[Hudsonian]

My wife and I are looking for a boat for coastal cruising meeting the following criteria: PHRF Rating of 120 or lower, less than 20years old, price less than $100K, either of us must able to singlehand --she is a fit 65year old but only weighs 125 lbs., two fully enclosed cabins. Prefer: fractional rig, Yanmar diesel. Avoid: saildrive. We have identified the Beneatau 36.7, C&C 99, J/32, J/35C, Jeanneau 34.2, and Jeanneau Sun Odessey 35 as possibilities. Do you have other suggestions?

 

[Sail444]

My favorite for that coastal cruising category in the price range you suggested is the Catalina MK 42.

Fair Winds,
Steve Szirom

 

[svHyLyte]

My wife and I are looking for a boat for coastal cruising meeting the following criteria: PHRF Rating of 120 or lower, less than 20years old, price less than $100K, either of us must able to singlehand --she is a fit 65year old but only weighs 125 lbs., two fully enclosed cabins. Prefer: fractional rig, Yanmar diesel. Avoid: saildrive. We have identified the Beneatau 36.7, C&C 99, J/32, J/35C, Jeanneau 34.2, and Jeanneau Sun Odessey 35 as possibilities. Do you have other suggestions?

That is a rather too open ended question as there will likely be as many opinions as there are forum members. It might be wiser for you to do a little more research yourself on, say, sailboatdata.com where you can do a search based on a size range; or on yachtworld.com where you can do a search based on a size range, age and price range and come up with a range of boats to consider and then go from there, perhaps with a table of pro's vs. con's for prospects. No?

 

[Hudsonian]

I confined my search to a minimum length of 32' which was about the smallest I find with two fully enclosed cabins and a maximum length of 37' which is the largest my wife will consider single handling. Perhaps I should have spelled out this maximum length but I doubt that many 65 year old, 125 lb. women will want to singlehand something bigger. Since neither of us enjoy sailing slugs I further restricted the search to boats with a PHRF of 120 or less. This winnowing yielded 16 possibilities. I ran those 16 boats through yachtworld.com. Only the six boats I identified in my initial inquiry met my additional criteria of less than 20 years old and less then $100K. I forgot to mention that we are only interested in a monohull.

Of course, I have started to assess the pro's and con's of these six designs. I was just hoping that visitors to this board may point out boats that I've overlooked that meet these criteria.

 

[BarryL]

Hello,

Since you listed the C&C 99 I would add the C&C 110. You can find them for under $100K. Much more room than the 99.

Also consider the Tartan 3500. The Sabre 362 would be nice, but I don't know if you can find one in decent condition for $100K

I think that if you increase the max length to 40' and then you will find lots more choices: Bavaria 40, Beneteau Oceanus 40, Catalina 400, Hunter 40.5, Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40, Catalina 380, etc. etc. etc.

You aren't going to find too many boats under 37' that meet your PHRF requirement.

Good luck,
Barry

 

[RainDog]

I would add Ericson 36 and 38.

 

[BCC1]

Not trying to make things more difficult, but including one electric winch and a bow thruster makes a coastal cruiser 47 foot or less pretty easy to single-hand. Some sweet boats in the 40-42 ft range.

 

[xort]

"Coastal"? East coast usa will add the issue of draft. You would want to stay under 6', closer to 5' would be good. Plus a mast height of no more than 63' and prefferedly 61'.
If you plan a lot of near shore cruising outside, how comfortable are these boats you selected in sloppy choppy seas?

 

[Hudsonian]

How would you suggest to predict comfort in "sloppy, choppy seas"? Avoid the IOR influenced flat foresections? Long waterline to reduce pitching? Adequate SA/D ratio to keep driving in slop? Other thoughts?
Regarding draft we generally cruise east from the Hudson to ME. Six foot draft doesn't bother me; it seems it's more of a problem when heading south -- coastal NJ and the Chesapeake. When we go outside Long Island, it's typically a non-stop shot from Sandy Hook, NJ to Block Island, RI, so the shallow inlets on the south shore aren't an issue. I have no experience south of the Chesapeake and am not interested -- too blooming hot and humid for us.

 

[Halberdier]

Here's a the web sites I used to research sailboats:
Sail Calculator Pro v3.53 - 2500+ boats
Sailboat Links, Sailing sites, Sailboat Class Association List - use the "New Search"
Niagara 35 - Used Sailboat Market in Canada - brocheure style profiles and layouts and specifications of some sailboats
Atom Voyages - Good Old Boats List - brouchure style profiles and layouts, specificationa and comments on 20 to 32 foot blue water cruisers.
Sailboat Reviews of Offshore Cruising Yachts : Bluewaterboats.org - a good write-up, brouchure style profiles and layouts, specificationa and commenton blue water cruisers.
Practical Sailor - Sailboat Reviews - M - Practical sailor's review of many sailboats. A short blurb is free, but you have to purchase the full review.