The perfect (to me) tiny trawler

[SeaWoof]

One thing missing in your little bio is age. Twenty five years ago I bought a then newish Island Packet 37 and my wife and I cruised the east coast and the Bahamas for a couple of years on it.

Then I was 52 and the boat was three years old. I did some upgrades to the charging and battery system and installed a radar before we headed out.

Then that effort was quite tolerable. Today, not so much. I had it pretty easy as the boat was only 3 yo and well maintained.

Fast forward a decade or so and I bought a Cape Dory 28 for local cruising from an Oriental, NC home base.
I upgraded some stuff but it was much harder dealing with an older boat- stuff was added prior to my purchase and the wiring was a rats nest.

Fast forward again to today and I wouldn’t consider anything but a year or two old boat. Old enough to have gotten the kinks out but young enough so the systems were all OEM.

So, the moral of this long winded story is, the older the person is the younger the boat needs to be but not brand new.

David

Still plenty young enough at 42. Avid rock climber and mountain biker. Should get back to kayaking more (was really heavy into it a decade ago). Another goal for the boat is as a launch point / adventure platform for climbing and kayaking. The bikes can stay home

 

[Retriever]

Nordic Tug 26 or 32, with a strong preference to the 32 if you can make the $$ work.

I've done the whole Inside Passage and West Coast of Vancouver Island on a 22' C-Dory and also much larger displacement and semi-displacement boats. Small and speedy or big and slow both work, but I wouldn't want small AND slow unless you're staying in a very small area or love rolling around. I averaged under 7 knots in the C-Dory, but would never have been able to do the longer trips without the ability to run fast and seize weather opportunities when needed.