[PUP] Top Five Passagemakers

[DOUGLAS MACQUARRIE]

I love this site.  It would be a wonderful thing to do.  We would all  
gain from that exercise.   Douglas
On Oct 21, 2007, at 1:14 PM, Scott Bulger wrote:

> 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
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