The First Mate and I have recently revised our criteria for the design of the yacht of our dreams. What could possibly have wrought such a seismic shift?
We revised our beam requirements (see below) after reading two noteworthy books by John Vigor: Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere and The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat.
Till we actually buy it, our criteria list is always subject to change. We'll probably change it and add to it several more times as we continue to research and learn about offshore yacht design.
John argues that a narrow beam is a critical component of seaworthiness: boats right themselves more easily after a knockdown if they are relatively long and narrow.
Good enough for us.
Soooo, our revised criteria are as follows...
Key Criteria
Our yacht should be:
- 30 feet LOA (or somewhere between 27 ~ 32 feet) for
- lower acquisition costs, lower running costs and good for solo handling
- specifically designed for blue water travel
- with a track record of durability and storm safety
- narrow beam* - for seaworthiness (boats right themselves more easily after a knockdown if they are relatively long and narrow)
- full keel
- heavy displacement
- good tankage included in the original design and build
- a design that remains popular over time that
- has a large active fleet
- holds its value - to maximize costs recouped upon resale
What other critical design criteria for a blue water yacht should we add to the list?
nice
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