It can be difficult to choose the right boat for your holiday, but below are some general guidelines that you can keep in mind before the final decision.

New or older boat?
Whether you are sailing in a new or old boat, the sailing areas, water and marinas are the same. However, the age of the boat has a great influence on the price of the holiday. Our partners have all ambitious maintenance plans for their boat rental, and we only work with operators who do their utmost to deliver a well-maintained and functional boat to our customers, but there is a difference between a new and an older boat. The rental boats spend more time at sea than an equivalent boat in Scandinavia. A rental boat often sails up to 25-30 weeks a year with different tenants. This means that a three-year-old rental boat is often more worn out than a 15-year-old privately owned boat here at home. If you rent an old boat, you can expect it to appear slightly used and worn, and you can also experience minor faults with it and its equipment. While you can also notice that the cushions are a bit flat, that the dune covers can be cracked, tank gauges for diesel, fresh water, and the septic tank do not work. Cabinet doors and doors may not be able to close completely. There may be a bad smell in the toilets, as the septic/holding tank is disconnected on older boats.

Newer boats also have newer instruments. This often means a larger screen on the chart plotter and is close to the steering position. The chart plotter is much smaller on a slightly older boat, and if you choose a boat from the early or mid-00s, it often has a very small screen and is placed on a small table along with other navigation equipment below the deck.

We, therefore, recommend that you prioritize age before size and rather choose a slightly smaller and newer boat, or you choose the older boat but are fully aware that it will show traces of many years of use.
Newer boats also have a fold-up swimming platform and a vertical berth, which in practice means a new 37-foot boat is as spacious as an 8-year-old 40-foot boat.

Catamaran or sailboat?
A catamaran or good for lying still and there is a lot of space on board. For example, if you are two families, each family has its own hull, but you only stay there when you are going to sleep. Otherwise, you hang out together in the salon and the boat's kitchen, where there is often a sofa corner. Whether you cook, steer the boat, sit in the cockpit, or throw yourself in the water, you always have a 360-degree sea view and are constantly involved in the sailing. A skipper or a couple of teenagers can sleep in a so-called "crew cabin" that is out on the prow of most catamarans. When sailing a catamaran (and especially on a half-wind), you should also get used to the fact that it "rocks" when a wave hits and lifts the hull.

A catamaran is slightly more expensive than a regular sailboat, but in return, there is a lot of space on board. A 40-foot catamaran often wants to appear significantly more spacious than an equivalent size as a sailboat, the same is also true when compared to the very largest sailboats of over 50 feet.

A sailboat is good to sail in and offers a smoother sailing experience. But there is less space on a sailboat compared to a catamaran. When you go down below deck to make coffee, food, check on charts and instruments or other things, you are in the "basement" from where you are no longer part of the sailing. Every time you have cooked, it should also be moved up from the "basement" and onto the table in the cockpit.

One or two steering wheels
A boat with two steering wheels provides much better visibility, but it is not only an advantage during the actual sailing. It is also much easier to move back and forth in the boat when you have two steering wheels, as you do not have to go up on the chest bench every time you move back and forth in the boat. This also becomes very clear when bathing because the passage is much easier when the boat has two steering wheels.

Space at the cockpit table
In general, there is room for two fewer people at the table in the cockpit than there are cabin spaces. If you want space for everyone at the table, you can either rent a larger boat or accept that some sit with the plate in their lap and eat.

Bathing platform/bathing ladder
On newer boats, there is often a larger bathing platform that can be folded down. It makes it easier to access the water so that several people can jump into the water at the same time and bring flippers and snorkels, while a "bottleneck" usually forms around the bathing ladder when going on and off on older boats.

One or two rudder blades?
With one rudder blade, you can very easily turn the boat by turning the rudder and giving strong gas forward. Thereby you almost "throw" around the back of the boat when manoeuvring it. Some brand-new boats are equipped with two rudder blades that are located on each side of the boat. Be aware that such boats behave differently compared to boats with only one rudder blade sitting in the middle. The inability to "throw” around is often compensated by the fact that the new boats are equipped with bow thrusters. But when choosing a boat, pay attention to the fact that boats with two rudder blades should be handled differently compared to the boats you may be used to.

Well-sailing sports boat or spacious family boat?
If you choose a sports boat, you should pay attention to the fact that there is a great emphasis on good sailing characteristics and trim possibilities, and not so much on comfort and holiday sailing. The table in the cockpit of boats under 40-44 feet can be a flap table (camping table), which folds up and stows away when not in port. On a sports boat, the sheet rail to the mainsail is placed in the cockpit, which means that you must pass the mainsail every time you go back and forth in the cockpit. The most important thing to pay attention to is that when the sheet rail is placed in the cockpit is that this cannot be combined with a regular bimini that screens for the sun. The bimini on a sports boat is often only 50-75 cm long and protects only the helmsman from the sun.