|
|
The W32 is optimized as a blue water boat, not anything else. However, my wife and I have cruised the USA east coast for 7 years and 35000 miles on our W32 Tarwathie. We think she is fine as a cruising yacht.
- Because of the heavy displacement, there is more generous room inside than one expects from a 32 foot boat.
- Ours is a factory boat, very well built and expertly designed interior. Because of the design of the table and the pilot berths, we get multiple uses from the same prime value volume.
- We've seen many other cruising boats. Very few of them up to 45 feet in length offer a more comfortable main salon for two people than the W32.
- Rugged counts. We've been aground so many times, we keep a database of the lat/lon coordinates. None of those groundings have damaged the hull or rudder. Do that on your production boats, and you may have big repair bills. A 45' production boat struck something in the water in The Tounge of The Ocean this season, holed, and sank. I doubt very much if that would have holed a W32.
- When we are up on the hard in a boatyard, it seems that more than half the production boats we see there are having troubles with their rudder post. No wheel, no rudder post on a W32. KISS!!!
- In winds less than 20 knots, lighter boats, especially the Benetau, sail much faster, and point higher. We are converted to the "gentlemen do not sail to weather" school. Above 20 knots, we'll hold our own. Above 40 and one feels unsafe in those light boats but not in a W32. We've heard Benetau owners self describe their boats as "bendy-taus"
- On the ICW, there is much less opportunity to sail than one hopes. We motor a lot, usually around 1 knot less in speed than those lightweight boats. Learn to live with it.
|
