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**TrentePieds** · 28-11-2016, 10:48

Be careful that you don't "fall between chairs". Buying a $30K boat, when your cash availability is 50, will leave you with too little of a "precautionary (cash) balance". Stick to 30 feet (that is the "sweet spot” for people who are not rich), buy for 10K, and you'll make it.

Clearly, buying a structurally sound hull and rig, of sound design, is the alpha and omega of buying old, used, cheap boats. What is IN the hull and ON the hull (and spars) is of secondary importance, since deficiencies in those items are something you can do something about yourself. For cheap. If not now, then when you have learned to do it. And you WILL learn :-)

Given that I'm a pre-WWII model, I don't climb masts with the alacrity I used to, my reaction time is not what it once was, and neither is my balance. So I chose to buy for 10 (17 when all was said and done) and re-engine for 15. Now TrentePieds will live to be a hundred, and I can look forward to accompanying her a fair bit along the way, cos I'll have complete reliability, mechanically.

"Sound hull and rig" depends, in part, on where you intend to use the boat. Your statement of possible destinations is all over the map. "Horses for courses" applies also to boats. Norway is NOT Otahiti, and Otahiti is NOT the Mediterranean. And Norway is NOT the coast of British Columbia or Alaska, although they look the same at first glance. The reason that they are not the same, is that the weather regimes are not the same.

Be aware that you cannot buy a used boat and drive it off the dealer's lot like you would a Toyota. A realistic time-frame for a novice to buy a thirty-footer, fit her out and trial her for blue water use would be, say, five years. That means in reality that you'll be doing coastwise cruising for that time, which is just as well if you are a novice, for you will need that time, if you are a novice now, to learn to be a skipper.

You can certainly feed yourself for $650/mnth, though you cannot feed yourself AND the boat within that limit. Just hauling and bottom painting, which you should be doing each year, will cost you $650, possibly $800. Your sacrificial zinks, another $100, and on and on. And on. When you lay your cruising budget be aware that there are members of this forum that I judge, reading between the lines, can spend fifty dollars, or ever five hundred, as casually as you and I would spend five. Being clear-eyed about that obviously becomes important when you cogitate on what recommendation to accept and which ones you should reject.

In brief: You don't need “ModCons”. They are nice to have, but you don't NEED them . My depth sounder is an oldfashioned lead-line. Five bux worth of sinker from the fishing gear and 10 fathoms of cod line. I have a $3K Garmin “chart plotter”, but only because it came with the boat. I don't NEED it, and I seldom use it. My retro-fit GPS from the car comes with me and gives me the co-ordinates anywhere I'll be going, and every fifteen minutes I plot my position on a paper chart. Why do I do that? Because being on passage at 5 knots is, for me, so excruciatingly boring, that I just HAVE to fnd something to do :-)

So concentrate on finding a sound HULL and STANDING RIG suitable for, and located in, the waters you want to ply.

Best of luck – on second thought: Don't rely on luck! :-)

TrentePieds

**Adelie** · 28-11-2016, 11:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ET12

Hi, I need expertise please.

I am person who once lived on a boat for a year in a Hawaii harbor, also a surfer who has traveled the world to surf.

I just inherited money, about $50,000.

I figured instead of buying property (with a location I don't want), why not just sail and surf anywhere in the world.

My destinations in mind are: California, Tahiti, Indonesia, Hawaii, Ireland, Norway, Alaska and more.

What would you recommend I buy, and is it possible to live on a boat work-free with an income of $650 a month?

Where are you currently located?

jheldatksuedu · 28-11-2016, 11:22

Start small and cheap, everything on a smaller boat is cheaper and there is much less to go wrong. With a year of sailing a smaller boat you will then have some knowledge of what you want and what you "need." You can probably get a 30' boat bought and ready to sail for much less than $10k, then the rest of the money can be put away someplace that it will be increasing. You may find that a smaller boat is quite acceptable, and if you do find that you want to upgrade to a larger boat, there is no rush, you already have a boat and you are enjoying life, so you can wait for that super deal instead of the "I've got to find a boat now to get on with this plan."

The amount it takes to live, and also buy depends a lot on who you are and what you capable of doing yourself and what you can endure. I get by on a couple hundred a month without too much trouble, but I am the exception, not the rule. I also ended up with a 45' circumnavigator for $5k. It needed work but it was work I could do. I had 2 smaller boats, 30 and 38, before I found my super great deal.

I retired when I was 50ish, the university where I taught had a department head change from out of state, who didn't know me and my history. My resume wasn't the norm, but I often did what others did not want to do. He decided I had no business being there. So I decided to go sailing.

Cadence · 28-11-2016, 11:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by jheldatksuedu

Start small and cheap, everything on a smaller boat is cheaper and there is much less to go wrong. With a year of sailing a smaller boat you will then have some knowledge of what you want and what you "need." You can probably get a 30' boat bought and ready to sail for much less than $10k, then the rest of the money can be put away someplace that it will be increasing. You may find that a smaller boat is quite acceptable, and if you do find that you want to upgrade to a larger boat, there is no rush, you already have a boat and you are enjoying life, so you can wait for that super deal instead of the "I've got to find a boat now to get on with this plan."

The amount it takes to live, and also buy depends a lot on who you are and what you capable of doing yourself and what you can endure. I get by on a couple hundred a month without too much trouble, but I am the exception, not the rule. I also ended up with a 45' circumnavigator for $5k. It needed work but it was work I could do. I had 2 smaller boats, 30 and 38, before I found my super great deal.

I retired when I was 50ish, the university where I taught had a department head change from out of state, who didn't know me and my history. My resume wasn't the norm, but I often did what others did not want to do. He decided I had no business being there. So I decided to go sailing.

Publish a bio.

jheldatksuedu · 28-11-2016, 12:08

don't need the bio

go to my website, it has links to everything about me and my boats.

Siberianhusky · 28-11-2016, 12:35

That Pearson linked to earlier looks interesting, too bad about the volvo .
LOL even have the camera equipment he is looking for in trade!

jmschmidt · 28-11-2016, 12:41

You could buy a pretty nice car for that.

pdenton · 28-11-2016, 14:24

I just got 40K. bought a Pearson 35 for 25 K. shipshape and Bristol fashion, built to scantlings way better than today's thin hulled vessels engineered right down to the wire. Put in $G chain NG anchors replaced much other gear including 2K Honda generator. 10K's worth of upgrades.
In the past I've had 65 foot gaff rigged cutter and a 42 foot twin diesel trawler.
I wasted countless dollars and countless hours trying to keep up with things which seem to always go wrong.
LESS IS BETTER. $600 bucks is fine. Nobody on their deathbed regrets that they didn't spend more time at the office and more money on the mortgage.
You got only one life to live. Live it.
pdenton

michaelratinter · 28-11-2016, 14:38

I saw a site for a good ocean sailor similar to my boat. Icicle1.com The owners got half way round the world but have been beset by health problems.

brianlara 3 · 28-11-2016, 14:48

ET, many people here have offered excellent advice which would hold you in good stead if taken.
But you haven't told us about your repair/maintainance capabilities.
Do you have electrical, mechanical, practical aptitude.
You asked about "slip living". You'll want seriously deep pockets for that and 650 in't deep pockets. You'll be going ashore in a tender like me.
So, IT, tell us what you can do to keep this boat shipshape.

S/V Alchemy · 28-11-2016, 14:57

First of all, spend the winter reading all sorts of "elements of decent cruiser" books. Google is your friend here. Second, crew for people with better boats than you require. Learn (literally) the ropes. Go places some distance away and see if you're suited to passagemaking. Many aren't. They get seasick, they get bored, they get claustrophobic or afraid of bad weather.

After that, and if you still want to, start shopping. Boats are cheap now. Unfashionable, sound but frill-free boats perfect for a simple sailor are even cheaper. Keeping them at anything but anchor can get pricy. Route accordingly.

Cadence · 28-11-2016, 15:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by jheldatksuedu

don't need the bio

go to my website, it has links to everything about me and my boats.

I was being curt!

Scout 30 · 28-11-2016, 15:08

Check out this thread:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ds-147098.html

**Don C L** · 28-11-2016, 15:25

I'll throw something else in. Go only as high as $20K for the boat itself and think about a place you'd like to be and look for boats for sale that are already there. That way you don't have to do a lot of learning/sailing before you start surfing. You'll be able to do both at the same time. Perhaps Baja or coastal Mexico? There are good deals to be found in places where folks sailed there and then decided it wasn't for them, or they don't want to sail home.