and I are starting to go from the pure fantasy mode to the getting real mode about buying our boat and move our plans to go cruising to the next stage. Here's an email I sent here last week and thought you might like to follow (and comment on) my thought process.
I looked at all the < $70K boats from 37-45 feet and through in all the Halberg-Rassy (HR) and Island Packets (IPY) too. The numbers don’t work out for those boats, they are much older and smaller in our price range and they don’t have any of the things you like about them in those models.
While there may be a higher end boats (HR, IPY) that could come up in our price range, these are the most likely boats we will buy based on the numbers of boat in our size and price range.
| Count boats on YW worldwide | Average of Price(US$) | Total Count | Total Avg Price(US$) |
| Manufacture | 39' | 40' | 41' | 42' | 39' | 40' | 41' | 42' | | |
| Cal | 17 | 3 | | | $56,100.00 | $44,500.00 | | | 20 | $54,360.00 |
| Cheoy Lee | | 7 | 8 | 2 | | $68,021.43 | $80,475.00 | $67,250.00 | 17 | $73,791.18 |
| CT | | | 11 | 1 | | | $62,980.18 | $89,500.00 | 12 | $65,190.17 |
| Irwin | 4 | 3 | | 2 | $40,493.50 | $38,600.00 | | $73,750.00 | 9 | $47,252.67 |
| Islander | | 4 | 6 | | | $65,950.00 | $71,866.67 | | 10 | $69,500.00 |
| Pearson | 6 | 2 | 1 | 14 | $64,775.00 | $54,900.00 | $69,500.00 | $76,407.14 | 23 | $71,202.17 |
Some thoughts off the top of my head based on all the reading I’ve done the last few years.
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Cal 40’s are 1970’s era racer/cruisers that were light displacement for their day but would be faster than some of our other options.
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Cheoy Lee and CT’s are like Jimmy’s boat but will fuller keels. Lots of wood. They have stood the test of time and been everywhere, originally manufactured in Taiwan.
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Irwin, I don’t know a lot about these. But I do know them to have been everywhere and be solid boats.
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Pearsons are solid canoe-stern (rounded) boats that have also been everywhere. They tend to have a lot of wood work above and below deck.
Links
One thing not to overlook is how well loved and talked about these boats are by their owners. The Irwin and the Cheoy Lee rank high on that list based on their dedicated fans sites. All but the CT have an owner’s list on SailNet which is another good measure.
Comments:
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One thing to note about any boat we buy, it’s going to need new sails, standing and running rigging before we leave unless either were new in the last 3-5 years.
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We can modify interior space to a certain degree but cannot move bulkheads (walls). So that means we can get rid of salon tables and change the galley counter layouts. I don’t care anything about the existing cushions, covers, decorations, etc. We will redo all of that.
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Engine should be a solid runner and well maintained. We’ll do an overhauls I’m sure before we leave. This is something where I’d go up in price (boat to boat) to get better or newer.
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I’m not concerned about existing electronics and navigation gear. In fact the less already there the less I have to rip out. I will want to go new on all of this and I will end up tracing every wire down anyway to learn how to maintain anything anyway. I might as well install them myself.
Those are my basic thoughts and I think a good basis for talking to brokers… what do you think?