When looking for the project boat I spent many hours researching successful voyages of tiny boats and designs that have a history of making long-distance cruises and ocean crossings. This involved a lot of searching forums, books, press articles, owners clubs etc.
I also spent a lot of time reading biographies of small boat sailors, and technical books on the matter of offshore sailing and cruising.
The features I was mainly concentrating on were:
· History of having completed a long cruise/ocean crossing
· Storage Capacity
· Availability
· Price
· Owners Clubs / Information
· Spares
· Construction Material
· Ease of adaption/repair
Some of my production shortlisted boats included:
· Cobramould Leisure 17 (the boat which was ultimately chosen and purchased)
· Mirror Offshore
· Hunter 19
· Hurley Silhouette
· Hurley 18
· Hurley Alacrity 19
· Newbridge Corribee