Hello Sailors! I have a question for you. If you could have any sailboat in existence, what would it be? My dream boat is a Bestevaer 53. I've got a photo of Xaos on my screensaver.

Greetings Paul!
I recently had the privileged of sailing aboard an Atlantic 72, "Pennmanship", a custom built catamaran here in our home anchorage in Fiji. We met the family of the boat while out surfing, and were invited for a day sail with the young sons who are able to handle the boat easily as a double handed team. It was the most fun I've ever had sailing a boat, and definitely the fastest I've ever been on a sailboat. The world seemed like a much smaller place while going at speed on that boat compared to our old, heavy and much smaller boat. I'm not generally a huge fan of catamarans, but this thing is special. It is also set up to be quite easy to sail, with a convenient cockpit in front of the main cabin, with easy access to all sail handling and controls compared to most catamarans.

Here is a link about the boat: http://www.aquidneckcustom.com/our-custom-builds/performance-multihulls/penmanship-atlantic-72

Hi Paul! Greetings from the frozen north!
I might have to echo your choice of the Besteaver. Absolutely amazing boats! …

…but the one that stole my heart at a tender young age and has remained a dream boat for me is the Cherubini 48 stay’sl schooner. The build quality and classic design have always tugged at my heart strings.

Without a doubt, it would be Steve Dashew's Beowulf. It's the boat that inspired me to consider aluminum for my "reality" build. She's about 70' long, huge pilothouse, ketch rigged, but built to be handled by two crew. Three hundred miles a day...makes long passages much shorter. and can actually outrun weather systems. Steve was all about waterline length.

Paul, would you feel comfortable sailing a 53 solo and what is the max length you would consider sailing solo?

Richard, I sail a heavy 40' cutter with a conservative mast height, a high ballast to displacement ratio, and a full keel. All this makes the boat forgiving. I would certainly consider trying to singleand a 53' boat, but I wouldn't go out and buy it as a first boat to singlehand. My first boat was 30'. I sailed her for two and a half years before buying my 40' boat. Vendee Globe sailors singlehand 65' high performance racing boats, so anything is possible. I'm not sure what the max length I would consider sailing solo. I was once told that 40' was as long as I should go. But as long as you can handle all the systems by yourself, and the boat is designed so you don't need two people to reef or trim sails, and you are fit enough, and the headsails are on roller furlers, and you have windvane and electronic autopilots, then give it a try.

I have to agree with Erick on the cabon cat, Atlantic 72. We got to sail that boat "Penmanship" together on the same day and it really blew our socks off. They regularly do 20 knots and 400nm+ days on passage. To go those speeds makes the world so much smaller. It's gonna take me two weeks to sail to New Zealand while it only took them four days.

The helm is also forward of the salon right at the base of the mast giving it a monohull feel of control. Although the boat was 72' long it felt like we were sailing a 40' because of this helm location. Everything was really easy to manage and the intimidation of it all wore off quickly . The bridge is high enough up that they don't really suffer from hull slap like other catamarans. Lastly, they actually have two back stays they go all the way back to the swim platforms. This allows the boom to go fully out unlike regular cats where you can't let the boom out past 45deg because of the awkward backstay locations. As you can imagine, the living space inside was impressive as well with 7 cabins. One can dream...

All sound like great boats. I guess I would be really happy to have any of the GGR boats, the cape dory has a special place in my heart as we own a 25d out of oriental, NC.

Owen, thanks for your helpful podcasts with Paul. Marine electrical can be daunting and I appreciate your helpful info. Also your discussion about electricity and spirituality was transcendental. Thanks.

Just connected with Owen at Meridian- his knowledge is off the charts. He is patient and works wonderfully with noobs like myself, taking time to explain everything. Can not wait to get this upgrade under way!

Paul, I am sticking with Deerfoot, Sundeer, and CW Paine Bermuda series. I think the key to single handing larger vessels is set up. Some of this starts with the original design and it can take alot to move from multi crew to short handed if the original design wasn't pointed that way. For example, a Deerfoot 62 has the same mast height as a Tartan 44. The Tartan may be a little more weatherly, but once you Crack off a little the Derfoot flies. Max DWL combined with slippery hull form. At the same time the the proportions of the Deerfoot make it a more stable work platform so it is easier to handle. The Tartan is a fine vessel and can be rigged to be easy to sail.
Pauls advice about a sailing seatrial is spot on. And bringing a person or people with short handed experience along can help you see the potential. We spent a couple of years dialing in the Deerfoot 62. They were not large capital investments but rather small ergonomic improvements. Changing roller furler leads, fine tuning reefing lines etc. We added soft hanks so when we dropped a headsail out of the foil it didn't spill overboard. (Although nobody called them soft hanks back then).
CSM The Mariner recently did (another) solo trans-atlantic on his 80 ft maxi. But he sailed on staysail and reefed main because the was the most sail he could hoist single handed. So unless you are going to count on powered winches, there is a size limit. (I don't dislike powered winches, but I think you need to be able to sail the boat when they fail. So don't "count" on them.)