[Jeff_H]

I do not have a lot of direct contact with this model. I believe that I looked at one at the boat show back in the late 1980''s. They looked like a nice boat. I liked their layout down below and fractional rig. At the time I thought that they were a little over weight and a little short on sail area for the Chesapeake where I sail.

I thought that the 285 had a nice layout for a couple doing coastal cruising (very similar to the layout of the Laser 28 that I ended up buying and am now selling after 13 years) but it is not as good when cruising with other couples.

I would think that the deep keel version of the 285 would be fine for the kind of cruising that you are proposing but I would be hesitant to try it with the wing keel. To explain why I say this. Boats of this size and style really depend on accelleration as one way to disbuse the energy of a big guy of wind. As you load a small boat like this down it sits lower in the water ans so takes more energy to accellerate. That increased drag means that you are more likely to heel noticeably further in a gust. Now then the wing keel version starts life about 400 lbs heavier than the wing keel meaning that the wing keel version that all other things being equal the wing keel version will feel more tender and will be less comfortable carrying the weight of gear and supplies that it takes to go on an extended cruise.

Traditionally, it was thought that minimally you needed about 3 long tons of displacement per person to go voyaging (with the minimum displacement often being quotes a a bit more than that.) While this number shoudl have crept down because we can produce lighter boats of equal strnegth, ithas remained pretty constant because people tend to try to carry so much stuff with them. I think that if you were dilligent about what you took along, and more significantly dilligent about what was left behind the 285 shoudl work fine. (My wife and I have cruised our 4100 lb Laser 28 for 11 days at a time without a problem.)

All of that said,I have no idea whether the 285 has adequate fuel and water tankage. I believe that the 285 came stock with 25 or so gallons of water and less than 10 gallons of fuel. I would probably want to have 20 to 25 gallons of water per person, and as much as 20 gallons of fuel (60-80 hours or so).

Good luck
Jeff