# 22 ft Sailboat for beginner



## RockyCoastline207

I am looking to buy my first sailboat, based on the info below does anyone have a good suggestion?

size: 22 ft
Ballasted keel
location: Portland, Maine (Ocean) - boat will be docked all summer
"easy" to sail - a forgiving boat for a fist timer
cabin sleeps 2 or 3 comfortably 
large cockpit
Price range: under 5k

I would like to use the boat primarily for weekend trips as well as casual day cruising. I would like a boat that is fast as well as comfortable, I have looked at the Catalina 22, Cal 22, O'day, and Bristol. Any thoughts?


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## olson34

Also check out the Mull-designed Ranger 23.
Good all 'round performance with a cruisible interior.

L


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## Donna_F

Rocky,

Keep an open mind about sleeping more than two "comfortably" in a 22 footer. While they can fit three people, and my first boat, a 22 footer, claimed to sleep 5 (yeah RIGHT), it certainly wasn't comfortable and you should expect zero privacy.

Good luck.


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## brehm62

DRFerron said:


> Keep an open mind about sleeping more than two "comfortably" in a 22 footer. While they can fit three people, and my first boat, a 22 footer, claimed to sleep 5 (yeah RIGHT), it certainly wasn't comfortable and you should expect zero privacy.


I guess this depends on how you define comfort. My boat could sleep a maximum of four which would be one in each quarter berth and two sharing the vee berth. I guess you would then have to put the porta-potti in the cockpit. I suppose you could theoretically hang a privacy curtain from the boom.

If you define comfort though as living space then four in my boat would be a joke. The two seats are the tops of the quarter berths and they only hold one each. To have four inside the boat you would still have to have two lying on the vee berth; there simply is no other sitting room.

The notion of comfort is flexible. I've seen people with boats where the interior had nothing, no cooking facilities, no sink, not even storage for a porta-potti. I think the interior of a West Wight Potter 15 is like this. But I've seen people happy with this because they didn't have to pay for a camping site. They just anchored and slept on their boat. But I assume they wouldn't want to spend much time there when not sleeping.

My cabin is not really a place to hang out. I suppose two people could get in out of the rain and not be too crowded. But if I had to spend much time there I would rather have more space like a Macgregor 26 has. Actually I have a fairly good perspective on this because I went on a trip with my wife and parents in a 30' travel trailer. That was just enough living space for four. However, with a tiny six gallon hot water heater you really couldn't have four people taking a shower. My mother got the shower and the rest of us trekked over to the bathhouse.

A MacGregor 26 technically has a head compartment but it doesn't have a shower. So, a Mac26 is really more of a weekender; you need to have access to some real facilities. If you just need a soft place to lie down then a quarter berth works about the same as a camp cot. But if you plan to spend more time in the cabin than just sleeping, you'll want some elbow room.


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## SlowButSteady

Be aware that most 22-ft sailboats have about the interior room of a small apartment's bathroom, with about half to two-thirds of the headroom (no pun intended). Now, imagine locking yourself in said bathroom with one or two other folks (and sleeping, eating, and pooping) for the weekend. If you think that sounds like something you can deal with, there are several boats in that size/price range. But a Santana 22 (if you can find one in Maine) would probably be at the top of my list.


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## SHNOOL

My personal bias is towards the Capri 22. It's spartan, but has 2 huge quarter berths 7' each, and the V is acceptable for 1. The cockpit is large at 8 feet, sails good even in the wing keel config. The wing keel is for shallow water, and easy trailering, but sails decent... the Fin is a better sailing boat (arguably), but is harder to launch, if you want to got wide open on your config out of the box, get the fin keel tall rig.

It's a really forgiving boat, but is faster than most cruisers the same size.

I'll also second the Santana as a nice boat.

Another great boat, but good luck finding one at $5k is a precision 23. The precision 21 is also a great buy if you can find one.


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