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• Embarking on a Seafaring Odyssey: Exploring the World of Bluewater Yachts and Cruising Sailboats

Are you ready to embark on a seafaring odyssey that will take you across the endless expanse of the open ocean? If the thought of navigating the deep blue waters on a luxurious boat has always been a dream, then you're about to set sail on an exciting journey. In this comprehensive guide, we'll dive deep into the captivating world of bluewater yachts, sailing on top-tier vessels, and the exhilarating thrill of ocean-going expeditions. Whether you're an experienced sailor seeking new horizons or a novice with a thirst for adventure, this article is your compass to the enchanting realm of maritime exploration.

Introduction

Imagine yourself standing at the helm of a majestic vessel, the wind whispering tales of distant shores, and the gentle rhythm of waves inviting you to set forth on a voyage of a lifetime. The allure of bluewater yachts encapsulates the essence of exploration, luxury, and freedom on the open sea.

Unveiling Bluewater Yachts: Masters of the Sea

Bluewater yachts are the maritime marvels designed to conquer the unpredictable waters of the open ocean. These vessels are engineered with a focus on resilience, safety, and comfort, making them the ultimate choice for those with a passion for venturing beyond the horizon.

Sailing Zenith: Reaching the Pinnacle of Seamanship

At the zenith of sailing prowess, a phenomenon known as the "sailing top" awaits the intrepid mariners. This pinnacle of seamanship represents the epitome of skill, where sailors harness the wind's energy to achieve unprecedented speed, precision, and navigational mastery.

Bluewater Yachts: Where Power Meets Elegance

The allure of bluewater yachts lies not only in their capacity to brave the open ocean but also in their opulent interiors and cutting-edge features. These vessels seamlessly blend power and elegance, offering a harmonious blend of performance and comfort.

Conquering the Vastness: Ocean-Going Yachts in Focus

Ocean-going yachts are the true conquerors of the sea, designed to tackle extensive journeys across the world's oceans. These vessels boast advanced technologies, robust construction, and top-notch safety measures, ensuring a smooth and secure passage, even in challenging conditions.

Oyster 56: A Symphony of Luxury and Performance

Amid the realm of bluewater yachts, the Oyster 56 stands as an emblem of sophistication and performance. With its impeccable balance of luxurious interiors and exceptional sailing capabilities, this yacht represents the zenith of modern maritime engineering.

Read   our  top  notch   articles  on  topics  such as  sailing ,  sailing   tips  and  destinations  in  our   Magazine .  

Navigating Blue Water Sailing: A Journey Beyond Horizons

Blue water sailing transcends the ordinary. It's a calling to embrace the unknown, revel in the ebb and flow of the tides, and cultivate a profound connection with nature. It's an experience that fosters self-discovery while immersing sailors in the grandeur of the world's oceans.

Market Insights: Bluewater Boats Await New Captains

For aspiring sailors, the market offers a treasure trove of bluewater boats, each with its unique blend of features and capabilities. From sleek sloops to robust ketches, these vessels cater to varying preferences and aspirations, ensuring a perfect match for every seafarer.

Sailing the UK Waters: Blue Water Yachts on Sale

In the United Kingdom, the dream of owning a bluewater yacht is well within reach. The market showcases an array of blue water yachts available for sale, providing enthusiasts with the opportunity to explore the British coastline and beyond in style.

The Bluewater Dilemma: Making the Perfect Choice

The decision to select the ideal bluewater yacht requires careful consideration. Factors such as size, layout, amenities, and budget play a pivotal role in ensuring that your chosen vessel aligns with your seafaring ambitions.

Sailing Redefined: Thriving Aboard a Blue Water Catamaran

The blue water catamaran introduces a paradigm shift in sailing dynamics. With enhanced stability, spacious living areas, and shallow-water accessibility, these vessels redefine comfort and freedom on the high seas.

Cruising Sailboats: Where Comfort and Exploration Intertwine

Cruising sailboats offer the best of both worlds: the thrill of exploration and the embrace of comfort. These vessels are thoughtfully designed with cozy interiors, expansive cabins, and efficient navigation systems, making extended voyages an absolute pleasure.

Ocean Sailboats: Harnessing Power with Grace

Ocean sailboats epitomize the harmony between human ingenuity and the raw power of nature. Crafted to navigate the vastness of the ocean, these vessels showcase the art of harnessing wind energy to propel them across boundless horizons.

Centre Cockpit Yachts: A Unique Perspective on Navigation

Centre cockpit yachts offer a fresh perspective on sailing. With their distinctive design placing the cockpit amidships, these vessels provide enhanced visibility, protection from the elements, and a strong connection between the sailor and the sea.

Ocean Sailing Essentials: Navigating the High Seas

Embarking on an ocean sailing adventure demands a comprehensive understanding of essential skills and knowledge. From celestial navigation to weather forecasting, mastering these elements is key to a successful and safe voyage.

Bluewater Yacht Lifestyle: Where Luxury Meets Freedom

The bluewater yacht lifestyle is synonymous with opulence, exploration, and liberation. It's a lifestyle that invites you to roam the world's most captivating destinations while indulging in the opulence of a meticulously designed yacht.

Navigating Choices: Finding Your Ideal Blue Water Cruiser

Selecting the perfect blue water cruiser involves aligning your aspirations with the characteristics of different vessels. Whether you prioritize speed, comfort, or versatility, there's a cruiser tailored to fulfill your maritime dreams.

Exploring Boundless Horizons: The Allure of Bluewater Yachts

In closing, the realm of bluewater yachts invites intrepid souls to embrace the call of the sea. The allure of navigating boundless horizons, the thrill of encountering nature's grandeur, and the serenity of sailing await those who are ready to embark on this extraordinary maritime journey.

So  what  are  you   waiting   for ?  Take  a  look   at   our   range   of  charter  boats  and  head  to  some   of   our  favourite     sailing   destinations .  

Faqs: bluewater yacht adventure: your questions answered.

Bluewater yachts are meticulously designed to handle long ocean voyages and challenging conditions, emphasizing durability, safety, and comfort.

Ocean-going yachts are best suited for experienced sailors due to their robust construction and advanced navigational systems.

The bluewater yacht lifestyle offers a unique blend of luxury, exploration, and the freedom to navigate the world's oceans at your leisure.

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Countdown to adventure: 5 skippers explain how to prepare for bluewater sailing

• Elaine Bunting
• June 8, 2020

Are you counting down to a big adventure? Five skippers tell Elaine Bunting about their plans and preparations to go bluewater sailing

Make life more fun for all the family onboard

For most sailors, preparing for an Atlantic or round the world voyage typically takes between a year and three years. According to the surveys we carry out annually with ARC rally skippers , that is the average time it takes to choose and buy a suitable boat, equip it, train up and get all the moving parts of work and domestic life aligned.

Right now, almost everyone’s plans are on ice, but this uncertain period of enforced stasis may actually be a good opportunity to take stock of your life goals and what you need to reach them. If you’ve always dreamed of sailing away or of a long voyage and a break from normal, striving life ashore, this could be the time to create more serious plans.

To find out how other sailors are planning their journey along the typical three-year ‘runway’ and what their challenges have been, we spoke to a five sailors at different stages. What follows is a snapshot of their choices and approach.

Photo: Tor Johnson

Flexible plans

Tom and Clair Crean are from the UK but living in Switzerland, where Tom works as an IT consultant. Tom is from a sailing family – his father used to work for Westerly when they built cruisers and cruiser-racers in the UK.

They have been thinking and planning to leave for the last two years and when they came to look for a yacht for a budget of £50-60,000 it was Westerlys and Moodys from the Eighties and Nineties that Tom thought of, boats with a “centre cockpit for a decent aft cabin and solidly built.”

As with everyone we spoke to for this article, finding a good and well-maintained example of a particular type of used yacht was not easy and soon the Creans concluded that they “would never get 100%”.

Article continues below…

How to pick your ideal bluewater yacht: ARC director explains all

I often chat with prospective bluewater cruisers at boat shows and seminars and am frequently asked: “What is the ideal…

Sailing across the Atlantic: Bluewater veterans share top tips for your first crossing

On the afternoon before we left the Canary Islands for the Caribbean for a transatlantic with the ARC, I struck…

The yacht they eventually bought three years ago is Moody Blue , a Moody 376, which they keep in the UK. “We were very lucky: the previous owner had bought the boat 30 years ago and had really looked after it, but not upgraded much so it was almost like it was out of the factory,” says Tom. However, the electronics and many other items were out of date and needed to be replaced, so the Creans began working through a long list.

“The engine had been replaced in 2012 and the sails were in good condition. The rigging had been replaced in 2014 and was all checked. We bought a new cruising chute. We had all the seacocks replaced with Tru Design fittings. They had been OK in the survey but when I was opening one, the handle snapped off in my hand.”

The Creans want their boat to be as inexpensive as possible to run, so they decided not to fit a watermaker or air conditioning. But new electronics, power generation and safety gear was a priority. They have a new Raymarine Axiom Pro MFD, a new radar, AIS and two new lithium batteries. To help with extra, sustainable power, they have a flexible solar panel and a Rutland 1200 wind generator. To reduce consumption, they’ve chosen Hydrovane self-steering gear.

Tom and Clair Crean’s bluewater sailing boat of choice is a Moody 376

Safety gear is among the more expensive categories but can’t be skimped on. Tom and Clair have a new four-person liferaft , and they bought an EPIRB, lifejackets equipped with McMurdo AIS PLBs and a YB Tracker. They are getting a quote for a Jordan Series Drogue and have bought a battery-powered angle grinder and bolt cutters. Tom adds that they have “lots of tools – the forepeak and saloon are full of boxes – and first aid kits.”

In parallel, the Creans are building up their own sailing experience. “This is our first proper boat,” says Tom. “I’ve sailed with my uncle, we bought a 8m cabin cruiser in Weymouth and we have chartered every year for the past 15 years; two weeks per year in BVIs and Croatia, sailing courses in Gibraltar and sailing in the UK. I first did an RYA Competent Crew course in the RAF in the Eighties, then the Day Skipper, then Yachtmaster. Clair has done the Day Skipper course.

“We’ve spent the last three years based in Portsmouth, learning to sail in a complicated area with tides etc. and sailing to the Channel Islands. That has given us more confidence. The longest passage we’ve made so far would be Alderney to Portsmouth, leaving in the early morning and arriving late at night. We have made two night passages before but our big test will when we leave and sail from Falmouth to La Coruña – we are going to do the offshore route as a test.”

“I know it is a lifestyle I will enjoy,” says Tom. “When I’m on the boat is when I’m at my happiest – and with family. It is never boring. So I know for sure we will be very happy. But we are also realistic.

“It may get too much, I don’t know. Let’s get to La Coruña and then keep taking each stage. “From what we have read, the advice is to tell everyone you’re leaving – there are so many reasons not to go – but be flexible. We will just go, and anything we do will be great.”

Decluttering your life

Fergus and Chloe Bonner are unusual among sailing couples in that it is Angus who is the relative beginner and Chloe the more experienced sailor who has nurtured the dream of cruising. She already has around 50,000 miles of long-distance sailing behind her on a previous adventurous voyage from New Zealand to the UK via Alaska and the North West Passage .

“Chloe had this sailing background and when we got together ten years ago we often said it would be great to go sailing with children . Then our twins came along and it was full-on. We bought a house and we did the house up and even just going to work was quite hard.

“One summer we went dinghy sailing in Annecy and it re-fired that thought. But there was no way we could afford it. Then we started to look into it and read blogs. We started to look at how much rent we could get for our house and we curbed all our nonessential spending. Then I got a promotion – Chloe is a nurse and I work for a media company.”

Fergus and Chloe Bonner chose an Island Packet 40 for their long-term cruising plans

They began searching for a boat with a strict budget of £100,000 in mind, and began reducing their outgoings and shrinking down their lives and belongings to reset in a more modest way. “We basically went through everything we had and started selling stuff,” says Angus.

“We’d done a lot of cycling and triathlons. I sold two bikes, Chloe sold a bike, we sold the turbo trainer. We sold snowboarding gear and even little things like bike components, children’s things. Anything. We started off with high-value stuff and went through the house to find things we didn’t need.

“When you start doing this you realise you don’t need them and I wondered ‘Why did I buy these things?’ We made about £10,000 and it felt like therapy getting rid of it. And it prepares you for life on a boat where you don’t have the money or the space.”

Besides decluttering physical items, they cut down on subscriptions that accumulate: “Strava, Amazon Prime, Ancestry, British Triathlon membership, gym membership… We just stopped going out, having meals out; typically, lunch was £60 for four of us. Now we don’t buy things we don’t need, even clothes. I take things up to my mum’s and ask her to repair them. It feels really good to be getting into that mentality, and to teach the boys skills to fix things.”

They began looking at brokerage yachts, starting their search on yachtworld.com and looking at what was in that budget. “There were hundreds of production boats and we started thinking: ‘Great there are loads and they have got a new chartplotter and so on’ and we probably looked at the wrong things.

After looking at Moodys and at the Ovni 435 – “amazing but realistically we couldn’t afford it” – they settled on an Island Packet 40 last November which they bought for £108,000. Their budget for preparing the boat was “in hindsight, quite naive,” he admits. They need a liferaft, EPIRB, satphone, auxiliary power such as solar power and arch and davits for a dinghy. There have been unanticipated expenses, such as replacing sanitation hoses.

Educating on board can include navigation and maths…

“We thought we’d spend another £15,000. People bandy around numbers and some say you need an extra 15-20%. That’s nonsense. We thought the boat didn’t need a lot of work but we have had to redo the rigging, we have put in a new battery charger, we’ve rebedded all the chainplates, replaced all lights with LEDs, replaced some bilge pump piping, unstepped mast and redid all electrics – we have a spreadsheet of 100 items. We haven’t even started on things we need to go sailing long-term, such as the liferaft, solar panels and EPIRB.”

In fact, Fergus and Chloe haven’t even sailed their boat yet other than on sea trials. But Fergus did a RYA Day Skipper course last year and once they do get sailing, they’re thinking of getting an instructor to do one-to-one coaching and also help them master close quarters manoeuvring.

But he reveals: “The whole thing has been made much harder because we have two children in school and we don’t have relatives nearby. When we go on courses, it means they have to be aboard or we have to find somewhere to put them for a week. We have to, and do, involve them.”

At anchor in the Caribbean – that’s the dream

Ultimately, their plan is to live on board for three or four years and home school their 6-year-old twins. “We will focus on the important stuff like reading, writing and maths and then learn as we go. How formal it will be I don’t know at this point. I would have to say that is low down the list. The focus is on getting the boat ready.”

When they do leave, hopefully next summer, they plan to sail to Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and across to the Caribbean before going through the Panama Canal and perhaps round the world. “But,” says Fergus, “it’s loose. A firm plan is going to change.

“We might get somewhere and get some work or come back. At the moment we’re learning, and that learning curve is huge – I feel like I’m doing a doctorate. But it is amazing how much you can learn when you are really focussed on something.”

A crew on an Oyster take it easy on a transatlantic crossing. Photo: Tim Bishop

Learning new skills

Antony Smyth and his wife, Morgan Chambers, live in Canada and are planning to live on board. Antony, a former management consultant, quit work three years ago, but Morgan is still working. Their goal has been to have a boat as a “mobile hotel” for themselves, family and friends, and sail across the Atlantic and slowly make their way through the Panama Canal and Pacific to reach Smyth’s native New Zealand.

“It has taken decades to get away,” he says, “We have been working up to this for 30 years, but it’s easy because we both have had good jobs.”

The couple previously owned a Westerly Oceanlord, and co-owned a 41-footer they kept in the Greek islands, and the choice of yacht and route for this long plan was a conundrum. “These are hard decisions,” he says, “what kind of boat, multihull or monohull? Where do we go? Are the kids interested? Would friends come if they were invited? You could spend years thinking about it.”

In the end, they decided to buy a second-hand Westerly 49, one of only 12 ever built. They chose it because the design has dual owners’ cabins with a walk around. They paid £110,000.

“The boat we bought had been a cottage for five years, so everything needed doing. We’ve fitted a bow thruster, repainted it, reconditioned the steering, replaced all the wiring, got new rigging, new sails and new running rigging, replaced lots of internal fittings… knives, forks, the lot. I’m not what you call handy, but the learning has been great, the 12V DC electrics, fibreglass – and it has been hugely enjoyable to do it.”

They may rent their house if they are away for a long time, and the plan is to start in La Rochelle and sail perhaps up the west coast of Britain to the Baltic first, before going further.

An ever-expanding budget

Nick Deacon and Michele Cruwys have sailed all their adult lives. The time, they feel, is right now to go – Michele recently retired from her job as a consultant paediatrician and Nick, who runs the product development side of a small software company, will retire in the next year or two. Their children are grown up and finishing university.

They previously owned a Grand Soleil 43, which they sold last year. Like others we spoke to, finding the right used yacht was difficult and took a couple of years of searching among brokers and travelling to inspect boats.

“Finding the boat was really tough; locating a boat that was within budget and in reasonable condition. We were quite fussy. We wanted a higher-end, well-made boat and had excluded more mass produced production boats so it was the Oyster, Najad, Hallberg-Rassy end of the market. It is hard to find boats in good condition – some are being set with unrealistic prices and the ones we saw in Europe were pretty beaten up.”

Finally they bought a Najad 511 lying in Sweden. “It was a tiny bit bigger than planned but we went for it and we bought it in October. It was brought back from Sweden by a delivery crew and I joined the captain for the first part,” says Nick.

Their current plan is to leave the UK next May and sail across the Atlantic with the ARC 2021. “Then we will potter around the Caribbean and South America for a year or so and, if all is going well, go through the Panama Canal into the Pacific and continue round the world.”

Their boat was built in 2004 boat so has needed “a fair bit” of upgrading and maintenance. The couple have replaced the standing rigging, bought all new sails, a full set of Raymarine instruments, MFD and Autohelm, AIS, installed SSB radio, refurbished the watermaker and overhauled all the hydraulics.

“It’s an ever-expanding budget,” admits Nick. “For example, we knew we would need to have the rigging replaced to comply with the insurance terms, but we have uncovered a few surprises. The refurbishment we’ve done since we bought the boat would, I guess, be somewhere around £60,000.”

Life is not so simple

Richard Glen is planning and preparing for his big escape, but he doesn’t know for sure when it will be. He already has the yacht to sail away on, a 1979 Ron Holland-designed Swan 441, and plenty of experience from years of RORC racing and cruising. But getting to the point in life when he could go is not something within his control.

Richard Glen’s Swan 441 at anchor in Turkey

“The boat side is quite straightforward as we have taken advice from World Cruising Club and the ARC to get the boat ready so we’re OK on that. It’s the home life that is far more difficult,” he confesses.

“In 2017, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and I have become her full-time carer. That is quite a challenge. So although we had this plan it is all rather based on the state of my mother. So I can’t say we are definitely going, though the boat is definitely ready to do the ARC+ next year and then World ARC. My mother is 91 and apart from Alzheimer’s the rest of her life is pretty bulletproof. It’s a conundrum to balance your life along with caring for someone else’s.

“I’m a one-man band, a landscape architect. I used to work for British Waterways designing marinas. I did put various things in place: for example, I bought property to provide rental income in case my business income dropped off, which is what I have been living off while I’m a full-time carer.”

Richard Glen’s Swan 441 on passage in the Mediterranean

Richard plans to go sailing with his wife and daughter, who will be 12 this month. He says they have made the decision that “she will learn more by having these adventures than being in school and it would be far more fulfilling for her”.

“We’ve discussed the situation where she could be doing her O-levels but is it better to have these opportunities when they come along,” he explains. “We’ve always been delaying it and you could always do that and never get round to it. It’s not simple, and that’s the big challenge in going off long distance sailing.”

Richard’s boat is based in Marmaris in Turkey and over the last year he has been getting it ready and renewing equipment. He has replaced all the navigation electronics, getting a Raymarine MFD fitted and AIS. He is debating whether to buy a Watt&Sea hydrogenerator.

Photo: Tim Bishop

He will have the rigging replaced and is going to get a new No 1 headsail. “We already have normal heavy 1oz and asymmetric spinnakers and we have a staysail, yankee and No 3 but it would be good to have the larger genoa,” he says. Living on board could, he believes, be done “quite frugally but we would have to go through that transition period of thinking we are on holiday. So it would theoretically be OK provided we acted sensibly.

“We don’t need cars and other paraphernalia but we would have mooring, docking and maintenance so money would be going in other directions. But I haven’t done a huge amount of calculations on that. It might actually be cheaper than living at home, with care and carers and so on.”

From a personal perspective, he says: “Over the years I have done a lot of thinking about it and my training is up to date, with Ocean Yachtmaster and navigation, sea survival, first aid courses, etc. I have also done a lot over the years around yacht maintenance with Hamble School of Yachting.

“We’ll go through everything underwater such as seacocks and cutless bearing and we can at least be listing these things this year and it gives us a year to prepare for November next year.”

First published in the May 2020 edition of Yachting World.

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A guide to choosing a Blue Water Yacht

Posted Friday 12th June 2015

Over the coming weeks, Grabau International will take you through a variety of subjects which encompass choosing the right yacht for blue water adventures. The following guide is not written to dictate what to choose, or to supply a comprehensive encyclopedia of every option and variable, but simply a basic explanation of the main options and some guidance on what to look out for. Finding a yacht will always be a battle of your head over your heart, so the purpose of this guide is to give your head some questions to ask in the hope that an amicable compromise can be made with your heart.

Part 1 – Introduction

If it feels right, it is right ; a very simple statement to make, but one which holds true. The beauty of sailing is that almost any type of yacht can be used to do almost any type of sailing. The key is what works for you and your crew. Tradewind sailing is generally relatively easy on a yacht, although particular consideration must be given to the steering and rig, both areas which can suffer accelerated wear through the continual rolling motion of an ocean swell. Everything from a stripped-out racing yacht to a long-keeled steel-hulled motorsailor will get you across the Atlantic, albeit with differing levels of excitement, speed and sense of security.

So what is a ‘blue water’ yacht?

There is no agreed definition of a bluewater yacht as the term means different things to different people. To some, it means a yacht of a sturdy build which can safely navigate any sea condition with the minimum of fuss. To others it means a yacht capable of travelling at speed over great distances, whilst yet another opinion is that it means a yacht fitted out with equipment suited to long passages and warm-climate cruising. Calculations such as STIX (stability index), AVS (angle of vanishing stability) and the EU’s Recreational Craft Directive CE certification level can help to define those yachts suited to serious offshore adventures, but the reality is that most modern yachts over 32 feet are now categorised A – Ocean (“capable of “extended voyages where condition may exceed wind force 8 (Beaufort scale) and wave height of 4 metres (13.0 feet)”).

Returning to our original statement of ‘If it feels right, it is right’, this highlights a trend amongst the bluewater fraternity to choose a yacht which fits in with what the you actually want (with modifications then made to make her suitable for long passages at sea or anchoring away from the luxuries of shore power) rather than what the established ‘old guard’ might advise as suitable. Circumnavigating aboard a shiny new production yacht is no longer a silly idea and heaven forbid, some people have even crossed oceans with lifting keel yachts which appear to completely fall out of favour when the STIX and AVS calculations are introduced.

Picking a yacht capable of taking you through a ‘perfect storm’ is of course a great option for the totally risk-adverse, but thanks to massively improved weather-routing software, faster hull shapes, easily-handled sail plans and good old fashioned common-sense; safe bluewater passages can be made aboard pretty much anything that floats.

Stay tuned for Part 2 which will cover Hull Shape.

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Building Bluewater Cruising Yachts

• By Kim Kavin
• October 6, 2023

If Mother Nature had been less obstinate, Miles Cherkasky might have continued to sail.

“I’ve been sailing since I was probably 14 years old, almost half a century of sailing,” he says, now in his 60s. “One day, I was doing a delivery from Baltimore down to Miami Beach where we have a slip, and there was no wind, and I was sitting there listening to my engine run, and I couldn’t go anywhere, and I thought, ‘This is stupid. Time to get a trawler.’”

But what kind of trawler ? He and his wife, Laureen, knew they liked longer-distance, offshore cruising—after Miles retired back in 2007, they bought a 47-foot high-performance sailboat and cruised it from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas a few times—but they weren’t quite sure how to achieve a good cruising experience in a powerboat. That is, until the day Miles helped with the delivery of an Outer Reef.

“When they came out of the inlet, Miles was putting away his cup of coffee, getting ready, thinking there were going to be all these waves and it would be sloppy, but nobody around him was moving or getting prepared for these big seas,” Laureen recalls. “The ride was like glass. When he came home that day, he said, ‘We have to get an Outer Reef.’”

Just like that, the Cherkaskys became members of a club that has grown almost exponentially in recent years, as an increasing number of boaters realize they can live their long-distance cruising dreams with the kinds of creature comforts that used to be limited to land. Today’s offshore-capable power yachts for cruising couples and families, built by companies such as Outer Reef, Nordhavn and Kadey-Krogen, are being built for go-anywhere adventure. They’re also being outfitted for the specific types of adventures that owners want to undertake.

“These boats are not marina queens,” says Jeff Druek, president and CEO of Outer Reef. “We talk a lot about equipment on board, things like inverters, solar panels, how many generators, what size generators, what type of air conditioning—things of that nature. Every piece of equipment in the boat is talked about, in terms of how they plan to use their boat, how far they’re going to go afield, how long they’re going to be away from the dock and where they’re going to be cruising.”

“I’m at the point now where I don’t have to do the five- or six-day-a-week grind, and that allows the flexibility to travel a bit farther.” — John Ellis, Owner, Nordhavn 68 “Dragon”

Nordhavn President Dan Streech says the way today’s bluewater hulls are being built and outfitted is making adventure cruising a real option for people who just a couple of decades ago would have feared it. The kinds of discomfort and danger that used to be part and parcel of crossing oceans are now minimized by modern construction, communication tools and redundant systems, so much so that all kinds of people feel comfortable cruising far and wide.

“You’re seeing normal people who in no way would’ve been sailboat material 35 years ago,” Streech says. “They have the chart plotters and Starlink. They’re sitting on the open ocean doing Facetime with their grandchildren. They’re not disconnecting from the world. It’s not necessary to have physical sacrifices or the emotional trauma of cutting themselves off. They have washers and dryers, wine coolers, TV, communication as they’re heading down to the South Pacific, and they are part of a huge social network, even just inside the Nordhavn world. We have 600 boats. The owners’ group—there are probably 20, 30, 40 posts a day with people who have a question. That feeling of isolation is gone.”

John Ellis took delivery of his Nordhavn 68 , Dragon , in 2021 with a vision of following in his parents’ wake, only in a less-stressful way.

“I have a lot of sailing experience. My parents were cruisers,” Ellis says. “I spent time on board with them in the South Pacific. I’ve been on long passages with slanted decks. That wasn’t really what I was looking for. I loved those years—they were wonderful—but I’m looking for a different experience.”

A big part of the offshore powerboat experience for Ellis is fishing, so he customized his Nordhavn with extra bait tanks and rod stowage, along with two Seakeepers: an SK9 and an SK16. “When we stop and we’re fishing in the open ocean, we need to keep the motion down on the boat,” Ellis says. “The ocean has a tendency to want to rearrange the furniture on these big boats. Now, we tap a button, and it’s just as solid and stable as it can be. Nobody’s mad at me, and nothing’s breaking. No plates are crashing inside.”

That change in the way bluewater boats are built, Streech says, is also changing the profile of offshore cruisers. Back in the day, the typical Nordhavn customer was a husband who wanted to point the bow offshore and a wife being dragged along for the white-knuckle ride. Not so today, Streech says: “Just a shower alone was a luxury 35 years ago, and now you’re standing in a stone shower with gorgeous fixtures and a heated towel bar. What we’re seeing more and more is teamwork. A couple comes in, and she’s not looking at her phone half-mad because they just had a fight in the car. Not at all. She’s right there on the team and leading it sometimes. She has deduced that this is a path where they can share something, have an adventure and travel the world.”

Ellis says that’s exactly the plan that he and his wife share, now that both their kids are off to college. Their intent is to complete a 10-year circumnavigation.

“We’re going to go to the Caribbean and then come up the Eastern Seaboard, then go up to Nova Scotia, then back down to Florida after hurricane season next year, then Bermuda to the Azores, then get to Portugal and figure out whether we want to go up the Thames for fish and chips or whether we want to go around the corner to France,” he says. “It’s inevitable that we’re going to do both. My wife wants to do all the things, and we’re super happy with all the confidence we’ve been able to build aboard the boat so far.”

Sandy Peretsman says it was actually his wife’s idea to buy the Kadey-Krogen 48 that they named Third Child . She’s still winding down her career, but he retired this past January and started thinking harder about what comes next. They’d always had smaller boats and chartered larger ones in destinations such as the British Virgin Islands; he wanted them to have a bluewater-capable boat of their own, one that would let them do more as owner-operators. “My wife pushed me to do this a few years ago when I was turning 60,” Peretsman recalls, adding that his wife told him, “You don’t want to be one of those people who say, ‘I’m going to do it,’ and you don’t.”

So, they’re doing it. They base Third Child out of Charleston, South Carolina. So far, they’ve gone as far south as the Bahamas, and they’re thinking about heading up to New England, as well as cruising farther south into the Caribbean, as they become more comfortable aboard. “You can island-hop your way all the way to the Virgin Islands without ever driving more than 200 miles at a time, and we already drive that along the East Coast,” he says. “My personal preference is offshore because there’s a lot less traffic. It’s more relaxing. You don’t have to worry about how deep the ocean is or running aground, or boats passing you and crossing you. It’s just a big, blue patch, so you can go where you want, as you want.”

The more time he spends running his Kadey-Krogen, Peretsman says, the more he’s thinking about increasing his cruising distances. “I can go from Charleston to Europe and most of the way back on one tank of gas,” he says. “These boats will go 4,000 or 5,000 miles on a single tank of fuel. It doesn’t suit everybody, but if you want to be out there, it’s a wonderful boat for it.”

Streech says that for Nordhavn owners, ocean crossings aren’t even big news anymore. The company has had 13 boats complete circumnavigations so far; one of them did it three times. Over at Outer Reef, Druek says, so many people want to cruise off the beaten track that the resale value of the bluewater-capable boats stays high. Some of them, he says, he’s resold eight or 10 times.

It’s a testament to how far powerboat building has come that adventures so impressive are increasingly common. “To the Marquesas, that’s 3,000 miles,” Streech says. “It’s shocking, it’s mind-numbing that if you looked down from an airplane, you probably couldn’t even see the boat, and these boats make it. They do it over and over and over again.”

The Core Elements

Nordhavn President Dan Streech says that for distance cruising, “there are basics that have to be adhered to in terms of stability, structure, fuel capacity, fuel handling. All those things need to be there. They don’t get talked about that much anymore. They’re a given for us now at Nordhavn.”

Having It All on Board

Production Manager Fran Morey says Kadey-Krogen owners typically stay on board at least six months each year. “They want everything that’s the latest and greatest, and they also want the creature comforts of home,” he says.

• More: August 2023 , Kadey-Krogen , Nordhavn , Outer Reef , Seakeeper , Trawlers , Yachts
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