Dear Steve, My wife and I are looking for a new passagemaker. We’d love a BEOWULF but unfortunately the budget is a bit tight. We’ve been looking at Island Packets, Catalinas, Beneteaus, Valiants, and Pacific Seacraft. We also looked at the Saga 43 but feel it is a bit too small to be comfortable for very long. We recently came across the website for the Outbound 44 and are wondering if you have any thoughts on this new design. They say they designed the boat for solid passagemaking but with the performance of a PHRF style boat. We’ve been very concerned about getting a boat that is too slow to be safe. Thank you and keep up the good work. Your book is invaluable and has given us the confidence to follow our dream. -Mark and Sarah
Hi Mark and Sarah: Glad to hear you are looking for boatspeed. This is one of the primary ingredients in staying safe and having fun! I am not familiar with the Outbound 44. However, it looks like all the boats you are looking at are new construction. I’d suggest looking at some late CCA and early IOR type of boats–late 60s to mid 70s. You can buy a lot more waterline and boatspeed for a given amount of money, then fix it up to suit, and still have $$$ left in the bank compared to a new build. These designs are typically faster and better in heavy weather than much of what is being designed and produced today. We have a new book coming out in November on storm tactics and it has quite a bit of data on design features that work well when the conditions are less than ideal. It may prove of some help to you. We’ll start excerpting from it at setsail.com within a couple of weeks. And some of these excerpts may be of help in the choosing process. Good luck with your search. Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
