This is the continuation of Mallory and My preparation for our circumnavigation. We hope that you enjoy these monthly discussions. Please feel free to contact either of us. Hope we all have an early spring, Mallory and Rob.

In researching distance cruising we uncovered several surprising facts. Take the below quiz and see how well you can answer these questions based on the "average" cruiser.

1. How many days at sea verses days at port in an average circumnavigation?
1. 1:3
2. 1:5
3. 1:10
2. What percentage of the time at sea is motoring verses sailing?
1. 50%
2. 60%
3. 70%
4. 80%
5. 90%
3. How often do you anchor out verses docking at port?
1. 1:1
2. 3:1
3. 5:1
4. 10:1

Answers are at the bottom of the article and you can guess that many of these items are dependent on budget and the type of boat you own. We preferred to ask ourselves these questions prior to looking for a boat. The results were surprising to sailors like us (each of us have over 25 years of sailing) and we thought we'd be sailing more than we were (even this past summer).

With these things in mind we set out to find a boat. First, we felt that we wanted a boat that is stable and has a fairly low sail plan. For us that meant a mono-hull and Ketch rig. Mono-hull boats will, in almost all circumstances, right themselves after a knock down, where multi-hulls will not. Ketch rig is favorable because of the reduced mast size and lower sail plan also improves stability. Once we had this in mind we were a long way to finding our boat.

We chose to purchase a boat in the states and preferably in colder climates. Warm water boats deteriorate much more rapidly. We wanted to purchase in the states because the systems and power would already be set up for sailing here. Purchasing a boat in Europe can be difficult to convert to power in other parts of the world. It also is easier for us to refit the boat by getting parts locally.

Everything we read stated that you should buy the biggest boat you can afford. I think that is true within limits. We were also very interested in a boat with under 6 foot draft. There are so many places in the world that cannot be approached with deeper draft boats.

The boat has to have a fairly long range under power. Storage tanks for fresh water and fuel are very important. Almost all of the boats we looked at had 150 to 225 gallons of fuel but there were a few that only had 50 gallons and that would not be enough to get you out of trouble if you need to motor a distance to the nearest port when your out on the ocean.

There was an interesting thing that happened when we were out looking for boats. Almost all of the boats were being sold by older couples that could for medical reasons no longer sail their boats. Often they keep them a couple of years too long and the boats build up deferred maintenance during this time. Beware. The boat may look beautiful but the owners can no longer get around like they used to and the maintenance that they could do before is just out of reach now and they don't want to admit it. You can easily insult the owners by saying that anything is not perfect. These boats are their babies. We will tell you stories about that later.

So we went off to Annapolis to look at a Swan 50. We thought that was "the" boat. When we got there, the boat had $250k of resent refit and had not been sailed since. The woman that owned it had done the boat in animal prints, even the fenders were lepord print. All it needed was a red light to make it a brothel, oh that's right, there are red lights throughout the interior to protect night vision. There were other problems as well. Not one switch in the entire boat was labeled. And probably the clincher was the forward cabin could only be accessed from forward on deck.

So we set off to look at other boats, Shannon 49, Hinkley 49, Amel 47, and a Pearson 530, as many of you know the Pearson is the one we chose. Initially, we thought it was going to be too big to manuver and handle because of the size of the masts and shear weight. Once we got on board it was the first boat that was a home first and a sailing vessel second. Secondly, it was the only boat of all the boats that was designed to have reduced heel. This is important because navigating a boat that is heeled over hard, like the Hinkleys, and others are fatiguing to the crew and uncomfortable for guests.