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Monthly Archives: January 2016

Shopping for a new boat is always a lot of fun. Yachtworld is bookmarked and several boats that are for sale there piqued my interest. With the Boat Show approaching at the end of January, we made several trips to Seattle and Anacortes to look at boats.

I am primarily looking for something a little smaller (around 40′ instead of Sea Eagle’s 50′), that can go a little faster and is a little easier to maintain. The boat should be better at weekend trips, with the option of a few annual long range trips as well.

I looked at a couple of Nordhavn 40’s, but they are just too small and felt crowded to me. I love the Nordhavn quality and engineering, but am thinking I won’t buy another Nordy until I retire and want to only go seven knots again.

American Tug 41

American Tug 41

We looked at (and tried to purchase) an American Tug, which is a well built boat with the Master Stateroom amidship where it belongs. They want a lot of money for those tugs and I quickly bowed out of a bidding war.

We looked at a couple of Nordic Tugs, which are also very nice boats. However, the word on the net is that the wave slap on the hard chines while at anchor is simply “diabolical”. The boat also seemed a bit tippy as people walked around the decks.

Coastal Craft

Coastal Craft

I checked out a Coastal Craft, which are beautiful, aluminum hulled boats that are built just over the border in Canada. I thought seriously about buying one, but they are more $$ than a Nordhavn.

We fell in love with a Hans Christiansen Independence Trawler named Carolina. She’s beautiful, very old, built like a tank, but slow and I wasn’t ready to take on an old slow boat again. Such a shame.

Carolina

Carolina

We really liked a friend’s Fathom Trawler that is for sale after doing the Great Loop twice. It had almost everything we wanted in a boat, but just didn’t feel right.

Many of the boats we looked at in December and January will be at the boat show in Seattle. Side by side comparisons will no doubt narrow the field of possibilities to a select few. Stay tuned…