The truth is a single person or a couple can live quite comfortably and voyage successfully in an incredibly small boat... But, what about a family? All of a sudden that 28-foot boat starts looking a lot like a clown car.
The problem is that as boats get bigger so do the costs and associated expenses. Made worse by the fact that bigger boats, systems, and gear are mainly aimed at wealthy buyers so there is no budget sector of the market.
Very few designers these days seem to show any real interest in designing boats for home builders on a budget. In their defense, I have to admit there is not a lot of money in it or, at least, the market is simply hidden because it is underserved.
Tad Roberts with his Future Cruiser series seem to be on the right track with boats at 38 and 44-foot with super simple systems and rigs. Somewhat against the trend of doing a "budget" boat and then speccing out a silly-expensive rig, engine, and other systems whose costs will dwarf the outlay of building the actual boat.
There are also a lot of older designs that make a lot of sense but we'll be talking about a few of those later...
