Hi all. Have been lurking on the forum for a while but after being landlocked in Melbourne for too long have finally found myself with the means and motivation to look at getting my own boat, so have been drawn out for my first post to ask some advice from the hive mind.

I have a bit of a checklist in terms of what I am looking for but now that I am ready to actually start going out and looking at some boats there is a big range out there that fits the bill to varying degrees, so any advice to narrow things down a bit would be much appreciated.

I am looking for a good solid cruising yacht around 35 foot to do some coastal cruising in the near future with a view to getting further afield and out into the south Pacific in a year or two. So something ok to live aboard and good on the open water is important, as well as something relatively easy to handle short handed. Performance is probably less important than reliability/ease of use. After much consideration of the pros and cons I think I probably want to go for something in steel for a number of reasons including some previous good experiences with steel boats.

The type of stuff I am seeing out there that looks like it will fit the bill includes things like some Adams 40s, some nice Van de Stadt 34s (have heard good things about them but they seem a bit pricier), quite a few different Roberts style boats, and a few others. Much experience with these types out there?

As an example this is the type of thing I have been looking at but have heard mixed reviews about them, although often probably related to build more so than design...


http://www.boatsales.com.au/boats-for-sale/private/used/SSE-AD-102757/1982-ROBERTS-38-OFFSHORE


Cheers!