For the past two years I have been learning/sailing on a Beneteau First235. Although it puts me at a disadvantage relative to those who learn to sail on dinghy, I am still having a good time and know more than when I started.
After sailing a few years, I have come to feel that the First235, while a reasonably nice cruiser/racer, is not ideal for my circumstances. In particular, the cockpit is way too small: three seems crowded!
I have a wife and two children, a brother-in law, a mother, and niece, all of whom would like to go out sailing, many of them at the same time. I would much prefer to have room for 8, if possible. While 8 might fit on the Beneteau, most of them would need to be in the cabin, which is not a great place to spend the afternoon if you are wanting to be outdoors.
The kind of sailing I do is daysailing on a lake, so the relatively large cabin has been underutilized to say the least (we have never spent the night inside, or even anchored to have a picnic below). So, I can certainly do with much less cabin space.
What boats are out there that would be good daysailers with large cockpits around 20-25 feet or so (under $10,000)?
My early research has brought up the following boats:
PEARSON ENSIGN - huge cockpit, much slower than the F235, inexpensive used (but most probably need work)
COLGATE 26 - large cockpit, but much more expensive than my budget
J22 - moderately large cockpit, racing boat
Capri 22 or 25 - don''t know much about these other than the vague notion that they are the "racing" versions of the Catalina 22 and 25.
One advantage of the Ensign is that it is one of the one-design fleets supported at our local sailing organization (other fleets supported include Catalina 22, SouthCoast 21, and J-24).
Anyone with thoughts on the above boats? Are there other boats out there with really large cockpits, that are made for daysailing? Would also be good not to drop too much in performance relative to the Beneteau.
Thanks for suggestions.
After sailing a few years, I have come to feel that the First235, while a reasonably nice cruiser/racer, is not ideal for my circumstances. In particular, the cockpit is way too small: three seems crowded!
I have a wife and two children, a brother-in law, a mother, and niece, all of whom would like to go out sailing, many of them at the same time. I would much prefer to have room for 8, if possible. While 8 might fit on the Beneteau, most of them would need to be in the cabin, which is not a great place to spend the afternoon if you are wanting to be outdoors.
The kind of sailing I do is daysailing on a lake, so the relatively large cabin has been underutilized to say the least (we have never spent the night inside, or even anchored to have a picnic below). So, I can certainly do with much less cabin space.
What boats are out there that would be good daysailers with large cockpits around 20-25 feet or so (under $10,000)?
My early research has brought up the following boats:
PEARSON ENSIGN - huge cockpit, much slower than the F235, inexpensive used (but most probably need work)
COLGATE 26 - large cockpit, but much more expensive than my budget
J22 - moderately large cockpit, racing boat
Capri 22 or 25 - don''t know much about these other than the vague notion that they are the "racing" versions of the Catalina 22 and 25.
One advantage of the Ensign is that it is one of the one-design fleets supported at our local sailing organization (other fleets supported include Catalina 22, SouthCoast 21, and J-24).
Anyone with thoughts on the above boats? Are there other boats out there with really large cockpits, that are made for daysailing? Would also be good not to drop too much in performance relative to the Beneteau.
Thanks for suggestions.