Let's Look at Some Boats

July 01, 2011 / Robert Minkus

Our goal has always been to buy a boat and spend 6 months a years cruising the inside passage from Seattle to Alaska and back. But what boat to buy?

After nine years of chartering boats in the Pacific Northwest and stepping aboard almost every trawler-like vessel from all the major manufacturers, we have narrowed our choice to a Grand Banks 49 Classic.

Why this model?

It's a great size for us. We like the extra room over a GB46 and the extra weight makes for a great ride.
The price/value proposition is in our budget. Our "dream boat", the Krogen 58, is out of our budget right now.
Since we can't "live the dream" right now, we are going to put the boat into a charter fleet to help ease into the transition to 6-months on board. Since our preferred charter company, NW Explorations, has an exclusive Grand Banks fleet, that helps reinforce the choice.

We are in no hurry. We set our time-frame at three years so we don't feel pressured to purchase the wrong boat. We want to get on board as many GB 49's as we can in order to determine the parameters that are important to us.

Every boat is a compromise, so it's best if you know your own mind as to what is most important and what you can overlook. Some of the major variables for us are:

Galley Up or Down
Three Cabins or Two
Age and Overall Condition
Location
Amount of work that needs to be done to get it ready to charter in the NW.
Helm Seat or Not
Saloon & Galley Layout

So we called our broker, Scott Blake, and set him upon the task of finding us a wide range of Grand Banks 49's to look at. Our only limitation is that the boats had to be in North America.