Define "bluewater" for me

[pwillems]

Hi all,

I am sure this has been discussed before, so feel free to direct me to any relevant threads.

Like many here, I dream of a cruising life after retirement. I have no sailing experience yet, but plenty of experience with small and large power vessels and have had a very vagabond lifestyle since birth. I am quite confident once I get a chance to spend a few weeks on a sailing boat I will never want to get off.

I've been reading a heck of a lot and am wondering what kind of boat I would one day want to spend the rest of my life on. I love the idea of a large cruising cat. Not interested in the mono vs multi debate, I just think that you can not beat the liveability of a large cat. Light, and more importantly the lack of heel while underway are two things that appeal to my wife and myself. This is all very nice, the problem is that a proper bluewater cruising cat like a Chris White will set one back close to a cool million second hand. It seems to me that a proper bluewater monohull such as a Tayana can be had for a whole lot less. Like everyone, I hope to one day be in a position where money will not be the most important factor, but in case it is not, a monohull may be our choice.

Now what is bluewater exactly? Do I even need a bluewater cruiser or would a more common production vessel be sufficient for my needs? By looking at some of the mainstream manufacturers' websites, it seems to me that not one of them has ever produced a vessel capable of anything less than rounding cape horn. My plans will probably be to cruise around Australia for a year or two before heading to PNG and then down to the south pacific following the route Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. Does this part of the ocean require a vessel such as those mentioned above? How about if I wanted to head to New Zealand and then to Tahiti and finally the American continent

Thanks for looking.

[sailingdog]

You don't need to spend that much money to get a decent size cruising catamaran. A Chris White designed Atlantic 42 series catamaran is far less than a million dollars can be bought for somewhere in the neighborhood of $350,000 nicely equipped. I don't see where you're getting the number of $1000000 from.

What you're planning on doing is definitely bluewater sailing. I would recommend getting a smaller boat and working your way up from day sailing, to shorter weekend coastal cruises and then shorter bluewater passages. While you could do all this on a 42' cruising cat, IMHO, learning on a smaller boat would be far less expensive and give you a better learning experience.

[Architeuthis]

I think it would be a good idea to get a boat to cruise around OZ and then a different one for the rest of the trip. The advantage is you will learn what you like and do not like about your boat, then when you step up you will appreciate your next boat even more. Also those are different kind of sailing, coastal is different than bluewater. Either boat can do either sailing but there are compromises.

Cats are great another option that is affordable is something like the Cats designed by James Wharram. I'd really like to try a Tiki 46 in big water as it looks like it would do well.

[bb74]

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB), the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange (based on the Munsell colour wheel).[2] The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any colour from navy blue to cyan. The word itself is derived from the Old French word bleu. oh, and it's wet...

[pwillems]

Originally Posted by bb74

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB), the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange (based on the Munsell colour wheel).[2] The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any colour from navy blue to cyan. The word itself is derived from the Old French word bleu. oh, and it's wet...

Hilarious

[smackdaddy]

Hey p, this was a thread in which this was talked about quite a bit in terms of production boats being sailed in "Blue Water". Some good stuff from some experience sailors.

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/cruisi...ts-limits.html