Hi everyone :) This is my first post. G'day to you all. I live in Sydney and am looking forward to my first time on a sailing boat, an introductory sail with my nearby sailing school. Wish me luck! If I manage ok, I will hope to sign up for a sailing course so that I can become a safe sailor and own my own boat:) By the way, from time to time, I see boats for sale on the net. This morning, I saw the sail boat that is the current apple of my eye (monohull, 34ft) for sale in Western Aust. I guess, it'll be sold well before I am ready to buy a boat, but imagining if I did buy it, how would I get it from WA to Sydney and how much would the transportation cost? I am guessing the options are: 1) road transport, 2) hire a yacht delivery sailor person 3) Sail it back myself (not really an option! at least I can't imagine doing that myself!) Best wishes to you all, Snapperfish :)

Their are plenty of 34' boats on the market here. I'm sure many will still be avialable well down the track - yachts are always a buyers market!!! Quite a few SS34's, and recenlty sold our old UFO34 for a song. ballpark figure for trucking back $5K to $10K good luck!! Poods

Welcome to the Seabreeze Cyber Yacht Club snapperfish. It is a pretty fair crew here and very good advice is forthcoming if you need it. Just ask. However please take the time to search the older threads as some of your questions may have already been discussed and answered. A 34 foot mono hull yacht is a great choice. Provisos are that it is less than 6 tonne displacement fully laden for an extensive cruise, sloop rigged, is not built of concrete and is not a "Roberts Design". Ooops!! Where is that fire blanket and extinguisher!! Oh yeah. As Sands says; check your local market first. Deliveries have a tendency to blow out even the most generous budgets. Also as Ramona said; check out that Van De Stadt 34 on Ebay. They perform well and are very roomy yachts for live aboard. Cheers Cisco.

I spoke with a guy a while ago who used to sail out of Ballina regularly racing as crew aboard a couple of different yachts fairly much alternating weekly. One was an S&S 34 and the other a VDS 34. His opinion was that they were fairly well matched in sailing ability with the S&S maybe having a slight edge in lighter airs and the VDS maybe having the edge in strong airs. I think the S&S is the prettier yacht especially alongside a multi chine VDS but the S&S does not have the hull volume of the VDS. The accomodation lay out of the VDS is excellent and they are superb for live aboard with a full stand up shower and head to keep the ladies happy.

Thank you, Cisco, for your info regarding the comparison of the yachts :) I am very happily surprised at seeing these interior photos. I had not realised the interior of the VDS was so comfortable! Definitely would agree with you about its live-aboard qualities. Once again, thanks, much appreciated! Best wishes, snapperfish.