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Basic performance comfort is when the conditions under which the boat performs well match your ability to feel comfortable.

We once met a father and son who had just made an 18 day passage from Hawaii to San Francisco in a stripped down race boat. The son had made some concessions to comfort - bolted in a water tank, provided some pillows - but the boat's amenities were spartan to say the least. Then the final day into California blew like hell. The son loved it - his eyes lit up and he talked about flying down the faces of the waves. The father however kissed the ground when they arrived and talked about being thrown about the boat in a most unpleasant fashion. The comfort level of the boat was a better match for the son, but after 3 weeks of this action even the son may have felt it necessary to batten down and take it slower.

A heavy cruising boat will have an easier motion in a sea but even among cruising boats there is a tremendous difference in this motion. Ted Brewer calls this parameter "Sea Comfort Level". I believe that another piece of "basic performance comfort" is maneuverability. Although it is often said that cruisers don't need to go windward, clawing off a lee shore or trying to get into a safe harbor often require exactly this ability. I'll call this "Ability to Point high". A third category of performance comfort level has to do with ventilation / insulation. Our last boat had insufficient quantities of either so we suffered the corollary - interior precipitation. It is not possible to stay comfortable when wet. We'll call this "Ventilation". The ability to track well - mostly due to underbody shape and sail balance - will also enhance your ability to sail comfortably, maintain heading, and allow the wind vane to take the lion's share of steering. This is "Tracking". "Speed" is self explanatory. Although I claim to be among the proponents of Slow Food and Slow Sailing, I still think it is important to have a boat that can sail quickly and efficiently. You don't have to use the speed all the time - just ask Fatty Goodlander - but it can help avoid bad weather if your planning goes awry.

So I think these five characteristics define the most important performance characteristics:

1. Sea Comfort
2. Ability to Point
3. Ventilation
4. Tracking
5. Speed

We will come back to these categories in the performance section of the site.

Human comfort is the less essential category, but it can make the difference for many of us in the ability to continue cruising or to give it up. Perhaps it is not unfair to say that youth and passion can reduce the need for this category of amenities. This category certainly is highly personal though and lots of time spent coastal cruising will help you understand your requirements to some extent. However it is no surprise that we hear of many boaters refitting after some months of cruising. Some of these amenities to comfort include refrigeration, spaciousness below, hot water, and showers. Refrigeration is essential to many, but there are ways to store food and adjust menus so you can eat well without it. Spaciousness below is important to some but has to be balanced with the Sea Comfort Level and Ability to Point. On-tap-hot water is nice, but less significant in the tropics. Showers are wonderful, but increase the moisture below, use up your water, and can be provided on deck with black-bag-showers. I would certainly provide a rain-water catchment system before providing showers to the crew! Electronics for navigation are important, but it is easy but expensive to go way overboard on these systems. etc. etc. Most of these decisions come down to desire versus dollars and desire versus power consumption. Come up with your own list and remember that if in doubt choose simplicity over luxury and you'll save money, maintenance time, and may be able to cruise longer or sooner.

Beauty

Then there's beauty. This is essential but extremely personal. To choose a spouse merely for beauty can be a short ride to hell and likewise with a boat. But why choose a spouse or boat you can't find attractive? You will be dependent on the boat, living intimately within the boat, required to spend untold hours maintaining the boat - you had better love her.

If you're planning on cruising with a partner - make sure both parties feel the same way about the boat you're thinking of. My husband can love nearly any boat, but I needed our first boat be lovely and immediately sailable - I wanted to come to love her before being required to do the hard work necessary to turn an inexpensive used boat into a sea-worthy cruiser. It worked. There's a reason that babies don't come out of the womb as teenagers - we need to love our projects first, then hard work follows more naturally.

Choosing a Boat

So how do you choose a boat? Assuming you cannot buy a new one to order, how do you rate the boats on the used boat market? Well, certainly discard those whose bones are not beautiful to you - but try to see past unpainted, unvarnished, neglected surfaces. These characteristics are much easier to cure than poor performance or lack of ruggedness. By looking at the numbers associated with these boats and reading about the experience on them you can start to understand how a less famous line of boats might compare with the better known (and therefore more expensive) brands. Get to know local boats (Cascade Yachts or Stan Huntingford in the Northwest and Canada) or older boats that are no longer built (Ohlson).

Relatively cheap to cure: aesthetics, paint, non-structural neglect, non-structural equipment such as ground tackle, lack of headsails (mainsails are more persnickety to fit and so can be hard to find)

Relatively expensive or impossible to cure: lack of wiring or basic electronics, basic configuration, too-small-tankage, bad engine, strength and sea-worthiness, structural integrity.

You need more, so see the wonderful books on choosing a boat - go to Preparation Resources and see Choosing a Boat and Basic Cruising.