jorgenl - Congrats on your new purchase. Thanks for personally holding up our fragile economy!!
I've not been following Sailnet much lately, so I missed this thread. Would have loved to have provided some G2 on the 473 to help in your decision making. At the end of the day, if it is just you and your better half, the C400 (or B423) is a great choice. I have a wife and 3 little kids (I hear they get bigger over time), so she talked me into getting the bigger boat (3 cabin) to avoid the inevitable "length extension." It is a lot of boat, though. The learning curve on moving her around was very steep. If you get any significant way on in reverse, she just won't go the other direction. This was much more pronounced than on our Bene38s5. Also, with such high freeboard (especially at the bow), the bow thruster really comes in handy for maneuvers in tight marinas. I've become so good at it that people think I'm parking one of those Smart cars. Took some bumps and bruises to figure it out though!! You'll also save yourself a lot of cash with the shorter boat. I constantly find myself paying for 50' slips because I'm just over 45'. That large beam of 14'2", limits the slips I can use. Haul outs and everything else is just a lot more expensive. I would have also tried in earnest to talk you out of buying the 473 with a shoal draft keel. I know you Easterner's have that shallow water and low bridges in the ICW, and thus really have no choice. However, a boat this big and with that much sail area (assuming no
furling main) needs a deeper draft (mine is 6'11") in order to sail to its design potential. I am betting that Finot-Conq begrudgingly agreed to do that only because of The Moorings.
For the record, I have owned a 473 for about 2 1/2 years and absolutely love her. The C400, C470, B423 were all on our list, but we just fell for the 473 and have no regrets. She's very comfortable, well built, fast and has beautiful
lines. We also very much liked the Catalina's, so it was a tough decision. I met several Catalina owners during our trip from San Diego to Cabo. Even though we took first place over the 470's (selfless competitiveness injected ;-), those owners spoke very favorably of their Catalina experience. All in all, I think you'll be very happy with your decision. Mainly because you'll be in some remote bay not worrying about how much of your money will be stolen (er, redistributed) from you! That assumes you've cashed out at the current 15% Cap Gains rate, and put all your cash under your boat matress.
Enjoy!!
The title sort of threw me off. But this is as good a place as any, I suppose.
