Posted 08/12/2013:
These are the days when a sailboat may be had for the price of a very used Honda Civic. The upshot of that happy scenario is that if a person really wants to go sailing, he can go. Most people can afford the Civic.
Our embryonic sailing family (including namesake Hutch) has set ourselves to the task of plan creation – that dangerous progenitor of every plot that thickens. We’ve decided that we should start small, with a coastal boat, and then work ourselves into one that’s ocean capable.
For the ocean-going boat, we have developed a few prerequisites, but there are no immutable items on our wish list, because we’ve just started to think about the options that are available (and plentiful) …
-
Steel Hull material -
Minimum of 38 feet -
Preferably twin masted (yawl or ketch)
The idea that we should have a ketch rig flies against popular opinion, as most people select cutter rigged vessels. A cutter can look pretty good, and a good example of a pretty cutter rigged boat may be found at:
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1992/Van-De-Stadt-Custom-Cutter-2606333/Annapolis/MD/United-States
It’s lovely, and it has just about everything we might think is necessary for ocean sailing, aside from its being two feet shorter than what we say we want, and its being single masted (cutter) rigged rather than ketch rigged.
A ketch would be nice, but the little cutter does look good in red, doesn’t it? Methinks the broker could snare me with a cheap red sail cover, so don’t tell him!
Alas – we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. As I’ve already written, our thinking is that we’ll season ourselves for the off-shore voyaging, using a smaller coastal craft. For the coastal boat, we could do without the steel hull, since we’ll always be within swimming distance…
http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1986/Newport-Mark-III-1938237/Beaufort/SC/United-States
No, I’m not really an olympic swimmer, but I could easily do the trip in the (mandatory) dink. But … let’s be thinking positively.
Go to part three …
Musings 
That’s what a ship is you know, it’s not a keel and a hold and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs, but what a ship is – what the Black Pearl really is – is freedom!
– Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney
That’s what a ship is you know, it’s not a keel and a hold and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs, but what a ship is – what the Black Pearl really is – is freedom!
– Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney