wanting to make bvi and more on a tanzer 8.5

[rickanlisa]

i recently bought a tanzer 8.5 (8/10/09) in about a year to year and half want to start cruising to the bvi's,gulf coast and then to sault ste. maria mich.wold like anbodys opinion of this boats ability to complete this and many more carribiean journeys.thanx for any and all advice

[rickanlisa]

forgot to mention we'd be departing from key west my current dockage, thanx for any help

[killarney_sailor]

Not sure where you are starting from but getting to the BVIs from the US is not a trivial undertaking (I am going there at the beginning of November). There are two routes:
1) Offshore from Virginia or the Carolinas - for hurricane season (and insurance) reasons you can't leave until the beginning of November; it is a long way, 1500 mi, and you have to cross the Gulf Stream and deal with fall storms as well. In your Tanzer you would be doing well to complete this in two weeks and the boat would need considerable upgrading eg standing rigging, storm sails, drogue or sea anchor
2) "Thorny Path" - this would be more feasible although you have to go something like 1000 miles pretty much to windward from southern Florida in a series of short, overnight passages as frontal systems give you brief periods of decent wind direction. Boat would still need upgrades but at least you are not offshore for a couple of weeks.

No reason why you could not do coastal cruising and make a trip to the Bahamas with a good forecast, but the Tanzer is not a boat for offshore (and I like Tanzers) without a great deal of money being spent (a lot more than the cost of the boat).

This is a good site to get useful advice from people.