Blue Water or Coastal Cruisers

[CandJMassey]

I read a Thread that was last responded to in 2001, so I thought it may be a little outdated. We are in the planning stages of purchasing our first boat and need some advice. What determines whether or not a boat is a Coastal Cruiser or a Blue water Cruiser? Can you list a few of the different manufacturers, between 1980 and the present? Where do '85 Freedom Pilothouse and '85 Hunter Cutters fall? Both 40'. Any and all advice would be welcomed.

[PBzeer]

The first thing you should do, is make a realistic assessment of how you'll use the boat. Then you'll have a better idea of what to look for.

[erps]

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showth...ue+water+boats

[kwaltersmi]

Check out this webpage: http://www.mahina.com/cruise.html#boats4cruising

After reading the text, scroll to the bottom for a fairly comprehensive list of bluewater capable boats.

[sailingdog]

It would help if you said what kind of sailing and where you plan to sail the boat. If you're planning a trip across the Atlantic, then you would probably want a bluewater cruiser, rather than a coastal one.

Most coastal cruisers are beamier, with more open cabin layouts and less stowage and tankage than a bluewater cruiser of the same LOA. They're designed with the fact that you'll be relatively near shore, and close to facilities where you can re-fuel, get water, food, etc, so don't have the larger stowage and tankage capacities of a bluewater boat that may be two-to-three weeks from the nearest port.

A few manufacturers of Bluewater crusing boats would be Pacific Seacraft, Valiant, Hallberg Rassy, Swan, Tayana, etc. Some of the more common coastal cruisers would be Beneteau, Jeanneau, Hunter, and Catalina.

There are some boats that are a compromise between the two and can be used as a coastal cruiser or a bluewater cruiser, although not particularly well suited to either necessarily.

It would also help if you said what your budget was, what level of sailing experience you have and where you were located.

[JohnRPollard]

There are quite a few threads on this topic sprinkled around the various Sailnet forums, many of them active throughout the past year or so. Use search terms like "bluewater" and "off-shore". Here's one right here in the D&C forum probably worth reading:

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38002

[CandJMassey]

Ok. I guess I didn't give the forums a fair chance to answer my question before I attempted to raise an apparent dead horse. To answer a few questions: I/We have less than a year of sailing experience. Our plan is to purchase and live aboard a boat, take sailing lessons, and in a year or two cruise to Mexico. Pass through the Panama Canal cruise the west coast of the US, and maybe one day make a jump to Hawaii. I also have the urge to try making the jump from the east coast to the English and Irish coast. We will not be on a time schedule, and plan to Gunkhole as often as possible. In the beginning we will spend most of our time along the east coast from NC-FL. I personally like the simplicity of the Freedom, and wanted on opinion as to whether it would be a safe boat to make these kind of passages.

[PBzeer]

It sounds like what you need to think about is a two boat progression. A first boat that is good for the ICW and coastal waters, that would not be too difficult to sell later. And then a bluewater boat for your more adventureous plans.

The reasoning here is that from the first boat, you'll learn what you need for the second boat. You also might want to do some research on sailing north up the West Coast.

[sailingdog]

While you could do this as a two-boat progression, I would recommend that you get a single boat that can do it all instead. That way, you won't have to refit two different boats and learn the systems of two different boats to do this.

You still haven't said what your budget for this is... but assuming you have at least a reasonable budget, I'd recommend you get something that is a keel-centerboard design. The centerboard will allow you to gunkhole much more successfully than a fixed keel design, while still allowing decent upwind performance in deeper waters.

Something like the Tartan 37c might be a good choice. While not as room as the Freedom or the Hunter, it would probably be a much better boat for the voyages you plan.

[kwaltersmi]

I agree with SD: Go with the one boat approach and upgrade it so that it will meet all of your future needs. We all pour a lot of time, money and effort into our boats to have the meet our needs. I've always felt if you can afford what you want/need now, go for it.