I assume you will be buying a used boat as the cost of a well built boat today is prohibitive. A new well built 35 footer today will cost you $300,000. Whereas a 30 year old 35 well built footer can be bought for $50,000.
Costs 1974-1995 for well built 35’ and 41’ boats when new.
Examples of well built boats on the market : a 1984 Morris yachts 36 is offered at $195,000 today. A 42’ 2007 Morris is offered at $590,000. a 2006 Morris 36 is offered at $279,000.
Production boats typically use chopper guns to lay the glass, not mat that has to be hand rolled. They don’t glass the bulkheads to the hull and deck, but fasten them to a liner. They skimp on the lead keel, install cheap hatches, don’t taper the mast, use off the shelf pushpits and stancions, don’t use balsa coring throughout hull and deck, limit the number of lockers and omit doors, use a pan in the floor rather than teak floorboards, do not reinforce the ‘floors’ that hold the keel using unidirectional roving, etc.
The life of a production boat is much less than a custom built boat because they wear out quicker. For example the boats built for the charter business are usually retired after three years.
Some production boats are quite safe to use in coastal waters in good weather. But for Ocean passages in bad weather you need a boat with a pedigree, that you can depend on.
Most of the boats that you see in the Islands are well built offshore boats.
