What items can/should I stockpile?

[Rigdaddy]

Originally Posted by meatservo

I would save/invest as much money as possible. Good to have a nice financial cushion behind you when you hit the water full time...

Technology changes so fast that what you buy today will be worthless in a few years time.


meatservo

One more for the stockpile cash sentiment. If you are good at finding "great deals" now, you'll have more to spend on those deals after you get your boat. Invest in skills.

[SeeMonstrEd]

Education and experience are what you should be collecting and as others have said sell as much as you can of things you won't need like furniture and toys like ATVs, Flat screen TVs, and Christmas decorations.

After we bought the boat and moved aboard it took us a year to sell or throw away all the stuff we did not need and didn't have room for.

Get training on maintaining diesel engines, outboard engines, marine heads, and marine electrical systems. If you are buying a used boat you are going to spend lots of time and money working on these things. Join a sailing club and offer to help maintain their boats. The experience will save you big $$$$$.

Go through all your tools and organize, try to only keep one of everything, maybe two of really useful things like a Cresent wrenches and vise grips. Put your tools in bags. Bags seem to store the best in tight places on a boat. Make sure they are all well oiled to prevent rust. WD-40 works good, just a light film like how you store guns.

Capt Ed
SV Serenity

[KP44]

We have a ton of great stuff to get rid of as we move aboard. Really... do not buy anything past a set of decent hand tools.
If you can manage it, get a small sailboat and use it for overnight trips to get familiar with conditions and people. But know that even a small sailboat is a money pit and you will never recover what you invest into it. For less expensive experience, you might volunteer as crew or charter a boat every season.

[seasick]

I second grantmc's remark. Stock pile your knowledge base. Depending on your cruising aspirations, I recommend taking classes in celestial navigation, emergency medical, diesel mechanicing basics, seamanship and coastal navigation skills, sail repair amiteur radio, etc etc. Regardless the distances you hope to cover, stock pile your cash reserves and your on-water experience.

[Paul L]

Get a good knife and practice not losing it over 7 years (and not having TSA take it away).

Get some splicing tools and learn to splice the different types of line.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by MNGator

On my last thread regarding the question of whether or not to buy my ultimate cruising cat now, or wait until I get closer to departure, I have decided to wait. But that has opened up a new line of thought...

What items can I begin purchasing now that will ultimately be useful in 7-10 years when I buy a 7-10 year old cat? For example, I would think lines, anchor chain, an anchor would be items that stored properly will be pretty standard on the type of boat I will be looking for. I would think solar, electronics and safety equipment would be better waiting as I would want to take advantage of newer technology. Thoughts? What items could be purchased early when I come across great deals?

Invest the money.

[MNGator]

Thanks all, excellent advice. Makes complete sense to not buy anything until I have the boat.

[Sea7King]

At least 1 Impeller for each pump, belts for each engine and function and fuel line hose enough to span any distance you currently have.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by MNGator

I am however adept at finding deals and was wondering if there were some items that could be bought earlier, if not so be it. .

Equipment is not an investment.

Get every dollar you can and stick it in quality investments. Quality goes up.
Junk in the garage goes down.

[Stu Jackson]

I usually read ALL of the previous posts. Not this time. Deliberately.

In what other sport/pastime/endeavor/job/life experience would one EVER ask "What should i do for 7-10 years down the road?"

Geez, even Joe Stalin only did five year plans.

C'mon, WADR, get real.

I bought my boat 18 years ago. I didn't know then in 1998 that in 2016 I was going to move to Canada to support my now 95 year old father-in-law, which gave me the "opportunity of a lifetime" to sail my boat from San Francisco to Vancouver Island with my son.

Yeah, I'd stocked a lot of spare oil & fuel filters. Didn't use any in 165+ hours of motoring 850 nm up the coast!!!

We had a great time.

Completely unplanned.

Sometimes people over plan or over think or over obsess.

Relax.

Enjoy.

READ, read, read. Then make up your own mind.

Good luck, nice to have a future, but live for NOW.

[Lambretta]

Great advice from all above
I do get a sense that you are keen to get some "stuff" as it will start you on your path to your dream! So the splicing tools is a great idea and will not be a waste of money and I cant see the "tech" changing on splicing tools over the next 7 years

You may wish to buy some good sailing gear if you plan to increase your sailing skills over this time, so a good pair of boat shoes, and wet weather gear (not sure where you will be sailing and in what conditions) and maybe a good inflatable lifevest/harness (like a Spinlock) as you might get some use from this (hopefully only wearing it but not going overboard to trigger it). If you are good at sourcing deals ..... a good (read very good!!) quality pair of binoculars could be something you could research and find a deal on over the coming years and you should get some good use out of them in the interim

[clownfishsydney]

I would not buy anything until within a year at the most of buying the yacht. You have no idea what might need replacing or what might come with the boat (eg spare anchor, spares etc). The only things I could consider this far out would be wet weather gear if you are planning to do some sailing in the meantime, your own lifejacket etc.

[barnakiel]

Keeping money does not mean stockpiling money. Off course. Save it, invest it, make it work for you so that you can set free sooner. This is probably the best use of any free floating money in between now and then.

Then again, having read the posts I must admit some items make perfect sense. E.g. a quality marine chronometer watch is a nice to have and every time you look at it you will keep on dreaming (hopefully, of the deep blue seas).

https://www.omegawatches.com/images/..._SLN_Large.jpg

https://www.omegawatches.com/images/...VueC_Large.jpg

I mean, a token.

Why not.

b.

[mrlee]

I did exactly what you are thinking about but in a shorter 3 year window...I found that a lot of things I thought I'd want/like/need came with the boat. I had made a switch panel(10 switches) for another smaller boat I'd bought only to find it of great use. Fuses,are a good thing as well...I changed/installed all new ones. All the tinned wire I found cheap and stockpiled was also a great thing. I bought colors nobody wanted cheap...painted some and used a lot of brown and green-got em really cheap. Water and macerator pumps I'd bought on sale or on clearance are now spares.
New sheets and halyards are not a bad thing...I went extra big with mine and that was a very good investment when I found a deal. If you are going to refit her you'll need tools...if you don't have them that would be a great investment. I bought a Harbor Freight table saw, sliding compound miter saw and a Craftsman router with table and all were great for my needs...I am not a professional carpenter nor do I want to be so be frugal and spend on the boat...
I did buy life vest/suspender with harness and all safety gear as I wanted new for this...
Good luck in your endeavor...

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Lambretta

Great advice from all above
I do get a sense that you are keen to get some "stuff" as it will start you on your path to your dream! So the splicing tools is a great idea and will not be a waste of money and I cant see the "tech" changing on splicing tools over the next 7 years

You may wish to buy some good sailing gear if you plan to increase your sailing skills over this time, so a good pair of boat shoes, and wet weather gear (not sure where you will be sailing and in what conditions) and maybe a good inflatable lifevest/harness (like a Spinlock) as you might get some use from this (hopefully only wearing it but not going overboard to trigger it). If you are good at sourcing deals ..... a good (read very good!!) quality pair of binoculars could be something you could research and find a deal on over the coming years and you should get some good use out of them in the interim

Get a spool of braded line to go with the splicing tools. I may take 7 years of practice the do a good splice.