Wanted: PS31/34/37 in Australia/NZ

[TrevC]

Has anyone seen many of these up for sale in Australia?

A 34 would be ideal for us, but out budget is only $85k. I assume this would severely limited our selection, if we can even find a 31/34 in that price range over here. A 31 one be on the small side, but certainly adequate. These vessels seem like a good balance between performance/comfort/cost/storage.

There's some nice choices on Yachtworld, as usual, but nothing over here.

Any advice or leads are much appreciated guys.

Cheers

Trevor

[RainDog]

There was a really nice 34 listed over there (NZ) for 75k earlier this year. Not sure if it sold or was delisted. You might ask a broker in case it is still around. Wish I could give you more details. This was the listing, but it is gone now: YachtWorld.com Boats and Yachts for Sale

[TrevC]

Thanks for the tip. Nice to know there's been one inside of our price range, even if not by much

I'll see if I track down what happened to that 34.

We found a nice Westsail and Kendall32 that will be for sale here. They're perfect for our needs. Their extreme weight and poor performance in (only some) conditions does nag at me though. I'm just investigating alternatives at this point.

Cheers

[Ilenart]

PSC yachts are fairly rare in Oz. Had a quick look and the only one I could find was a PSC 37 on Yachthub which was way out of your price range (A$184k). Most internationally recognised yacht designs are going to be a lot more than your budget. Suggest you look at some Oz designs. Adams 31, S&S34, etc.

Suggest you also look at Boatsonline

Ilenart

[TrevC]

Hi Ilenart. I suppose I'm just much more familiar with the North American designers/builders (being Canadian myself). Any specific suggestions for further Aussie/Kiwi designers to look at would be appreciated.

When it comes to Aussie boats, I have no idea what the Joe Adams designs are like, or what build quality is typical. I've seen some nicely finished Roberts (38's, 45's), but more often than not they're pretty rough down below, some are downright scary.

My wife loves the Westsail 32 / Kendall 32's, but I want to keep our options open before committing to one of these.

I'd be happy even if a pretty neglected Crealock 34 showed up within our price range. I'm also searching for others like the usual Valiants, Tayanas etc. I've contacted a range of Kiwi brokers to see what they know.

[83XT4]

The crealock 34 was sold to peolpe in the US a while ago and i have an offer on the 37, which gets to oz in the next week or so.

Australia is hard to find 'cruisers'.
Seems more the racing fraternity here, but swansons(old), northshore half decent.

keep saving i say

[Ilenart]

Trevor,

a copy of the Westsail 32 was built in West Australia. They look identical to the originals however I think the rudder is slightly different. A friend owns one here in WA. Like the original they are a good solid boat, but pretty slow.

Lots of Bruce Roberts designs in Oz (mine is a Roberts Classic 45). Most were home built so the finish ranges from good to awful. There is a Roberts 34 design that would be in your price range.

The S&S 34 is a good solid design however they are a bit cramped down below.

Last year I did an analysis of types of yachts entering Sail Indonesia, as this includes a lot of Oz designed boats that people were taking cruising. The top 10 designs were:

Roberts
Halberg Rassy
Adams
Amel
Beneteau
Tayana
Oyster
Jeanneau
Island Packet
Herreshoff

Looking down the Sail Indonesia list other Oz / NZ designs included Cavalier, Farr, Ganley, Hood, Jarkan & Swanson.

Hope this helps.

Ilenart

[BMLipiec]

We owned a Westsail 32 (S/V Adagio) for 4 years. I believe their reputation of being slow is vastly overstated, and repeated so often that it is just accepted as fact.

No doubt, she is not a gazelle in light air due to her heavy displacement and full keel. However, her bowsprit and boomkin allowed her to carry as much canvas as many 38 and 40 footers, giving her a respectable SA/D ratio of 15 (similar to our PSC 34). We did a lot of light air sailing in southern CA and she was always fun to sail. But, she really came into her own when the wind increased. While others were tucking in a reef, Adagio was comfortably slicing through the waves. Moreover, she was built like a tank and we always felt safe in any kind of weather conditions.

The Westsail shares many of the offshore attributes of the Pacific Seacraft line, like sturdy construction, raised bulwarks, protected rudder, cutter rig, canoe stern, good storage and tankage, proven pedigree, etc. In fact, after moving to the east coast we looked for another one, but could not find one in decent shape.

They are not the best weekend boats, but for those inclined, they have made numerous ocean crossings and circumnavigations.

[TrevC]

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice guys.

The Westsails always get a bad rep, but I'd bet there's more people out there crossing oceans with them than making forum posts complaining about their performance! I didn't know their SA/D ratio was 15, that doesn't seem bad compared to other "cruisers".

I like the S&S 34, but the interior does seem small (and I'm not a huge of their layout/feel). Even though the PSC31 is tiny, it seems to have a nice feel to it. We'll be living on the hook or a swing mooring most of the time, but we're very minimal and don't need a big boat.

The Kendall 32 we're looking at is basically a Westsail with a flush deck. Nice to work on deck, and there's a bit more room below for books, etc. There's no wooden boomkin to worry about, just chainplates for the backstay. It also doesn't have teak decks to worry about (except on the bow/cockpit, but they're not screwed in to ply core). The only downside to this boat is it's engine, a Universal 5432 (Kubota core). It's very well maintained, recently mostly overhauled, but still getting old. The Westsail we're looking at has a 2008 Yanmar and all mechanical (gearbox, etc etc) replaced at the same time.

I'm glad there's forums like Sailnet to have these little discussions. I'm sure my wife is sick of boat-talk. I just want to make a wise decision, and choose a vessel that will suit our needs for a long time.

I forgot to mention that ALL of our sailing experience is from extensive time on a 15' racing dinghy, so things are about to get interesting I learned so much from that boat and had so many fun adventures, sad to see her go.