Finding The Right Boat

When Sarah and I make a decision we're not ones to just sit patiently and wait for something to happen ... for better or worse we often jump in with both feet and put action to our thoughts. Finding the right boat was no different.

After our initial conversations, I began seriously looking for a boat for us for the first time - not just surfing boat porn for fun (more on BP later...) - but actually earnestly looking for a boat that we'd be happy with for 5 or 6 years. Based on my previous sailing experience on the family boat and those of friends, I figured that we'd be looking for something around 30' with a bit of a performance influence and a reasonable budget.

Performance 30 Fleet
First stop on the serious contender list were the boats of the performance 30 fleet in the Seattle Area which included the Olson 911, Santana 3030, J30 and S2 9.1. Of these boats I really liked the looks of the Olson as well as the Santana - sleek coach roofs and in the Olson's case a nice stern that reflected the racier side of this racer-cruiser. After much discussion on SailingAnarchy.com (SA) with many sailors across the nation as well as locally I found that the 911 and the 3030 were really at the top of my list based on their looks (OK... I'm a bit shallow), their light wind performance and their reasonable accomodations.

(Olson 911S)

Where these boat came up short were the cruising accomodations they had reasonable galley's, enclosed or semi-private heads and salons that were comfortable, however none of them had a shower in the head something that we'd come to appreciate on longer cruises on the folks Lancer 36. In addition there was some concern about finding a good boat sometime in the coming months... so we broadened the search and upped the budget a bit.

Kokopele - a Davidson 29
The next stop was a boat that I had a passion about for several years. I had first seen it 3 or 4 years ago when it was hauled out and for sale in Everett. It's a real racer cruiser with an open stern and great performance in all conditions. I found Kokopele in 48' North classifieds and less than two days later we were climbing aboard her while she was sitting on the hard to CSR Marine on Lake Union. While I fell in love with boat again and was already visualizing crossing the finish line in front of fleets of competitors, I also began to realize that this was not the boat for Sarah and me. It was simply too small, light and tender for both of us to be comfortable in a wide variety of conditions and on longer cruises. So we moved on...

Mind Free - a 1990 C&C 34R
Not long after Kokopele, I saw a C&C 34R in Tacoma that caught my eye. A nice mix of racer and cruiser - a bit sparse on the interior but it hit all the high points on paper - a nice galley, adequate berthing for two couples, a private head with shower and plenty of electronics and equipment (so no big upgrade bills ... OK ... fewer big upgrade bills). A couple days later Sarah and I headed down to Tyee Marina (the first marina my family stayed at when we moved out from Kansas) and stepped aboard to take a look. And so it begins...