If I were a whole lot younger and wanted to sail away for awhile for the absolute minimum investment, I'm pretty sure my choice of boat would look a lot like this...
Yes, a CAL 20! Lots to be said for the design... it's seaworthy and it's cheap. Not much to change and what you would modify would be pocket change related to a bigger boat. There is an excellent book, "Black Feathers", on making one into a Transpac racer which would also go a long way to showing you how to make it into a minimum long range cruiser as well.
If I had a little more budget and time, I'd seriously consider building a boat like Eric Henseval's most excellent Aviateur design...
Yeah, there might be just a little similarity. You might think of the Aviateur as something of a CAL 20 evolved to 2011 (in point of fact, it's more along the lines of an evolved Muscadet, but unless you are French that won't mean anything to you).
Notice the "bubbles" or domes? They make all kinds of sense and were once the badge of home-built French cruising sailboats everywhere... They have fallen somewhat out of vogue these days but, if I were to come upon a couple for the right price they'd find their way into "So It Goes" in a New York minute! Fact is, they'd look right at home and be smart on a CAL 20 as well...
Aviateur is a kiss shorter than the CAL 20 and beamier, so the boats would more or less have close to the same interior volume. This video of Aviateur shows just how roomy a less than 19-foot boat can be!
If I were refitting a CAL 20 for voyaging I'd spend a lot of time looking at just how the Aviateur is laid out both inside and out!
