Moody 44 (90s) Looking To Buy 44cc primarily or 425cc! which is better for round the world?

[Alex Rushton]

Looking at buying a moody 44cc in the uk or med possibly. Also see the potential in the moody 425cc but which would you prefer and what reasons for sailing around the world?

From what I can see apart from the size is that the 44 has a foot less draft. I'm interested in knowing about how well they handle rough stuff, average speeds, livability between the two, best bang for the buck as they are near enough the same price with the 425 £10k less.

thanks,
Alex

 

[Peter Wright]

Hi Alex,

Our Wild Thyme is a Moody 425, and fully capable for a circumnavigation if that's what you want to do. However, given a straight choice between the two models, I would go for the Moody44. She's a more modern design, with swept back spreaders, so should be a bit closer winded and in my opinion was the best model Moodys built.

The 425 was the last of 4 models out of the same mould: 41, 419, 422 & 425 and the 44 was a completely new hull designed as successor to the 425.

Most of the 44s were built with a strange layout in the saloon which included two big armchairs to starboard, however the last ones built reverted to a more traditional layout with a setee berth each side of the saloon, much preferable in my view. The fore and aft ends featured a double berth and each could be built to include a twin bunk cabin as well as a heads at each end. In my view, 8 bertns outside the saloon is excessive for a 44 foot boat, but one passage cabin is a good idea for occasional guests.

To see all these options, see the Moody Archives, reached by a link from the home page of this site.

Incidentally, although they all have centre cockpits, none of these boats feature the designation "cc" in their model name - that's an invention of some brokers.

Peter.

 

[Peter Wright]

Look at the Moody archive accessed via a link on the MOA home page. You will see that the M44 is available in a shallow draft version. The base version of the M44 draws 2.01 m compared to the M425 draft of 1.83 m. It is the shallow draft M44 which draws only 1.5m.

Although only a little longer overall, the 44 has a considerably longer waterline length, which helps keep passage times down. Rather than worry about a £10k price difference, I would look for a good one of either model. How is the engine electronics, sails, keel studs, rigging. To put a poor one back into good shape, you can easily spend £60k. It's not like buying a car where hundreds of thousands of each model are built only hundreds of each Moody model were built and most of them are not for sale.

Peter.