What can I cross an ocean in?

It was very interesting to note the types of yachts that people used to cross one of the largest oceans in the world. By far the design that stands out as most common is the Beneteau for the monohulls and Lagoon for the catamarans. Often these are between the 40 and 50ft range. 

Commonly used as cost effective charter boats I had always discounted them as only good for that purpose, however there are plenty of Jeanneau's and Beneteau's out here that disprove that. 

It seems people are getting larger, newer boats for lower costs by going this route.

For the most part, the yachts we encountered were between 35 and 45ft. One of the smallest was a 26 footer owned by a Swedish couple. They did the crossing in 23 days. Very impressive (especially considering there were 3 adults on board too) 

Our other buddy boats that crossed with us included Dolphin of Leith - a 28 ft 108 year old wooden gaff rigged, Scottish fishing boat and a Waka Irie - Mariner 32. Two single handers were included in the fleet that we were with they were in 32 footers too.

We met a number of other single handers along the way; one of whom did not even have an engine in his little gaff rigged boat (although he did have a sculling oar). 

Many of the smaller boats did not have fridges, freezers, SSB, sat phones, radar, generators etc yet they had made it this far with generally fewer problems in many cases than some of the larger boats. Many of the larger more sophisticated boats had what we like to term "gold plated problems" - generally those relating to fridges, freezers and water maker issues.

With regards to budget, so far this month (despite having made landfall and spoiling ourselves with a few imported French foods), we have spent about $200 (half of this on a beautiful carving!). You can see why there are so many more young couples in the pacific than what we encountered in the Caribbean. One can argue that we are living off the food that we bought in Panama, however there is just not much to spend it on out here!

We met a lot of young couples that had left from from Mexico. These were mostly Canadian and Americans. We have yet to meet a single boat that has not raved about Mexico!

Polling the cruisers we ran into, the highest winds most encountered crossing the pacific was 35 knots (and this was generally from aft of the beam so would have felt considerably less). There were few squalls or storms. The need for an over engineered battleship with drogues, sea anchors, storm sails etc to cross an ocean (by that I mean doing the milk run) is a bit of a fallacy in my opinion.  

For anyone out there wondering if they can do it, you most certainly can. The best boat to do it on is probably the one you have right now / or can afford. The hardest part of going cruising is letting go of the mooring lines as my father always says!