I guess I should have said a little more. Island Breeze is a 56' cutter, and is on the market for $350,000. She has a 71' from the waterline mast and weighs 26 tons empty. That, patently, is not a boat for a beginner. She's a big, powerful boat with racehorse in her blood. (She won the 1993 Cape Town to Rio race, 1st overall and first in class.)
As to big boats being slower and easier, there is some truth to that, but when you think about an uncontrolled gybe in a boat this size, you're talking about a boom that won't hurt you--it will stone-cold kill you.
To that point I added my comment about sending me someone with no experience. This ain't the boat for a beginner. If a non-sailor is looking for a floating condominium, it ain't the boat. She's beautiful below, but it is a boat that was designed to be sailed. The main salon is not 'wide and open'. It's designed for someone to move through the boat when she's heeled over without getting yourself killed in the process.
As to power, she's running 5/8 T-900 jib sheets, and they sound like high 'E' guitar strings when you're heading upwind in 20 knots of wind. The winches are Lewmar 66 electrics, and when you're going to weather, they drop into low speed frequently. Is this the place for a beginner, or for someone who has 'sailed a Sunfish a couple of times'? No.
If I were selling my own old Morgan T-36, I'd put up with tire-kickers. Because it's conceivable that someone with no experience or dinghy experience might want to make that kind of a leap. But from nothing to a 56' racer/cruiser? Not!
I've been sailing since I was 19 years old, and boating since I was 14--I'm 60 now, and when I took over as her captain about 5 years ago, moving from 36 feet to 56 feet was a huge move. As someone mentioned, everything moves slower. That's all of the time. Which meant the learning curve for getting her docked made for several occasions where I left my fingerprints embedded in the stainless steel wheel. I had captained large boats before, but most of them were power yachts with twin screws. Getting Breeze backed into her slip was a whole different brand of excitement. It was easily a year and dozens of trips in and out before I felt 100% comfortable with coming and going.
Anyway, Breeze isn't a boat that would sell fast anyway. She's in an odd market. She isn't the boat for someone on a shoestring budget. She's not new. I'm sure if she were an Oyster, Swan or Hylas, and only a couple of years old, she'd probably have sold by now, but she's from South Africa. Most people are gun-shy of boats that don't have name recognition like a Hinckley. Breeze will sell to a real sailor who wants reasonable comfort as a bonus, but real sailing performance up front. She'll sell to someone who, like me, would rather go from point 'a' to point 'b' fast, and maybe in a little less comfort than a SeaSlug 56 that weighs 50 tons, has a long keel, and moseys along at 6 knots on a good day--provided you're going downwind. Breeze will point 38 degrees and in 20 knots will charge along at 8.5 knots in 5-6 foot seas.
So that's why I think the brokers should at least have a clue if someone is worth sending to look at the boat. Sending tire kickers and lookie-loos is wasting everyone's time.