For the simple pleasure of sailing

Looking for performance, elegance and impeccable manners from a weekender? Then the Rustler 33 is your sort of boat, says David Harding

I read a fascinating article recently about relationships. It was a distillation of the guidance offered by over a thousand people who had been with their spouses or partners for more than 10 years, and one point, in particular, recurred time and time again: be together for the right reasons.

A partnership formed for the wrong reasons (and there are a lot of very common wrong reasons) is almost certainly destined to fail – or, at the very least, not to thrive as it might.

And it’s the same with the relationship between an owner and his or her boat. You need to buy a boat for the right reasons; for the sort of sailing you’re going to be doing. That means actually doing. There’s nothing wrong with a little future-proofing or with having dreams, but you need to be realistic. A 50-footer with 10 berths is being wasted if used by a couple for overnighting or coastal pottering. Perhaps more importantly, it’s unlikely to be the best boat for the job.

Buying such a boat for that sort of sailing would be like buying a camper van for going to the shops – or, heaven forbid, buying a big black 4x4 to take the kids to school around the corner (not that anyone would do such a thing, of course).

As Adrian Jones of Rustler Yachts puts it, “Why have accommodation if you don’t use it? Why not have a boat that’s nicer to sail and easier to look after? So many cruisers just go day-sailing and weekending, and buy the wrong boat because there’s nothing else.”