My excuses for late reactions, I was a way for a weekend and today was a busy day at the office...
Theme of this thread is new built, very seaworthy power boat with auxiliary sails able to cross the ocean and to go to the high latitudes.
“Poor” is a relative term, I didn’t mean really poor, I meant middle class. (Too poor to buy perfect passagemaker).
Richard, I don’t want to hijack your threads so I’ll answer your posts here if you don’t mind.
… There is no poor mans Rolls Royce …
I’m not sure that I understand you correctly and if this analogy, (cars versus boats), is a good one, but I’ll try anyway:
Essence of the car is not luxury but mobility it provides, be it a Rolls, or Citroen 2CV, or anything else in between. 2CV does not have allure and style of the Rolls but it will still bring you where you want to go. And it does have it’s own charm and can be a lot of fun with all of it’s crudeness and imperfections.
I for example have fond memories of one long summer with couple of friends, girls, two 2 CV’s, surfboards, tents... We had some of the best times of our lives and we weren’t bodered by Rolls Royces at all. They didn’t even crossed our mind, we were certainly not jealous at them.
Some of the best things in a life are for free or almost free.
Do you think that only Rolls is worthwhile to drive and if one can’t have it then better not to drive at all?
Back to the boats:
… The "poor mans passagemaker" is a bit insane, sorry!...
In a similar way as the essence of the car is to provide mobility on the roads, (different types do that with various levels of luxury), so is essence of the passagemaker ocean crossings under power, (I would allow auxiliary sail plan). It can be done in luxury or in a modest comfort.
You are specialised in the perfect ones.
Partly inspired by old forum discussion about sailing boat versus power boat costs and mainly by your passagemakers, I started a thread with idea of looking into the possibilities of the smaller, basic type passagemaker, with considerably less volume, that would possibly be affordable to ordinary, middle class people.
I’m not trying to make cheap Rolls Royce here, more something as an Opel. That’s why I didn’t start with a gentleman cruiser as a reference point but from very trim, low windage, low resistance type of hull with a space for the auxiliary sails.
It seems that quite a lot of people are attracted to the idea of voyaging in the power boat. Comfort level is quite an personal thing to a certain extent. Some people wouldn’t cruise without professional crew and comfort level of the villa, so their minimum vessel is of few hundred tons of displacement.
Others are satisfied with a basics. Not so long ago sailing boats between 9 to 12 meters were the norm for ocean cruising with a family. I think that power boat with auxiliary sails with similar volume for accommodation as a conventional sailing yacht of about 11 to 12 meters could function well for two people, and wouldn’t brake the bank – single engine, trim hull of 18 – 20 meters long 3.5 – 4 meters wide, simple, cheap sail plan. (No sailing against the wind).
... Maybe this is more of an American problem then else where, but most Americans can't find a free month or two in the course of a year.
I think it is. Here, in The Netherlands everyone has a 5 weeks paid vacation per year. Many people have more, for example government employees work 36 hours/week. If they choose to work longer, they don’t get paid for it but save free days for holidays.
As of sailboats, there is no doubt that cheapest way to cruise is very basic sail boat. Simple boat and resourceful, experienced crew who can do all necessary maintenance by themselves can sail very far with very little money, as seaman did for centuries. It can still be done.
Maybe we can discuss this on separate thread, this one was about power boats.
