505 Passage circumnavigation

Any boat larger than 40-43' could be a nightmare to manage by a small crew in case of trouble. Unless you are a group of 7-8 sailors the 505 could be potentially dangerous. Just imagine the furler line to chafe and brake. The jib would be impossible to take down by three or four crew members. Think about the crew and not the boat. Usually the crew cannot handle the conditions. Just my two cents.

Edited by panos - 17 November 2015 at 15:48

There is no reason to doubt the ability of a Hanse to sail a storm.
Also there is no reason to buy a brand of yacht that markets it self as suitable for " Blue Water" ; these boats have little that is different to a Hanse except price.
As a small idea from my own conversations whilst sailing in the last year, one owner of a brand new Halberg had major problems with an engine that was installed wrong and was destroyed, the replacement engine was giving problems, a X yacht with an autopilot that was could not be made to work again brand new, another X with major engine problems. Oyster owners that have big problems; Discovery again owners that are having problems.
I can go on, what has an Ovni got that makes it better for " Blue Water " the rig is small , the boat is slow, the lack of weight in the keel can be a real problem when you are in serious weather, forget what the sales pitch says and the chat room bores say. This design of boat is flawed, and please do not quote Cornell, the man is a hypocrite and self opinionated.
If your sailing needs a lot of space and you have the crew, plus you intend to sail trade wind the Hanse will be great.
Personaly , having sailed two Atlantic circuits in my 370, plus quite a lot more I am thinking of an upgrade, there is nothing on any 50 foot boat that interests me so am not the best person to advise, I prefer small and sweet. I can tell you a Hanse is more than capable of sailing bad weather; but it is hard work, if you want an easier boat for bad weather there is nothing on the more expensive boats to help you with this, best you buy a second hand Swan.

All just my opinion.

Simon

You know the old saying: "a boat gets shorter by one foot every day for each person on board".  Go with a 505 if you can swing it and do some rigging upgrades (storm sails in particular) and necessary safety and communications equipment.  The extra weight of a Swan or Oyster will make the crossing much more comfortable, possibly faster, but not necessarily safer (maybe a bit of safety margin).  Panos is correct, you will probably need a crew of at least 5 to stay rested and safe.  

I have friends that have just gone through the same process as you. Here is there blog on the choosing the boat you will have to translate. As you see below they have chosen a Ovni 430 used completely equiped for above 230K€. There reason you can beach it , the hull is aluminum....very very good sailing boat. I know its Hanse blog but aluminum or steel boat have have an edge on what floats