Quote Originally Posted by doug748 View Post
Quite so, that particular poster has a history of, how can we put it to remain polite,
- seeing virtues in his previous boats that have been overlooked by everyone else.
If by that snide comment you mean that I will comment on boats that I know well, either my own or those of friends then you might be correct. Unlike some I have overcome my old prejudices and opened my mind to new ideas, you know like those that have come about in what, let's say the last 30 or 40 years.

Quote Originally Posted by E39
Comparing what is now a medium displacement (in comparison to it's current sisterships) Jeanneau 41ft against a 34 foot "modern" long keeler is not one that I doubt comes up in most peoples thought processes.

In my opinion between the two you either want:
1) a bigger boat with longer waterline length and associated speed or:
2) a better balanced, more manageable purpose built blue water yacht

On the question of balance, the V34 can be EASILY set up whereby you can leave the wheel with no pilot on, walk around the bow and come back to the cockpit with the boat tracking on the same course. With the gunnels awash you still only need two fingers on the wheel - it is that well balanced.

The Legende is a very good boat but no where near as well balanced as the Vancouver - based on my sailing both boats!
I was not comparing the two directly because as you rightly say they are two very different boats, in size if nothing else. What I was doing was to try and point out that some of the claimed blue water attributes of a smaller long keeled (even modernish) design were still there in some fin keelers. I would point out that the price difference might allow for some lateral thinking too as far as size goes, because for blue water liveaboard in my book, size sure does matter unless you are a masochist. I chose merely to list in red where our entirely different design matched the attributes and specification of the V34 that were listed, with the suggestion that these were somehow unique.

I disagree, having sailed our Sun Legende some 18,000mls in all weathers with just us two wrinklies, that it isn't well balanced. I pointed out in another reply that the pilot on ours had an irritating little trick of switching itself to standby unasked, sometimes not for 24hrs, sometimes twice in an hour. Very often the boat would sail herself for quite some time before we even questioned if something had changed, irrespective of being on or off the wind.

My guess is that you sailed on a SL41 in full race trim when the crew would be 8-10 and driven to the limit. My guess also is that perhaps the one you sailed had the slightly shallower keel than did ours, maybe also the slightly shorter rig. We on the other hand sailed two up with white sails only 98% of the time, leaving out the very large asymmetric because she went well enough for cruising without it even in light airs.

My preference for blue water or just plain liveaboard would always favour larger size. Liveaboards spend most of their time in harbour, contrary to popular opinion maybe and liveaboard comfort comes from having some space to stretch out in, plenty of light and ventilation and room to walk around decks without having to squeeze sideways. Also contrary to popular opinion maybe, most blue water liveaboards will choose to cross the oceans in the right place at the right time of the year and leave the Cape Horn in winter against the wind to others. We had friends years ago that circumnavigated in a Van De Stadt 34 footer and who said they did the whole trip in winds no greater than F6/7, less than they would often find when sailing locally in UK waters.

As SWMBO rightly says, different strokes for different folks. I really do not care what boats other people choose but I do squirm when the old prejudices are continually wheeled out.