The european ladies explained (notes from Tig)

I’ve alluded to the fact that Tig likes the European ladies of the 80’s vintage (boats, not women). I asked him to clarify.

I tend to lean towards the N. European boat builders because they have good reputations for sturdy construction to withstand sailing conditions in the North Sea. These boats also tend to have more accommodations inside (for the size we want) such as an aft cabin or double wide quarterberth. –Tig

Tig started out with the Boats to Consider for Offshore Cruising list by John Neale from Mahina Expedition. He went down the list and cross referenced them with the reviews in Practical Boat Buying. From there, he narrowed it down to a smaller list. While we cannot afford any Hallberg-Rassys with a walk-through aft cabin, some other models seem promising on paper. Here are some of his notes:

Sadler 34 (United Kingdom)
Fast, “unsinkable” and insulated because of foam, single mast, aft cabin, aft cockpit, relatively shallow draft. Unfortunately, the only one on the market sold recently.

Scanmar 35 (Sweden)
Also fast, single mast, aft cabin, but has deeper draft, center cockpit. We were scheduled to see one, but the owner got cold feet and pulled out.

Contest 35s (Netherlands)
Aft cockpit, aft cabin, single mast, relatively shallow draft, but currently too far out of our price range.

Wauquiez Pretorien 35 (France)
Fast, aft cockpit, aft cabin, single mast, but deeper draft and also a little bit out of our price range. We looked at one of these during the holidays; it was nice.

Waquiez Hood 38 (France)
We looked at the least expensive Mk I on the market, and there’s actually one other Mk I for sale by owner in Maryland. The Mk II versions start at $90k and go up from there. So there is definitely good value in the boat we saw. Unfortunately, we could not get over the submarine hatch forward of the cockpit.

Any other boats we should consider?