Analyzing Your Boat Needs - resources for cruising sailors

Boat Selection Checklist

[Site]

Cruising school By John Neal

The authors give detailed, wide-ranging and savvy advice on choosing a sailboat for serious cruising, including comments on the real costs of a used boat, geographic pricing differences, design aspects to be avoided, construction details. Includes an annotated list of boat candidates.

[Mahina Tiare Expeditions, Friday Harbor, WA, USA]
- Choosing a sailboat for serious cruising

Cruising Boat Design and Construction

[Vendor]

Boatbuilder Cruising Boat Design and Construction

This builder′s website contains several articles about boat design and choosing a boat that explain the company′s choice of designs. Item-by-item analysis with emphasis is on traditional design virtues.

[Sam L. Morse Company, Costa Mesa, CA, USA]
- On cruising boat design and construction

You've Bought the Wrong Boat

[Article]

Personal Viewpoint By John Kretschmer

All the reasons why you will enjoy a smaller boat more than a larger one. The author gives credit to some counter-arguments as well.

[SailNet, 2 June 2004]
- Arguments that small is better

The Cruise-Mo Quiz

[Site]

By Trish Lambert

The author offers to review your (and your partner′s separate) answers to this quiz and give you her thoughts on what kind of cruising boat may suit you.

[Take Her Sailing, Cypress, TX, USA]
- #2 Narrowing Down the Choices

Choosing the Right Boat

[Article]

Overview By Randy Harman

Common sense guidelines, but worth reading to remind yourself at a stage in cruising life when your heart can outvote your head. Includes a refresher on performance measurements.

[SailNet, 15 April 2004]
- Read the article on line

Blue Water Boats vs. Coastal Boats

[Site]

On-line forum By John Drake et al

A forum thread. One participant asks how she can tell a boat that′s suitable for blue-water sailing. The result is a thoughtful discussion of boat qualities, with a number of specific boats mentioned. Size, displacement, cockpit location, layout

[Blue Water Sailing, Middletown, RI, USA]
- Sailboats compared

Desirable Attributes for a Blue-Water Sailboat

[Site]

Personal Website By Pat Watt

One couple′s list of guidelines in searching for their cruising sailboat. Covers items that are integral to a boat selection as well as some that can be added after the purchase.

[Bill Dillon and Pat Watt, USA]
- Searching for a cruising sailboat

What Boats Are Really Out There?

[Article]

Overview By John Kretschmer

A author looked down on a harbor full of modern cruisers and noticed . . . They all had three things in common! This sent him off to take a survey. Here are the results.

[SailNet, 17 November 2003]
- Read the article on line

Second Thoughts on the Ideal Cruising Boat

[Article]

Cruiser survey By Tim Murphy
Second Thoughts on the Ideal Cruising Boat

A look at the decisions six cruising couples made before they first set off and the ways they′ve changed their minds about their boats and all they carry. Lots more details in the print version.

[Cruising World, June 2004]
- Cruising equipment choices

Our Dream Boat

[Site]

Personal Website Our Dream Boat

A couple who have completed at 10,000-mile tour of the Pacific on a 31-foot cutter talk about what their perfect boat would be and what equipment it would carry. A preview: it′s big.

[Ken Machtley / Cathy Siegismund, Redmond, WA, USA]
- The dream cruising sailboat

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