a tale of two boats...

A needful report on the climate/economy, some homeless programs of note, and in the "Why am I not surprised" department...

This morning I read a fairly interesting review of the new Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 which Beneteau is marketing as a "starter boat". To be honest I actually quite liked it and it certainly seemed like a very nice boat.

Well, at least, until I saw that the price listed was "From $122 300*" which seems to me to be a whole lot of money for a "starter" boat. Albeit, it's a nice boat and the fold-down Nav station is a very cool feature/idea that I'll be stealing in the not-to-distant future.

Now, if someone were to ask me for a suggestion on a twenty-nineish-foot boat as a starter boat I very well might suggest a CAL 29. It sails well, has a very livable interior, and doesn't cost a lot. Just a quick search of the Seattle Craig's List had what appears to be a turnkey example with an asking price of $13K*.

That said, pretty much any 30ish-foot boat of the classic plastic genre (Catalina/Morgan/Columbia/etc) should go for about the same money, offer equivalent performance and accommodation.

So, of course, what sort of "starter boat" you choose is up to you but it would seem like you could do a lot of improving and cruising with $100K in your pocket and, while it might not be quite as sexy or hip as the Bendytoy, the CAL or reasonable facsimile would take you to any of the same places the more expensive boat would.

Then again, you wouldn't have that cool fold-down navigation desk with the CAL unless you built one. Oh well, we all have to make those difficult decisions.

Listening to Mapache

So it goes...


* $13K happens to be the norm for a turn-key CAL 29 in good condition but as it is the asking price it is assumed you'd be able to get it for a bit less. Surprisingly good deals on CAL 29's pop up in the $3K to $4k zone fairly often so it make sense to shop around.