She is not just our boat, but also our home.

She is a Beneteau Idylle 1050.  Built in France in 1986, measuring  10.5 meters long (34 feet), and 3.3 meters wide (11'), she is not the largest boat in the ocean, but she's ours. 

Two key considerations came into choosing the boat and the upgrades we have put on her.

Cost and Simplicity

Cost: 

Due to our budget, we wanted to keep the cost down; not only for the purchase price but also for her operations and her maintenance. We found that the for every 10 feet in added boat length, it seemed to double the cost of purchasing, operating and maintaining, Therefore a well built 34 footer sounded just right.  Updated with all the right features to keep her away from the dock (the easiest place to spend money), we were able to purchaser her for $44,000 and fully upgrade her for an additional $35,000. 

Simplicity:

When buying and setting up S/V West, we wanted to keep it simple. Our goal was to easily be able to singlehand her without the need of electrical power.  Items such as manual winches, a manual windless and low tech components were all key contributions to our final decision.  One example of intentional choices was to purchase a windvane. Not only are autopilots noisy and prone to breaking, they also require significant power and therefore battery storage. Thus adding even more complexity to our systems.  We chose to go with a windvane because they required no power, are essentially silent and rarely have an issue that can't be fixed at sea.  It was this thought process on each and every decision that helped us reach our current cruising set up. 

Basic info

Length: 10.5 M (34')

Beam: 3.3 M (11')

Draft: 1.46 M (4'-9")

Displacement: 5,059 KG (11,152 lb)

Rig Type: Masthead Sloop

Engine: Volvo Penta 2003

90 gallons of Water

50 gallons of Fuel

Upgrades

Solar Panels (570w)

Voyager Windvane

Quantum Radar

Raymarine Chart Plotter

AIS

Katadyn Power Survivor 35 Water Maker

New Standing Rigging

New Sail Set

Stack Pack

Strong Track

Rocna 15 w/ 200 feet of chain

Wifi Booster

Offshore Life Raft

Iridium Go

New Refrigeration

Firefly Battery Bank (300 ah)

2nd Fuel Tank (28 gal)

LED Lighting

Sailing Dinghy w/ outboard