Choosing the Right Boat: Why We Switched After a Decade Afloat
My husband, Darrell, and I spent ten years living aboard our 32-foot classic ketch, Tosca, cruising from Miami through the Caribbean to South America, the South Pacific and Asia. When we sold Tosca in Malaysia and relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, our first impulse was to buy another boat—this time for a different life on the water.
At first glance our new boat and Tosca had almost nothing in common. Tosca was a pre-World War II, British Columbia-built, 12-ton wooden double-ender with a 6-foot draft and gaff-rigged sails—an ideal, deliberate vessel for extended bluewater passages. By contrast, our 1976 Javelin 14.5 is an Uffa Fox–designed fiberglass daysailer that weighs less than a ton and was built for nimble performance around the race course. Despite these differences in displacement, rig and purpose, each vessel met a clear need at the time we bought it.
Boaters change boats for many reasons. As Rob Birchfield, senior sales consultant at MarineMax in Venice, Florida, explains, life changes drive boat changes: grandkids arrive, hobbies shift, health and mobility evolve, or seasonal usage patterns transform. “There are a plethora of reasons people switch boats,” he says. “They have grandkids. They’re not skiing anymore. I’ve seen people go from small boats to medium and large, and then back down again.”
Birchfield and other experienced brokers see their role as more than selling inventory; they act as counselors. They ask targeted questions about how a person plans to use a boat, where they’ll cruise, who will be aboard and which activities will dominate their time on the water. The right recommendation usually follows careful listening. “You never want to hear someone say they bought the wrong boat,” he adds. The goal is to match boat type—sailboat, cuddy, center console, pontoon or trailerable daysailer—to a buyer’s current lifestyle.
One of the most common reasons to change boats is aging and family dynamics. Many buyers shift toward vessels that are easier to step on and off, have stable decks for children and grandchildren, or offer accessible layouts for guests with limited mobility. Birchfield notes the growing popularity of pontoons for those exact reasons: “Pontoon boats are really taking off. People want to take their friends out dayboating, or they want to go boating with their kids. A single flat, level surface makes boarding and moving around easier; you can even roll a wheelchair on and off.”
Relocating to a new cruising region often prompts a reassessment of boat needs. A family that moves from the Great Lakes to Florida may trade a traditional cuddy cabin for an open deckboat designed for coastal dayboating, or opt for a trailerable centerboard sailboat to explore shallow bays and island chains. In our own experience, after sailing the Javelin in New England for a couple of years, we bought a Parker Walker Bay 2150 powered by a Johnson 185 outboard to accommodate our growing family.
Our two boys were toddlers at the time, and we needed a boat that extended the season and made family days on the water practical. The Parker’s enclosed helm provided protection on chilly spring and fall outings, and its cabin offered a warm, dry place for the children during squalls. The solid, heavy hull handled coastal seas well and gave us the confidence to range farther offshore. Still, as our cruising grounds and priorities shifted, the Parker proved to be more boat than we needed in Florida’s shallow bays and Intracoastal Waterway.
After relocating to Sarasota we kept both the Javelin and the Parker for a year, but the recession and a change in how we used our boats led us to sell the Parker. It had no trailer, and its deep-vee hull and two-stroke outboard were less suited to the calm, shallow waters and trailerable convenience we wanted in Florida. We sold the boat quickly at a fair price, which is an outcome many owners hope for when they trade down—or sideways—into something that better fits local conditions and family needs.
Over the years we’ve added other boats tailored to specific uses: a Catalina 22 for overnight island hops, a kayak and a 12-foot RIB for fishing and diving in the Gulf. The Catalina’s centerboard and trailerability make it ideal for exploring Pine Island Sound, Tampa Bay and the Everglades, and we even plan occasional trailer sail trips across Florida via the lock system. As our kids grow and our priorities shift, we’ll continue to evaluate boat types—from trailerable daysailers to larger, heavy-displacement bluewater cruisers—so our next purchase will match the cruising style we want next.
Choosing the right boat means matching vessel type to purpose: where you cruise, who’s aboard, and how you like to spend your time on the water. Whether that means keeping a classic ketch for long passages, downsizing to a nimble daysailer, or embracing a stable, social pontoon for family dayboating, a well-matched boat makes time on the water more enjoyable and safer.
February 2015 issue