Very seriously thinking about selling the house and buying a 40 to 45 cat and leaving on a 3 year journey. Has anybody here taken the plunge and sailed away. The wife is pretty nervous so are my daughters 11 & 15 , we all have been around boats our whole life and I have 1000's of sea hours on stink boats but did a lot of sailing in my pre married life.
First 6 months will be all break down trips in Aus , home schooling the kids and getting my head around sails again ,would appreciate some input.
The pacific will be the main target but if all goes we will be heading to the Med or we could even start from their as there are tons of yachts on fire sale their due to the GFC.
I'm pro the cats for stability and shallow draft. A second hand Lagoon 44 or 45 are my pick at the moment.
Good Cat is considered family friendly. Just happened to crew on Seawind 1000.
Small gathering of Seawinds with 1000, 1160 and 1250 on display.
30 years sailing monohulls and sailing big Cat is wow factor.
Personally I love monos these Cats are for living. Especially 1250 is incredible
volume , must see it believe it. /see www.seawindcats.com/
I heard some marinas don't like Cats...
If you are going to do it, don't buy the boat here, look in Europe or Caribbean. You will then be able to keep the house.
I'm busting to say "Just do it", but I must agree with Cisco's advice about listening to the verbal and tacit cues from your womenfolk. Sounds like it may be your odyssey alone, my friend 
Having daughters myself, I know how formative those ages are. I doubt whether you would be able to wrench them away from their social network. Bitchy though it may be - and your paternal benevolence may be a driving force to take them away from all of that - it is a vital part of growing up and development.
A comment I always find interesting is how cruising kids are so mature and can interact with adults. What I think is far more important is whether they can interact with their peers.
I was really lucky with the coastal cruising done with my daughters. They were much younger than yours but old enough to remember everything! Academically, home schooling worked a treat for us because we're a family who has a thirst for knowledge...we're pretty nerdy. We were a little undisciplined and hit and miss with the coursework, however, the natural learning was absolutely brilliant! Natalya, my big girl, picked up an academic award when she returned at the end of the school year. BUT, it was all a matter of the right age...she was in Grade 5 and Saskia was Grade 1.
Boat choice?? I'd keep going straight past Lagoons. There's plenty of better cats out there. And yes, try looking in the Med or the Caribbean.
Good luck with figuring out a plan. You may find Mrs Piros and you might just have to wait until the Misses Piros are finished school and independent and then go off on your excellent adventure??
Spare a thought for me ....I've got a few more years than you to wait.........but then I'll be off!!!!!!!
My kids are pretty adventurous though plus they'll do anything to get out of school. My wife Belinda will be fine as long as we don't run out of wine. 
Awesome, do it but let us know how it goes. Pretty game confining yourself to a boat with 3 girls.
We have been looking at buying a sailing cat or mono to live on for 5-10 years. We plan to pick up a boat in Europe in mid 2014 and sail our way back to Oz over the 5-10 year period. We have chartered a couple of cats to see how they sail etc. We had a Lagoon 420 for a week in the Whitsundays and were very disappointed in the lack of sailing or motoring performance. We then chartered a Fountaine Salina 48ft which has plenty of room and good accomodation but still sails well and motored at about 10kn. It has room in the engine rooms for extras which you need for long term travels- desal, genset, dive compressor,extra batteries etc etc etc.
Cats however are expensive to buy and in some places finding a berth can be hard/expensive. The main advantages of a cat, apart from the space, is the stability whilst at anchor and the shallow draft. In rough seas most cats suffer from waves slamming onto the underside of the bridgedeck which if severe can damage the vessel. In rough seas I would prefer to be in a mono rather than a cat. Whilst at anchor I would rather be on a cat.
Most of the production monos available have plenty of cabins but not enough engineering space for extra equipment. We are now looking seriously at the Beneteau Sense 55 ft which seems to have enough cabin area, plenty of engineering space, good fresh water capacity of 970 ltrs and good fuel capacity of 840 ltrs. The Sense also has a more spacious cockpit than comparable monos but not as large as a 40-50ft cat, but still spacious.
I think you will find there are a lots more monos on the market, new or secondhand, than cats. A lot of the secondhand cats, and some monos are ex hire vessels and have had a hard life. Only a small percentage of the vessels on the market are set up for long term cruising so you will probably need to add the cruising gear to the vessel which can add a substantial amount to the cost of the vessel. In thye case of a new Sense 55 the base price in Europe is E330,000 but set up for cruising it is more like E550,000.
The current AUS$ exchange rate strength is on your side for a buy overseas. Hopefully this will continue.Good luck with the search for the right vessel for you and the family.
Well I did what you're planning to do but I'm more of a cautionary tale than anything. After my wife walked out (no warning) I was thrashing round looking for a magic bullet fix to make me happy again. I've always been around boats and love diving so I thought this would be a good idea. I have no kids or anything else tying me down. So I bought a beautiful 38ft cat with plenty of living room, furling main and jib all controlled from the helm so she's easy to single-hand, big galley with oven, inbuilt fridge freezer, 360 watts of solar, four 220ah deep cycle six volt batteries...... blah blah. Every boat's a compromise, but this was pretty close to what I wanted.
So I sold my apartment and went to live on her. Only, I couldn't. I don't know why, but I had massive panic attacks from the word go. After my first night on her, I moved off again, put her in a marina, and couldn't even look at her again for six months. It was totally my dream, but, like most things in my life, I found out the hard way that I wasn't the person I thought I was and this just wasn't for me. I don't know why. I still love the water and being on it, I've always owned and been around boats, it was just ....... overwhelming. Since then, I've started playing on her and sailing her when I can. My brother in law and nephew and I sailed her up to Lady Musgrave last year (she's anchored at Redland Bay) for a couple of weeks diving which was amazing. And I sail her to Tangalooma and horseshoe quite often. She's still up for sale but I can at least be on her now. I pulled her out for antifoul and maintainance a few weeks back and she's looking great now (I don't want to spend a lot on a boat I'm selling but I don't want to end up trying to sell wreckage either). But I digress. My point is, and this should in no way colour YOUR choice, that even though it was exactly what I thought I wanted, and I had researched it to death, and I had a tick in every box, it still didn't work out.
I'm in no way trying to talk you out of this. Just relaying my experience .
Good luck.
Petey
Did part of a delivery Last February from Sydney to Adelide on a Lagoon 380. I dont know how the 450 goes, but I bailed out in Adelaide mainly due to the ride and speed of that particular boat. average speed was about 6 knots and would reach 7knots with motors running besides the sails up.
When the sea got up in the Bass strait we may have reached 18 knots dropping down wave faces and consistant 40 knots but the boat just rolled around,
I know its great to have a level cabin, but traveling long distance is a real pain to the point of not being any fun. you just dont feel the dynamics of sailing on that lump of plastic. and with the hull groaning away in heavy sea you know its not made for that sort of trip.
It would be great to have the Lagoon where you want to spend most of your time. Otherwise look at a diffrent model of cat or go monohull, Of course not all of it was bad
I learned to sail on keel boats but, IMO, you can't beat a cat for cruising and sheer liveability.
Check out the Tahina Expedition (www.tahinaexpedition.com/) which is going round the world on a 50' cat.
I own a Lightwave 38' myself, but so far my "blue water" experience has been limited to the East Coast and South Australian waters.
I know its silly but anything the maker calls lagoon prolly shouldnt go to far out in to open water
do some research m8 found this site maybe of intrest www.atlantic-cruising.com/good-cat-bad-cat/
maybe some sailing holidays with the family a few grand and a couple of weeks on the water together may save a lot of heart ache later on and you get to try out a different boat
