Saw this advertisement for a Morgan 38. If the pictures are accurate, it's in fabulous shape, with a number of important features. A bit rich, price-wise.

There's no reason to go all ga-ga over what is -- essentially -- just a boat that caught my eye.

The problem is that it's really, really hard to be disciplined about this. Here's the Mahina Expeditions Cruising list of 130 boat models that are -- more-or-less -- suitable for blue-water cruising.

How do you parse a list like that? We have pretty specific size constraints (38' to 42'). Even applying these, there are still 40+ models that could be looked at. I guess I have to do hundreds of web searches for representative listings.

Or, perhaps, I just call a few dealers (Whiteaker, Annapolis Yacht Sales) and hope they help me locate a suitable boat.

A little technical finesse leads to listings of about 40 boats on www.yachtworld.com, between 37' and 42', on the Mahina "Blue Water Cruiser" list and in our price range. How many of those are on the east coast? How many are in good shape? How long will it take to narrow the field to a few that we can have surveyed and take out for a test sail?