Myself and Cathy are both retiring next year,being a gentleman I will not tell her age but I will be 49. Able to finance this through mixture of pension and property.

Would not describe myself as greatly experienced but have sailed off and on for 30 years,first love was dinghies then moved into bigger boats, but it has mainly been a week here, fortnight there and a weekend when I can manage it.
Thought we had pretty much decided on sort of boat we wanted, but Cathy has been seduced by catamarans so we will need to check a couple out to see if they will be suitable. Although I have been in a number of different types of mono hulls my only experience of cats are hobie 16's, great fun but.... This is my prejuduce as reading the threads here it is obvious from owners of cats that the larger ones are stable etc etc just not sure. Still we still have 13 months and it is right to check out all the options.

Was planning to buy in the med but with currrent exchange rate am now seriously looking at the U.S. Appreciate there will be extr costs, but you seem to get an awful lot more for your money and I can get to sail the caribbean before coming back to the med

Good thread - Neil and Cathy