Retire now & go cruising or THIS is what happens!

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Skuzzlebutt

Slow paced? Obviously not written by someone with much blue-water, or Caribbean if you wish) sailing. Sure, there's more than enough time to relax and smell the fish, but lack of exercise? Unless you travel in style with a crew...

Yes, I think you have it in your question.

Very slow paced is the answer especially for a beach cat racing sailor with 15 years experience to switch over to slow boat monohull sailing. My last boat had a spinnaker and was sailed by one person.

This one person had to call all tacks, judge the course against double handed boats etc.....and hold on the start line without a crew or jib

It's a huge adjustment to learn to slow down and just cruise on autopilot

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Yes, I think you have it in your question.

Very slow paced is the answer especially for a beach cat racing sailor with 15 years experience to switch over to slow boat monohull sailing. My last boat had a spinnaker and was sailed by one person.

This one person had to call all tacks, judge the course against double handed boats etc.....and hold on the start line without a crew or jib

It's a huge adjustment to learn to slow down and just cruise on autopilot

This was a nice day though nearing my anchorage. I did a short run before I left though to get a bit of exercise a couple days before this short 'cruise."

Sailing, regardless of speed, is a great low impact aerobic exercise. Hanging out at anchor is not.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Thorne

Maybe it's just me, but what else on this planet is so full of adventure and so wonderful?

Lots of things

sailing is great as you don't need to pack a bag or hunt down a guest house when you get there, but it is a bit limited to low altitude....

After a few years getting away from the boat for a while is very healthy, makes you really appreciate it when you get back onboard.

[Skuzzlebutt]

Originally Posted by navy davy

I guess i should never expect to read comments about boats that are looking for their owners who could not afford to keep them. If living on a boat was so affordable their would be very few used rotten worthless boats left behind. Now i agree, if you have the money, then go for it. That is where people make the decision to ride a bench and not a boat. The U.S. government does not have a section 8 boat program by the way. millions of seniors live in government assisted housing. Fees and taxes will keep many people away from booats. go figure....

Pardon, but I've heard about enough of this not affordable crap.

At 71 years of age, living on about the minimum SS. Won't pay the rent in anything but subsidized housing, which I'm not about to endure.

5 years ago I sold everything that wouldn't fit on a boat, and bought a good O'day 28' in Fort Lauderdale. $7K. A year later it, and everything but a pair of shorts, my passport and wallet was stolen. At that point my net worth was obviously merely the value of the unused years remaining on my passport.

So I went to stay (for free) at my sister's home to regroup. I saved about $200 a month, plus a small amount from odd jobs.

At the end of a year, I found a 30' Catalina on Ebay. I was in Arizona, boat in Florida. After an all-night telephone session with the owner, I agreed to buy it, sent a small deposit, and booked a flight for 3 days hence. Grand total, including air fare: $2800. My life savings was $3K, so I had money enough to pay almost of a month's dockage.

Since then, I've been able to put $200 - 300 a month into needed items. And 'lots' of sweat equity. The craft is sound, deck and interior painted, and now about a year later, ready for the 400-mile shakedown to the Keys. After that, back to the islands I love -- Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

So let's not hear more from the 'poor me' sort. If you really want a boat, I assure you there are, in any given month, more that a couple perfectly sound sailboats available for under $3,000, right here in the USA.

Yes, you do need to educate yourself so that you know the good from bad, and hopefully have a friend or two that can help out with your search. Don't buy the first boat you see, and for sure don't wait until you can 'afford' one. Life is too short, and the months seem to fly past faster after 65.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Wow! I was not expecting so many poignant replies. Or the poetry.

Or the 'parking' gags... which must be an Aussie thing...

Yeah, I kind of got the tone wrong with my reply, sorry.

But I am blaming you. You started it.

[daletournier]

People need something to do and something to look forward to, thats what a cruising boat gives me.
I'm "parking right now" dreaming, scheming and planning my next boat and next adventure.

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[CaptDHill]

Some of the most wisdom on this site is in this post.

[iyamwhatiyam]

I want to get out of here but my wife keeps wanting to buy more cr*p for the house. Doubting the commitment level.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by iyamwhatiyam

I want to get out of here but my wife keeps wanting to buy more cr*p for the house. Doubting the commitment level.

Yeah, that's not a good sign

On edit, I don't understand the house thing myself, average person I guess feels the self worth is tied to that house, I'm important, cause I have a big house, with all the latest "stuff" that your supposed to have.
Wife took me down that road for awhile, it is after all what your supposed to do.

[a64pilot]

On the money thing, it took me a long wile to finally get it through my head that you could cruise without being wealthy, I had always assumed it would be a six figure yearly expense, I had no idea, just that was my impression.
For along time I figured it was just BS, these people doing it cheap, really weren't, that deferred maintenance would rear it's ugly head and that would be the end of their dream.

I mean it had to be expensive, why else are there literally hundreds of yards full of boats that people had obviously run out of money trying to prepare?

Still don't know the answer, but I have come to believe that it can be done for a lot less than I had originally supposed.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by daletournier

People need something to do and something to look forward to, thats what a cruising boat gives me.
I'm "parking right now" dreaming, scheming and planning my next boat and next adventure.

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Right!

Those of us still working also have something to do and something to look forward to. We're dreaming, scheming and planning our next adventure.

Actually we have many things to look forward to which includes sailing plus many other things..

I remember driving back from racing Beach Cats in Panama City Fl and seeing this monohull anchored along the ICW in the middle of nowhere.

It looked to be quite the slow lifestyle.

On the other side of that, maybe he (she, or they) just needed a break from the daily grind.

It's a tough decision to know exactly when to retire. Each person will have different circumstances. Some retire as soon as they can afford it while others work on because they cannot afford to retire. Others are not sure they can adjust to the slower paced retirement life or do not have enough hobbies to keep them busy and so on......

[a64pilot]

It can be a very slow lifestyle if you chose that, witness the several boats anchored for months at a time in Smack Bayou, Masselina Bayou for those familiar with Panama City Fl.
But it doesn't have to be, my longest passage was I think four days and that can be tiring if the weather gets up.
Weather seems to dominate more than it does for the average person, but I'm sort of used to that as weather dominates flying too.

I think the rate at which one cruises, determines the activity level, some people like to sit, after a couple of days I go stir crazy, which is what used to dominate my concern over retiring, I have to have something to do, to keep me busy, and hobbies usually cost money.

I figure cruising, I will have something to do, fixing the boat.

[Bulawayo]

Now that, Skuzzlebutt, gets my total admiration. Well, done, sir.......it would have been so easy to just to give up. You are made from sterner stuff and deserve a good bout of luck for the next 70 years.

Originally Posted by Skuzzlebutt

Pardon, but I've heard about enough of this not affordable crap.

At 71 years of age, living on about the minimum SS. Won't pay the rent in anything but subsidized housing, which I'm not about to endure.

5 years ago I sold everything that wouldn't fit on a boat, and bought a good O'day 28' in Fort Lauderdale. $7K. A year later it, and everything but a pair of shorts, my passport and wallet was stolen. At that point my net worth was obviously merely the value of the unused years remaining on my passport.

So I went to stay (for free) at my sister's home to regroup. I saved about $200 a month, plus a small amount from odd jobs.

At the end of a year, I found a 30' Catalina on Ebay. I was in Arizona, boat in Florida. After an all-night telephone session with the owner, I agreed to buy it, sent a small deposit, and booked a flight for 3 days hence. Grand total, including air fare: $2800. My life savings was $3K, so I had money enough to pay almost of a month's dockage.

Since then, I've been able to put $200 - 300 a month into needed items. And 'lots' of sweat equity. The craft is sound, deck and interior painted, and now about a year later, ready for the 400-mile shakedown to the Keys. After that, back to the islands I love -- Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

So let's not hear more from the 'poor me' sort. If you really want a boat, I assure you there are, in any given month, more that a couple perfectly sound sailboats available for under $3,000, right here in the USA.

Yes, you do need to educate yourself so that you know the good from bad, and hopefully have a friend or two that can help out with your search. Don't buy the first boat you see, and for sure don't wait until you can 'afford' one. Life is too short, and the months seem to fly past faster after 65.

[zboss]

For most people, retirement is not even a consideration - financially speaking. Its not their fault most of the time, its just the way their life went based on a lifetime of choices and upbringing. To be able to sit around and "be a parker" sounds pretty darn good to them.

We should consider ourselves the lucky ones. Or maybe unlucky because we know how good it can be and when it goes sideways, we lose out more.

Does that sound cocky?

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by zboss

For most people, retirement is not even a consideration - financially speaking. Its not their fault most of the time, its just the way their life went based on a lifetime of choices and upbringing. To be able to sit around and "be a parker" sounds pretty darn good to them.

We should consider ourselves the lucky ones. Or maybe unlucky because we know how good it can be and when it goes sideways, we lose out more.

Does that sound cocky?

No it doesn't sound cocky. It sounds like your the kinda guy that can enjoy a leisurely type of lifestyle.

Others of us though are more driven and not really built for retirement at least not before 70 or so depending on our health

Then there are those of us that got to experience a sort of retirement while working.

I got to sail/race Beach Cats along the Gulf Coast Coast for about 12 years. We sometimes raced 10 months out of the year.

Got heavy into cycling also and did that for 3 years down there and a few up here. Now it's back to sailing, working out and running plus fixing up a house in the country