[elliowb]

Looking for some input, I am looking at a Hans Christian 38. I am not a sailor yet! But me, my daughter (6) and my husband hope to start a new adventure living aboard while cruising the Caribbean.

Here are my questions / concerns.

Teak decks, I love the look my husband see's work.

The gunnels or toe rail, they are about 8" tall on the Han's, so what happens when a big wave comes over? How fast is the water going to run off? Is this a safety concern? I like that it seems safer for my little one, but my husband is concerned about the wave issue.

When I looked at the boat there was standing water in the sink drain, is this something to be concerned about? I did not notice it on other boats we looked at.

My husband wants a Tartan 37 we saw any feed back about which is a stronger, safer boat.

Thank you for any and all feed back.

I was interested in both a Tartan (the one I saw was a 40, absolutely beautiful boat) and a HC as well. Performance wise, they are fairly different boats. The Tartan will give you better speed and performance in general, but will require more attention in terms of keeping her going straight. The HC is very stable with a long full keel. I didn't really realize just how different the boats were until I started doing some sailing.

Since you said you aren't a sailor yet, I'd strongly recommend that you go out on both boats and actually experience the differences. Also consider how comfortable they would be in bad weather (although you won't probably be able to get that sort of impression from a sea trial).

Once you get a feel for the sailing characteristics, the other comments still of course apply.

One last suggestion, I found that Pacific Seacrafts are a great compromise between the Tartan and the HC. All three are very well built. Both Tartan and Pacific Seacraft are still producing boats, I don't believe that Hans Christian is around anymore. Could make a difference in getting advice and parts etc..