The lighter the boat, the cheaper to maintain, and the faster it will make ocean passages. I enjoy long passages, even though I am sick as a dog for the first three days. But I wish they could be faster because it is safer, and it gets my wife to the tropical Islands quicker. She doesn’t like being at sea, but the destination makes up for every discomfort. But if I had only known then (in 1974) what I do now, I would have commissioned a 40 footer from the same designer and builder, with the features of my current boat after all its modifications. Now, a forty footer will only sail one knot faster in a breeze, but that would knock 5 days off a long passage. I would be doing 120 nm a day in average wind conditions versus 100. That’s a big advantage. On a really breezy day I could do 150 nm. Theoretically a forty footer could do 168 nm a day, but you wouldn’t enjoy the ride. It’s hard to prepare a good meal while the boat is close hauled at 7 kts. After the passage of a hurricane in the Pacific, I was able to do 11 kts for minutes at a time, but the stress was too much for me - I couldn’t even make tea to calm down. After an hour I dropped one of the two winged out jibs, slowed to 6 kts and went down below for a rest.

People on a time constraint usually run the engine on light wind days. But you are retired and have lots of time.