Brewer 56 (with pic) advice ?

[Jock-san]

Hi Everyone,

Two friends of mine are looking to buy a boat - 50-foot-ish for space - and go world cruising for a couple or few years, with an especial interest in the Pacific and Indian oceans. (They''re both fit men in their 30''s)

They have their eye on a 56'' cold-molded Ted Brewer Ketch -

http://home.att.ne.jp/sigma/blarney/Temp/TB56.jpg

Does anyone have experience on such a boat ?Can anyone comment on suitablity ? Or from a completely different angle, does a catamaran make more sense ?

[Jeff_H]

The boat in question appears to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from a catamaran. The boat in the photo looks like a pretty interesting boat, but the photo provides no where near enough information to base a reasonable opinion. I would say that a heavy displacement fifty something footer is an awful lot of boat for a two man crew to handle and even an athletic two man crew can get really beat to death by a boat like that when things go awry.

Similarly, Catamarans vary so extensively that I don''t think that there is one universally right answer there either.

At some level, while there is no such thing as a dumb question, the fact that your friends are considering vessles with the sheer divergence in sailing characteristics between the Brewer 56 and any Cat suggests that thye probably have a whole lot of studying up on the characteristics that would make a boat desireable to them.

I would suggest that in a general sense they would probably be better off with a mono-hull that is no more than 46 feet and no more than about 27,000 lbs displacement but then that comes from my own ideas about what makes a desirable offshore boat and of course there is no one universally right answer here.

Jeff

[Jock-san]

Thank-you, Jeff.

To clarify, the budget for the boat is USD100K, and the ''cat'' thought came from considering shallow draft for coral waters.

I will pass on your thoughts and advise them to come to sailnet directly for help in working through their plans.

Jock

[sailnaway]

I to am looking at boats in the 50'' range yes they can be a hand full but in my younger years I single handed a seventy footer I was dog tired and slept for three days when the passage of about a thousand miles was over but I was young. To take on this task your friends need to look at making as many tasks they can be done from the cockpit. Anchoring is one that gets tough when you hit the hole you want to duck into and it is breaking or has a swell it can test you real quick. I think having a backup for every manuver you can think of is the key. Try and make up failure drills in your head engine out,anchor chain parted from rope,On on and on leave your self an out.

[Jock-san]

Thanks for your thoughts.