461 Blue Water Cruising option?

I am a BIG fan of the 461.  If you do a search on my posts, you will see we have been cruising full time from 2012 to Dec 2015.  We left from Southern Spain , explored the rivers of South America, covered Guyana, Trinidad, Columbia, the San Blas and Panama.  Throught the Canal, to the Galapagos then on to the Marquesas,  currently our beautiful companion is on anchorage in Tahiti.

I do not know another yacht I would choose for this journey.

Very strong, fast when needed, very easy to handle. I rep;aced some of the rigging in Tahiti, 10 yrs old and a lot of miles.  Nothing serious, just lower and middle wires.  We have used a twin headsail for 90% of our travels, we had this made in Spain ans is like two jibs set one each side; one held out by a pole the other by the wind.  Effortless powerful downwind sailing.  The self tacker is too small to be of any use on long voyages.  Never used our spinnaker.  The twin headsail would take any wind we have encountered so far, (up to 45 knots).  We Always travelled with great respect for the weather.

Ours is a 461 with bow owners cabin / office, two doubles in the stern.  Good for entertainment, having friends aboard. Sometimes we had 15-20 people on board for dinner, drinks, no shortage of space. One of the great advantages of the 461 was its superb build quality, no Ikea in sight.  Joinery is superb.  Large amounts of storage space.  We carried food supplies for SIX months plus a full book and toy library for ourselves and our young child.  Fully loaded with snorkelling gear, spares for everything, diesel 6Kw gennie, spare sails, 2kw inverter, extra 240l in drums,.  Even with all this she handled beautifully.

I upgraded all the lights to LED, used Spectra for the lines, fitted a large Rocnor anchor. Our Spectra supplied all our water needs, including the washing machine we fitted on board.  If you are going long distance FIT a Washing Machine.  Ours was a top loading AEG from Spain, only 40cm wide, the gennie or inverter managed ok.

This is not an advert, we are currently settled in Australia because our 8 yr old needed to settle into a school where he could maintain friendships.  We have her on sale in Tahiti, if you are interested in the spec to give you an idea of what you will need have a look at
http://au.yachtworld.com/boats/2005/Hanse-461-2937888/French-Polynesia#.V9difqL1KMc

If you have any questions I would be happy to help.  We had a wonderful four years because of all the great people we met and shared time with, even now we get visitors from around the world.

Keep your dreams alive,

Graeme
S/Y Dreamtime Wanderer