Rasmus
A lot of people ask us if we’d like a bigger boat.
While our boat is by far not the smallest boat we’ve seen on our trip, it is by no means the largest either. When guests come aboard for the first time they often say with a cocked head, “It’s… cozy.” “Cozy” being a really cute word for “small.” We don’t begrudge this term—because it’s true. Our boat is cozy. It’s packed neatly and tightly, it’s tidy and homey, and there is nary a space unused. To use a phrase made famous by my British mum – you could not, quite literally, “swing a cat” in our boat. A kitten, perhaps. But definitely not a cat.
Despite this fact, we have actually never lamented that we want a bigger boat. We’ve talked about how we would like to add another solar panel, maybe install a wind generator, and -in general – dreamt up ways to make her work better (and more efficiently) for us—but we’ve never wished for bigger. The bottom line is the simple fact that she works for us. We have no need for more space. Could we use it? Sure. Would another locker be helpful? Of course. But, as cruisers, we are not living in a world where more is better. We live in a world where less is more. A bigger boat, to us means more expenses, more potential problems, and – more importantly – more space to put more stuff (i.e. “crap”).
We’ve met a lot of cruisers who are always on the hunt for their next boat, forever dreaming of something bigger, something better. Maybe we just got lucky with our Rasmus? Maybe, like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, we chose wisely? It’s no secret that our boat has served us incredibly well. The work we put into her, her sailing performance, her beauty, her bones, her pedigree and heritage all combine to make her exactly what we need. A bigger boat just isn’t in the budget for us (at least not in the foreseeable future) – so we remain happy with what we have.
After all, don’t they say happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have?
If that is the case, we’re right where we need to be.
Love,
Brittany & Scott
_When two people, with the same life long dream of sailing around the world find each other, there’s only one thing to do… make it happen!
Which is precisely what we, Scott and Brittany, are doing aboard our boat, Rasmus, a Hallberg-Rassy 35 which departed from Chicago September 2010! Follow along at
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