Hello all, I realize I my request may be a little different but I thought this would be the best place to start. I have been boating all my life and have been lucky to own more boats than I should have in a life time. Out last two boats were new Nordhavn 40' (2005 and 2007) which we live aboard part time (M-F) in San Diego for five years. As much as we love our Nordhavn we are done going slow at least for awhile and have been searching for a quality built coastal cruiser we can use for weekend trips. An average trip for us is 60 miles of open ocean between ports. We spoke with Nordhavn about building something similiar to thier 35 Semi-displacement but they are not interested. I took a hard look at building a Downeast but determined I could not get what I wanted. I went back and looked at just about every single engine production built boat and still could not find the perfect boat. I came close but determined that what I want is just not available today. The builder of the boat that came close to meeting our requirements was interested in our vision of the perfect simple (attempt to minimize systems) coastal cruiser and we have begun discussions to design and build a high quality, strong, single engine diesel vessel in the 36' - 39' range usig an existing proven hull with a beam between 13' - 14'. Needless to say this an exciting and stressful journey but one that I feel I'm prepared to make.
Since opportunities like this only come around once in life I and for most of us we never have the opportunity to really provide input on the next boat builders market, I thought I would attempt to open up this project with others and ask them "what would your perfect coastal cruiser boat look like and how would it be equiped'? Another way to approach this could be to ask what are your top five "Must Have Items" on your perfect coastal cruiser. For those who would like to provide feedback I will consolidate all inputs and post a summary within 4-6 weeks. Thank you in advance for any inputs.
John
Since opportunities like this only come around once in life I and for most of us we never have the opportunity to really provide input on the next boat builders market, I thought I would attempt to open up this project with others and ask them "what would your perfect coastal cruiser boat look like and how would it be equiped'? Another way to approach this could be to ask what are your top five "Must Have Items" on your perfect coastal cruiser. For those who would like to provide feedback I will consolidate all inputs and post a summary within 4-6 weeks. Thank you in advance for any inputs.
John