Quote:
Originally Posted by russab
Yes...well, its all right for you sunniing yourself somewhere in the Med!
I see you have a 33ft sloop what is it may I ask? The reason being that "Enterprise" is 32ft and some of the old lags at the yacht club have said its going to be too small, uncomfortable and slow crossing Biscay...... so many people seem to have 38 - 45 ft boats now......
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I'm not a great one for statistics Russab but I think you'll find that certainly over the past 20 years the "average" size of pleasure yachts has crept ever upwards. Take the ARC Rally for instance, I think when that started the average size of boat in the rally was noticably smaller than today.
People can afford the mass produced larger size boats now, especially the marques that you refer to, so people get used to seeing rows and rows of white 35 foot plus boats in marinas and so they become the accepted thing. To own even a 30 foot boat once you needed to be fairly well off.
My reply to people who say "you need a big boat" is...Well Dr Peter Pye and his wife didn't with 'Moonraker' or Sir Robin Knox-Johnson with Suhali, what were they, Moonraker about 28 and Suhali 32 ? something like that anyway. And they were ocean sailors, as well as many others in boats that size.
My boat is a Nicholson 32, she's actually 33 feet on deck. Three and a half tons of lead inside her keel. The modern boats overhaul me in light winds and I catch them up when they're reefed right down with their lee rails under and my Nic's maybe got one reef in her main, Bet I know who's most comfortable them..
I'm always single handed, so plenty of room for me, but you shouldn't be too bad with just the two of you in your boat. Once you get down into the sunshine life is mostly spent in the cockpit anyway, and you won't need to stow so many wooly jumpers either...
It's horses for courses' really, I don't critisize the modern boats, but don't let people put you off mate. So, it takes you 6 days instead of 5 to cross Biscay, you're cruising not charging round the race markers in the Solent. As long as she's sound, her rig is in good order and you know your boat, then you'll be fine.
If it's any consolation to you there's a very nice Westerly Discus with a young couple on board on the next pontoon, what's she 32-33 feet? They're 3 years aboard now, ask them if they'd swop for a big modern boat...coo..they would say some very rude words..
Good luck Saxon.
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