[PUP] top five boats

[John Marshall]

Per the comment below, it would be interesting if creating a list  
that more than one person would agree to was a doable task. But don't  
hold your breath.

IMHO, unless you are vastly experienced in passagemaking, a new  
participant can't possibly make any headway in this discussion until  
they exhaustively research the current production boats, whether you  
are buying new or a boat a couple of years old or less. (Note: It's  
routine for some customers of these volume mfg to put their boats up  
for sale with only a few hundred to a thousand hours on the engine.  
You'll find plenty of them out there. That's another topic.)

Interesting story... recently, I had my Nordhavn 55 in Anacortes, WA  
when Steve and Linda Dashew came in for a few days on their way south  
from Prince William Sound. We started talking. He was clearly  
thinking about what it would take to volume produce a practically  
priced boat. He spent a lot of time roaming around my N55. Then asked  
a lot of questions. Roll and pitch moments, stability curves, etc.  
Most of which I wasn't smart enough to answer. Also my observations  
in handling boat in head seas, beam and following seas. But I got the  
drift. Then he gave me a long tour of Sea Horse. Which was a  
different world. Bottom line... I learned more about passagemakers  
that day than I had during all my previous research and experience.

I now better understand the difference between a boat whose natural  
element is the middle of the big blue sea, and a boat designed to  
occasionally venture into the big blue sea.

That said, my wife and I live aboard and we want the luxuries of a  
high-end home. We consider it a really big adventure to travel north  
to Anchorage or from Seattle down to Mexico, maybe to the Caribbean  
some day, with our travel timing completely dictated by comfortable  
weather and season. Part of that time is on the hook, part in  
marinas. I'm very happy with my N55 for that kind of use, and if I do  
get caught out in something unexpected, I know I'm just going to be  
uncomfortable but still safe.

But if I was buying a boat primarily to circumnavigate, or live for  
long periods in very remote places, even places where concern for  
safety is a worry, live exclusively on the hook, cross the hurricane/ 
typhoon tracks (hard to avoid that if you circumnavigate),  I'd put  
Steve's boat at the very, very top of my list. It's ugly on the  
outside (doesn't look like it's a yacht, so it won't attract thieves)  
but beautiful inside, if you like the great room concept. There is no  
exterior washing or waxing required, and if you ding it against  
something, just hit it with the grinder. But its really hard to find  
a marina that can handle the length.

That said, for my cruising plans, and my far smaller budget, the N55  
suits me far better. Number two on my list was the Krogen 58, but we  
couldn't quite stretch that far financially. Third was the Krogen 48  
Whaleback (few really good examples were on the market -- its out of  
production). Fourth was the Nordhavn 47, of which there were several  
nearly new ones in brokerage when I bought. If I hadn't fallen into  
an unusual deal on the N55, I'd own a used N47 today.

John Marshall
N55-Serendipity
Sequim Bay, WA

On Oct 22, 2007, at 8:37 AM, Tommy Terrific wrote:

> It will be interesting to see how many boats make the "top five" list.
> TT
> _______________________________________________