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For an explanation of photos, position cursor over photo.
As much as we loved cruising on a sailboat, we have also begun to seriously consider a power boat, which provides some advantages. Given the places we want to go, we need to have a boat that can handle open ocean conditions and that has a range of at least 3000 miles on a tank of fuel. This means we are limited to a type of boat know as a trawler, with a full displacement hull built for cruising at slower speeds of 7-10 knots, about the same speed as a sailboat. The advantages of a trawler over a sailboat are appealing - the living space on a similar sized power boat is more than double that of a sailboat. Navigation and helming is done from a pilot house, meaning you stay dry most of the time - no need to adjust sails in bad weather. The main disadvantage is the noise - the engine must run when you are underway and at anchor the generator needs to run much more frequently than on a sailboat.
We have seen several of the new Oyster 655's (a 65 foot sailboat), visited Oyster's headquarters, and visited the yards where they are built. We have also seen many examples of Norhavn's, the premier cruising trawler and have visited their headquarters in Dana Point, CA. We will continue to do our research and will make our decision sometime this year.
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Although
we sold our first Shear Madness in September of 2007, we are already making
plans for our next boat. Ideally we will spend a few years back here on land,
then depart to resume the cruising lifestyle sometime in 2011. We have attended
four major boat shows - October in Annapolis, January in London, February in
Dusseldorf, and February in Miami. We have two major decision to make: 1) Do we
buy a used boat or build a new one and 2) Do we continue with a sailboat or
switch to a long-range power boat (called a trawler)? Both of these are
difficult decisions. Building a new boat takes a lot of time and energy, but
results in knowing the boat inside and out and getting exactly what you want.
Buying a used boat means some compromise, but provides some cost savings and
avoids the stress of building and commissioning. The delivery time to build a
new boat is about 3 years, so we need to make that decision soon. If we decide
not to build, we have to hope a suitable used boat comes on the market in the
right time frame.
Over
the past six months we have attended four of the world's largest boat shows.
This was quite an experience as the size of the European shows was overwhelming!
London and Dusseldorf are both "out of the water" shows, which means that all
the boats are shown indoors in large convention halls. In Dusseldorf, the
fairgrounds consists of 18 huge halls, all of them full of boats and boat
equipment. The logistics of putting on that show are just mind-boggling!