[weinie]

Been sailing on my Catalina 27 for the last five years and in the process have put in so much money and time into upgrading everything...sails, cushions, rigging, plumbing, electric, etc etc.

But the urge to go bigger and new just keeps tugging on me! I've been contemplating going up to 31-35 feet and new...just because I'm tired of old.

The pros are...
-obviously a nice new boat - no more issues associated with owning and older boat.
-wife and kid may want to join me more often
-a little more substantial than my small 27 in higher winds.


Cons...
-That guilty feeling when you don't want to go out and sail even though you are making large monthly payments on the boat.
-Harder to dock - especially single handed.
-That feeling of sadness when a nice new boat gets dinged up on a piling pulling out of my slip, or if the newfangled electronics crap out for the tenth time, or some other typical boating snafu.

I single hand about 75 percent of the time - mostly long day sails in long island sound- I usually like to get in a good 6 hours if the wind and sun are nice.
Also, the nice thing about an old boat is that if you do break something, well, it's an old boat and no sleep lost.

Anyone here ever move up and wish they didn't?

 

[krisscross]

Judging by the pros and cons you are listing above, you are obviously a very practical person. A somewhat bigger and (more importantly) higher quality boat can certainly be a good, practical move. There is a time to move up and only you can make that call. I have never regretted buying a higher quality item, within my reasonable budget, of course.

 

[ianjoub]

This is 'murica: bigger is always better and you ain't living unless you are mortgaged to the hilt. What reasons do you have for not having a brand new 100' yacht?

 

[capta]

Honestly, I do not regret getting a 50'+ cruising boat. It is our home and it is nice having a comfortable place to live. Of course, this could be a completely different conversation if we had to pay slip fees on a boat we used only several times a month, half the year.

 

[caberg]

Cons...
-That guilty feeling when you don't want to go out and sail even though you are making large monthly payments on the boat.

We won't move up in size until we can buy the boat without financing. I've always had a thing against financing luxury items. Wouldn't even consider doing it.

 

[weinie]

We won't move up in size until we can buy the boat without financing. I've always had a thing against financing luxury items. Wouldn't even consider doing it.

You just factor in the interest as cost of ownership. Plus you can get that second home deduction which offsets it, I believe.

And 4% interest on boat loans is cheap money.

 

[chrissailorman]

Just gotta stop racing those big boys.... You have a great boat..... Yes, the lure is strong. I was there too, but then I think about all the extra costs and ask, will I get more satisfaction from my sailing. I only have a 22. Sailed with you guys a few years back. Crewed on a Bavaria 36. Owner moved to New Bern, in the Carolina's. Don't remember his name. For a while I thought about bigger, but then considered...larger truck to haul, not sure if what you're considering is even trailerable. Setup costs, winterizing, yes...docking singlehanded, but you will probably be mooring.
At the bottom of it all the only thing that really matters is your time on the water. Smoother waters in the evening over there. Think I saw you in the last summer series race. I was parked on the beach eating an Italian hero. That was a nice race. My boat is now in Blue Point on the south shore.

Money, convenience, and how much pleasure you get from your current boat will help you make your decision. What will you sail more?

 

[weinie]

Just gotta stop racing those big boys.... You have a great boat..... Yes, the lure is strong. I was there too, but then I think about all the extra costs and ask, will I get more satisfaction from my sailing. I only have a 22. Sailed with you guys a few years back. Crewed on a Bavaria 36. Owner moved to New Bern, in the Carolina's. Don't remember his name. For a while I thought about bigger, but then considered...larger truck to haul, not sure if what you're considering is even trailerable. Setup costs, winterizing, yes...docking singlehanded, but you will probably be mooring.
At the bottom of it all the only thing that really matters is your time on the water. Smoother waters in the evening over there. Think I saw you in the last summer series race. I was parked on the beach eating an Italian hero. That was a nice race. My boat is now in Blue Point on the south shore.

Money, convenience, and how much pleasure you get from your current boat will help you make your decision. What will you sail more?

wasn't me. I don't race my boat. I do do some local thursday nite racing and some weekend races on a j105 though.

 

[Minnewaska]

The pros are...
-obviously a nice new boat - no more issues associated with owning and older boat.

You would be very surprised how many things require repair on a new boat. Especially warranty items that never work in the first place.

-wife and kid may want to join me more often

This is a valid reason to stretch your budget. Assuming you know it to be true. Our entire family loves to meet us, stay aboard for the weekend, etc. It does make the expense worthwhile. If anything, the season isn't long enough to accommodate enough. It's a gift.

-a little more substantial than my small 27 in higher winds.

That's debatable, but probably more due to what you buy, not how long.

Cons...
-That guilty feeling when you don't want to go out and sail even though you are making large monthly payments on the boat.

I see you've already received the requisite admonishment for thinking of mortgaging a bigger boat. Everyone's financial situation is different, so I don't believe there is one right answer. I will say that your income stream to pay for that loan has to be rock solid. You should also finance a fairly low percentage, especially on a new hull. Otherwise, depreciation or another recession can put you upsidedown on your loan. If you had to sell it, due to unforeseen circumstances, you might not be able to.

-Harder to dock - especially single handed.

I wouldn't say the difference you're looking at is all that big.

-That feeling of sadness when a nice new boat gets dinged up on a piling pulling out of my slip, or if the newfangled electronics crap out for the tenth time, or some other typical boating snafu.

Unavoidable. Consider buying a hull that is lightly used and only 3 - 5 years old. It will be pretty new, not perfect, warranty kinks worked out and someone else took the big depreciation hit.

Anyone here ever move up and wish they didn't?

New or used, everyone always has a moment they with they didn't.

 

[goat]

I just went the other way, from 35' to 27'. If you're single handing now, don't plan for more people to come with you, use or buy the boat that suits you. That being said the 35 footer was no harder to dock or single hand (fin keel, furling main, bowthruster etc,) but my smaller, simpler boat has much less to go wrong and every thing is cheaper.
Change is fun but you'll miss your Catalina. If you're mostly daysailing how about a Catalina 30? A little heavier and you know the brand well.

goat

 

[Minnewaska]

....If you're single handing now, don't plan for more people to come with you.....

Think about this one......

 

[chrissailorman]

wasn't me. I don't race my boat. I do do some local thursday nite racing and some weekend races on a j105 though.

Ok...must have seen your picture on the MSSA website.... Nevertheless...hanging around in Mt Sinai harbor, I can see where the urge to upsize comes from. Thursday was the last race I watched...about 1-2 weeks ago. Strong northwest wind...

 

[jsaronson]

Moved from a Pearson 28 to a C&C 35. Can still single-hand her. Bigger winches compensate for bigger loads! No, no regrets!

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

35 feet and new..

The pros are...

-wife and kid may want to join me more often

If you let HER choose the boat. Let HER choose the options, colours, mattresses, linens, pillows (and don't skimp on them, let her go all out and buy good ones), new saucepans not to old ones from the old boat, if you let her do all that then not only will she sail with you much, much more but the sex will be better.

The difference between an old 27 and a new 35 is.... big.

 

[aeventyr60]

So you should have gotten the 42?

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

Oh, and the smell of a new boat.

You know that new car smell? You don't get that on any other car...........

 

[paul323]

Bigger is not always better; but a 27 to a 30 or 32 is a reasonable jump. When you get into the high 30s or 40s, it is a different league in terms of cost, complexity, and difficulty to manage. But anywhere in the mid-30s is probably a small step in expertise, but a huge step in size, speed and comfort.

Docking isn't more difficult (finding a slip may be!)
She'll probably be more stable, drier
Not convinced the family will join you more often...didn't work out for me!

Some of the other factors are very personal and depend on how, where and why you sail. But - even if you have serious money - I'd hesitate about a new boat in that size range. Well, maybe if you have serious money it's okay. But there will be a lot of equipment and extras you'll need to buy to set it up just right. A well-maintained boat a few years off the line would probably have added those extra sails, electronics and other little goodies - and run them in. You'll just need to fine-tune and personalise.

 

[MedSailor]

Yes and No. I wouldn't go so far as to say I've regretted getting a big boat, but with our recent boat purchase, we certainly didn't want a bigger one and we wanted a more maneuverable one.

You see "big" is a bit of a generic term I've found. My Formosa 41 (LOA 50') wasn't too "big" in general, but one thing it was was really difficult to dock. This was a combination of keel profile, having the prop in an aperture, having an undersized engine, and bowsprit/windage issues.

Instead of "smaller" being on the must-have list for the new boat, we were more specific and wanted "easier to dock." This was achieved with a different keel profile, prop and engine 2x as big, a bow thruster, no bowsprit etc.

If it's big you fear, try and parse out what about big it is that you fear. For example the easiest boat I've ever had the pleasure of docking was a 67ft motor-yacht with over-sized bow and stern thrusters and micro-commander throttles to the dual engines located right where you step off the boat. I felt comfortable standing off a fuel dock in a very tight spot in 25knots of wind with no stress at all. She was a very very big boat, but less stress to dock than most 30 footers....

MedSailor

 

[tommays]

Well

I now have owned the Cal 29 6 years 4 in the water after refit which is a stout boat with a LARGE enclosed head which everybody loves even people i take out for a casual one time day trip

We got the Cal 29 when everybody came to HATE my much loved J24 due to comfort issues

I race on and older C&C 35' weekly going back to 2008 which has a head the size of a small broom closet which everybody HATES ,its a freaking great sailing boat but is not comfortable at all for guest sailing

I help keep both boats running and the 35' is MUCH more work for everything even something as simple as bottom paint

 

[Siamese]

Re: Anyone every buy bigger or new and regret it?

Yeah, I bought a new Catalina 309 in 2007. Oops. The boat had MANY gel coat cracks on the decks that showed up within the first year. Pretty much everywhere.

Dealer support for any warranty issues was so bad that it became obvious early on that it was better to just fix things myself. He would do a lousy repair, that either didn't fix the problem or made it worse, and then bill Catalina.

The in mast furling on the boat was a joke, but the joke was on me.

Five years down the road, the steering went bad. Thought at first it might need a little lubrication or something. Nope. Turned out that the rudder tube was so poorly aligned with the point on the cockpit floor where it was supposed to go, that the factory had ground the rudder bearings to a new shape to compensate, and allow the rudder post to more or less...mostly less...go where it was supposed to go. The Marelon (sp?) bearings are normally held in place in the rudder tube with some sheet metal screws, but in this case they put the screws in too far and they were scoring the rudder post. One of those jobs where it's obvious someone at the factory decided to do a slap-dash job and get the boat to the dealer...and hope it failed after the warranty is up. Good plan.

The rudder post was so poorly aligned, that using the standard (expensive) bearings would not have cured the problem. Calls to the Catalina plant in Florida revealed that in actuality, the rudder tube was just fine, and they've never had a problem with mis-alignment (would you like to hear about my unicorn ranch on the moon?). I don't really mind being lied to, but if they could have told just a little bit of the truth, maybe they could have actually helped me make a repair.

I managed to make myself an expert on the system pretty quickly, and made an effective repair at considerable expense and aggravation to me. Thanks for NOTHING Catalina.

I'm now sailing a used sailboat, and am experiencing much fewer problems and repairs than I had with my new Catalina.

'Not saying all new boats are bad, or that all Catalinas are bad, but can a new boat be more a of problem than a used boat? Heck yes, and at much greater expense.