>If I was going to buy a voyager, I would consider building from >scratch and having different design characteristics than the current >generation of production boats. A friend has a boat (began life as >a racing sailboat--at 55 feet, 18,000 lbs, draft 4 feet (dagger >board up), beam 12.5 feet. Later in life it became a cruising >sailboat--and the weight went up to about 28,000 lbs. The boat was >repowered from 50 hp -which gave a good cruising speed of 8 knots- >to 112 hp and how a cruising speed of 10 to 11 knots. The hull form >is such that the boat begins to lift and semi plane at low speeds. >This boat has circumnavigated twice, plus another 100,000 miles and >is well proven. This hull form could be built as a power boat from >scratch. It behaves very well in heavy weather and is able to make >good way into 10 foot seas and 55 knots of wind. All these features may be wonderful, but the market has little interest in passagemakers with 12.5 feet of beam (which would mean a boat three feet narrower than a Nordhavn 46!). Even with powerful promoters like Steve Dashew entering the picture, I seriously doubt long and narrow designs will ever become popular. The market wants for more from its boats than hull efficiency. --Georgs Full disclosure: I'm under contract to produce Circumnavigator magazine for Pacific Asian Enterprises, builders of the Nordhavn line of passagemakers.