Simple stuff...

There are times when reading the yachting press (in those rare times when my scum sucking zinio app actually works) that I feel that we're not looking at boats anymore but some crazed rendering of the "Blind men and an elephant" sort...

A while back when I was talking about the Columbia 26, a lot of folks wrote the blog asking why I liked it because it didn't have one feature or another that some other blog or sailing magazine had told them that a proper cruising boat had to do or have any number of things that a simple 26-foot boat was simply never going to have or do... Because, you know, it's a 26-foot boat.

The Columbia 26 MK2 for its size delivers, as far as I'm concerned, a pretty impressive list of stuff you need in a cruising boast for someone on a budget...

• It sails well
• It's well built
• Has a well thought out ergonomic interior that works
• Has better than average stowage
• They're available
• They're cheap (as such things go)

From where I sit the only downsides of such a boat are that it's a boat of a certain age and it's more than likely that it will need some TLC factored into the program. That said, it is a small boat so there's not going to be that much work or expense compared to something bigger.

In other words, it pretty much nails the whole need list for a boat of the VolksCruiser ilk...

An alarming number of people seemed to think that the Columbia 26 MK2 was somehow lacking and I got numerous emails comparing it to other boats that were either substantially bigger, more expensive, or completely different...

The elephant is much like a snake...

The lesson I learned a long time ago is that you can't look at sailboat design as a group comparison thing or as a this boat vs that boat contest. Every boat is different and needs to be looked at with eyes wide open and taking it all in. The question you need to ask whether it's about the Columbia 26 MK2, a CAL 34, a Morgan Out Island 41, or a Whatever 38 is whether or not this particular boat will do what you need it to do.

That's it. Trust me, spreadsheet feature comparison shopping for a boat will leave you just where it did the guy who said...

The elephant is quite like a a wall...

Fact of the matter is there are so many good boats and designs floating around it's pretty easy to find a good boat that will do what you need. The problem is mostly not about the right boat it's almost always about the person looking for a boat having insignificant focus to see what their own needs actually are...

 The elephant is much like a tree...

So, the key to what boat works for fulfilling your needs is to not look at boats or listen to people talking about boats (including me) but to simply look in the mirror and sort out what you actually need.