Jakatar, a Corbin 39 in Portugal: The Ideal Cruising Sailboat

There's a blogger over at Boat Bits who has quite a following even though 90% of his short but entertaining posts are about finding the perfect VolksCruiser - a cruiser for ordinary folks, you know, people on a tight budget, tightwads, whatever you want to call them. People like me.

Here's my boat, Jakatar, a Corbin 39 - voted the top cruising boat in its range by Cruising World Magazine a number of years ago.

Sailing Past Cabo Espichel going to the Algarve. Damn, that's a tall mast. No wonder raising the sail is sweaty work.

Anchored in Alvor, Algarve (pre-roller furling days). Installed an Alado furler in 2011.

Modified keel, skeg hung rudder, built like a tank...like a killer whale.

That's a genuine cruising boat, and it has served me well in all kinds of sea conditions, including a nasty storm.

The truth is that I like almost any type of boat: 56-foot luxury yachts, old wooden schooners, sleek sailing machines, fat motorsailers, crusty rowboats and, yes, motorboats...you get my drift.

It's been said a million times, but I'll say it again with a new twist: the perfect sailboat is the one tailored to your needs, EVEN IF YOUR NEEDS BOIL DOWN TO SPENDING THE NEXT 10 YEARS FIXING HER UP AT THE YARD OR TINKERING WITH SYSTEMS AT THE MARINA, YAPPING AND DREAMING ABOUT CRUISING BUT NEVER ACTUALLY SAILING ANYWHERE.

YOUR NEEDS!!!! THAT'S WHAT REALLY MATTERS. Make sure you scratch the right itch; wouldn't it be silly to have an itchy arm only to find yourself compulsively scratching your leg. Need I say more?

For example, here's the ideal coastal cruiser for single handed multi-leg sailing down the Portuguese coast to the Algarve and surrounding area.