Just be aware that there’s a huge difference between coastal sailing and bluewater sailing. You can sail “on the ocean” but stay relatively near shore in a lot of boats. All the ones I’ve mentioned would be good for coastal sailing, where you’re never more than a few hours away from shore.
To go truly offshore and cross an ocean you really want something more substantial. Why? It’s mostly because you’re much more likely to get caught in bad weather or to get something that breaks, so you need a lot more redundancy (spare parts, etc) and the boat needs to be built to withstand a lot more forces. Offshore you’re also constantly moving because of waves; something that flexes a little when you hit a large-ish wave will maybe flex 3-4 times during an outing in coastal or protected waters, but will flex every ~4 seconds for 20 days during an Atlantic crossing which adds up to about a half-million times. This can break a lot of stainless parts on your boat.
Anyway, still achievable, I just wanted to add some perspective
Thanks again. I know next to nothing about boats so this is all new, interesting information for me. I’m definitely not planning on getting one any time soon, I just never imagined it was even potentially achievable.
Just be aware that there’s a huge difference between coastal sailing and bluewater sailing. You can sail “on the ocean” but stay relatively near shore in a lot of boats. All the ones I’ve mentioned would be good for coastal sailing, where you’re never more than a few hours away from shore.
To go truly offshore and cross an ocean you really want something more substantial. Why? It’s mostly because you’re much more likely to get caught in bad weather or to get something that breaks, so you need a lot more redundancy (spare parts, etc) and the boat needs to be built to withstand a lot more forces. Offshore you’re also constantly moving because of waves; something that flexes a little when you hit a large-ish wave will maybe flex 3-4 times during an outing in coastal or protected waters, but will flex every ~4 seconds for 20 days during an Atlantic crossing which adds up to about a half-million times. This can break a lot of stainless parts on your boat.
Anyway, still achievable, I just wanted to add some perspective
Thanks again. I know next to nothing about boats so this is all new, interesting information for me. I’m definitely not planning on getting one any time soon, I just never imagined it was even potentially achievable.
Super interesting! Thanks