Off shore in a commander?

Hey all, as some of you know I have just recently purchased a commander and joined this community.

Been reading pretty much everything I can on all you people cruising long distances in your ariels. My question, as the title of this post suggests, is whether any long voyages have been made in the commander? As far as I can tell, the only difference between the two designs is the size of the cockpit. So is there any good reason other then the cockpit size to not go far offshore in the commander? Can the cockpit be altered to allow for offshore passages? Has anyone done it?

Yes, one from Chicago to LA and another from LA to the Med. See:

http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...a&daysprune=-1

http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...=Mediterranean

Thats exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

Bill, Didn't someone post here that he had bought a Commander in Fl and sailed to the Bahamas, knocked around for a couple weeks, ran aground punching a hole in the keel , patched it and returned to FL. Frank may have ran into him somewhere .

Zoltan and the good ship 'The Way' pretty much proved that one out IMHO....

Carl,

I was the one who ran into 'Winky' while on my cruise, but I surely do not recall hearing about him having any such misfortune?