[PUP] A practical perfect passagemaker

[Jonathan Haas]

I've been watching this discussion for a few days now, hoping that it would
find some traction.  I'm 59, don't have a boat, but my wife and I are
committed to buying a boat for the first 10 years of retirement.  We will sell
our house and move onto the boat full time.  We will have somewhere between
$500,000 and $600,000 in cash to buy the boat and a reasonable annual income
from multiple retirement sources.  We have been "browsing" boats and
Passagemaker Magazine for years and taking what opportunities we have to
charter boats and get some experience.  Our goal is not coastal cruising. We
want to spend 3 years or so in the Caribbean, another 3 years or so in the
Mediterranean, and another 3 years or so in the South Pacific.  We have both
traveled extensively around the world and want to take the time to explore in
a leisurely way while we can.  Thinking about a boat, we have concluded that
we will want a single engine boat, at least 1000 gal of
 fuel, a water maker, air conditioning, stabilizers of some kind.  We think
that a 46 ft boat is about the minimum we will want/need for our planned
adventures.  So my question for the group is what boat should we be looking
at/for in the next 2-3 years?  Not the "perfect passagemaker" but a
"functional/suitable" passagemaker for doing the kind of boating this group is
committed to.  Thoughts?

Jonathan Haas