pages 49-51), in which she notes the First 40.7 as an example. In her words, pros include less sail area because of less weight overall, easing handling for a short-handed crew. Cons include the need for a more experienced crew in heavy weather, because the boats need to be actively handled or even hand-steered downwind in bad conditions. Speed and performance are reduced by cruising crews who reef down in heavy winds, but still the boats can average 6 knots or more and are typically spending less time out on passage (or in bad weather) overall. They can't carry the heavy loads of traditional boats, nor the stores, but they do handle well in marinas and have better windward performance.
So, I don't care to try to convert a coastal cruiser to a long-range cruiser, and an older Halberg Rassy may still be a better choice. I'd be interested, however, in certain Beneteau/Jeanneau models that might cross the
line. In the end, less weight, better performance, and easier handling are also safety factors.