[PUP] Top Five Passagemakers

[Scott Bulger]

You know what would be an interesting exercise?  For each of us to share
what key factors was driving our decisions, and how we ended up choosing the
boats we did.  I suspect Robert is like many others who really don't know
how they will use their boats, but want to cover as many contingencies as
possible.  For instance I'll share my criteria:

A.  Time:  I wanted to leave for our journey within 1.5 to 2 years.  We have
a 2 (now lobbying for 3) year cruising window enabled by family matters
being fairly settled down.  When we purchased the boat neither daughter was
engaged.  Both ended up getting married 3 months prior to our departure.
Parents are healthy or being cared for by other siblings.  This meant
ordering or building a boat was out of the question.

B.  Quality:  I was willing to pay more for a quality product.  I had a
budget of 500 to 800K and wanted to buy the least amount of boat that would
do the job.

C.  Capability:  I wanted a boat that was ocean capable enabling me to
circumnavigate, even though I reset my goals to more of a coastal route (due
to my lack of real ocean experience).  My rational was a boat capable of
crossing oceans would have additional engineering and safety margin that
would benefit my chosen routes

D.  Size:  I wanted two staterooms, realizing the number of times the guest
stateroom would be used would be small.  I was willing to have a single
head, but it had to have a good shower and other facilities.  I wanted less
than 50 feet because of how few slips above 45 there were in the Puget
Sound.

E.  Fit and Finish:  My wife needed to feel "at home" in the boat, this left
the Diesel Duck out because at the time they were still a bit rough.  

F.  I wanted a fiberglass boat, single screw, diesel, wet or dry exhaust,
Pilot house, a fly bridge would be nice, but not necessary, active
stabilizers with Paravanes as backup (if ocean crossing).  

At the end it came down to three boats, a Nordhavn 43 a Nordhavn 40 or a
Krogen 44.

If money hadn't been an issue I would have chosen the Krogen 44.  I believe
it's a nicer looking boat, is capable of doing the job and has superior
living accommodations.  Unfortunately I couldn't swing it at 800K.  It would
have been closer to 1M to completely outfit it.  I found the Nordhavn 43 was
squeezed so small in the engine room (to get the extra fuel range) that I
couldn't move around in it.  So that left the Nordhavn 40.  I found a
slightly used one for $500k and negotiated an offer, brought it to Seattle
and put another 30 or 40k into it.  We left in August for our 3 year cruise.
I'm convinced it was the right course of action.  I'll know a lot more in a
year or so.  

If I were making the decision today, I'd also consider a Selene or the newer
Diesel Duck.  Oh, Seahorse also makes a fiberglass trawler, I'd consider
that as well.

If you take some of the other issues, like timing and fit and finish out of
the equation, I would likely have made a different decision.

Hope that helps.  Scott

Scott Bulger, Alanui, N40II, Seattle WA