Today, new boats are designed to be light and fast. Yacht design has changed dramatically over the last 50 years.

For this reason, many of the blue water sailboats in this list are heavily built and designed to take a beating. If a pocket cruiser encounters bad weather, they will be less able to outrun or avoid it. Our friend was only a knot slower but it meant he had to heave-to for a miserable three days.Īnother small sailboat taking flight Small but sturdy On the last leg of our Pacific Ocean crossing, our 35-foot sailboat narrowly avoid a storm that our buddy-boat, a 28-foot sailboat, couldn’t. Therefore a smaller cruiser is going to take longer on a given passage, making them more vulnerable to changes in weather.Ī few feet can make a big difference over a week long passage. Smaller displacement monohulls are always going to be slower than larger displacement monohulls (see the video below to learn why smaller boats are slower). Smaller equals slowerĭon’t expect to be sailing at high speeds in a pocket cruiser. However, if you’re thinking about buying a boat for offshore cruising, there are a few things to know about what makes a small boat offshore capable. While you might not think a small sailboat is up to the task of going long distances, some of the best bluewater sailboats are under 40 feet. We sailed 13,000 miles in our trusty Dufour 35 What makes a good blue water sailboat So long as you don’t mind forgoing a few comforts, you can sail around the world on a small budget. Just look at Alessandro di Benedetto who in 2010 broke the record for the smallest boat to sail around the world non-stop in his 21-foot Mini 6.5. Today’s anchorages are full of 40, 50 and 60-foot plus ocean sailboats, but that’s not to say you can’t sail the world in a small sailboat. In three years and 13,000 nautical miles of bluewater cruising, I could count the number of under 30-foot sailboats I’ve seen on one hand (all of them were skippered by people in their 20s and 30s). However, you won’t see many of them in today’s cruising grounds. Small yachts can be affordable, simple, and seaworthy. Infact, it’s the first principle in Lin and Larry Pardey’s cruising philosophy: “Go small, go simple, go now.” Small sailboats are the ticket to going cruising NOW - not when you retire, save up enough money, or find the “perfect” bluewater cruising boat. Photo credit: .uk A small sailboat can take you big places Thom D’Arcy sailing around the world in his Vancouver 28.

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