Defy - same here, all fun getting wet in the morning but kids get cold by the afternoon, even with all their extra gear on (wetsuits, gloves, boots, balaclava, cag etc. etc.). Wife to some extent too. If I was mainly solo sailing, or we were only out for 2 or 3 hours in a day then I probably wouldn't even be thinking about other boats. But we typically make a 2.5hr drive to the coast on a sunny weekend, and like to make a full day of it, picnic, exploring beaches etc!
So I see there are mainly 2 options for us:
A) Go with something slightly bigger like the Searail 19/Pulse 600 which would give us a faster, drier ride, along with some shelter for small kids. This would extend our daily range, but I'm sure we would miss many of the benefits which make the TI so attractive in the first place, like the mirage drive, ability to launch from nearly anywhere, pull it up the beach for picnics, super low-cost to maintain, & we'd have to pay for storage as anything bigger wouldn't fit in our garage like our TI does, etc.
B) If shelling out £20K+ for the likes of above (& loosing the advantages of the TI), makes me think we might as well find the extra £s to get something we can over-night on, e.g. F22, 760 etc. But then will the missus really be happy with a tiny cabin & porta-potty for overnights, 4-up, or would we just end up day-sailing it & camping (as we do now) on a nice campsite with hot showers & a pub in walking distance... In which case, should we save the money & stick with option A? Or would the extra few feet & cabin for shelter be worth the extra money, even for day-sailing?
There are other options of course, e.g. look at mono-hulls to provide more comfort for the money, but I find them less attractive for reasons already mentioned. Or get a larger Trimaran (e.g. 970 or older Dragonfly 28 etc.) for multi-hull joy with added comfort, but sadly we can't afford at this time, and towing would become more of an issue.
Obviously there's no such thing as the perfect boat for us (unless maybe money was no object!), but I think our next step is to visit a major boat show this September, & hopefully view a few options so we can have an informed family argument about it!
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