My New Adventure

[Kentth1]

Hello All. I've been reading posts on this forum for several months learning a great deal of the minutiae of cruising, which I thank you for. I am planning on quitting work in the near future and my next adventure in life will be to circumnavigate along the trade routes, starting in the Caribbean or Florida. I love many aspects of the catamarans and my mind is set on getting a used one, possibly out of charter. I am trying to set reasonable expectations of what it will cost me to do this and am hoping I can buy a used 40 ft catamaran and set it up for long passages for $250k....but I would like to sell it when I'm done a few years later without losing more that $50k.

I plan on keeping the boat up to a good standard...ready for more long passages.

Is this reasonable, or do I need a reality check?!

[travellerw]

Your budget of 250K is about right for a 40ft cat between 5-10 years old. If you are carefull and shop well, you could even do it cheaper (like 180K). Especially right now as the market is somewhat soft. 140K for a Lagoon 380 just out of charter is about right, add 40K for a refit and there you go (pretty nice refit too).

As to not loosing more than 50K. Hard to say as its highly dependant on the market. You do have to remember that the money you put in for a refit (electronics ect) will be the biggest lose.

[Eve Carlson]

You might get more replies to posts focused on the 2 specific questions you have: how much a 40-ft, 5-10 year old cat will cost and how much it might devalue in a few years. Using subject lines that reveals the topic might draw more people to read and answer ...e.g., cost for a 40-ft, 5-10 year old, bluewater cat, how much will a 40 ft, 2005-2010 cat devalue over 3 years?

[Catamoron]

Don't mean to toot my own horn, but I did this exact same thing - well, I'm actually doing it now as far as the sailing part goes - the refit took me about a year off and on, and all the costs associated with the purchase and refit are all documented on my blog.

I guess I can post the link here, but if you want a recent example of cost and all that it requires to refit a 42' catamaran, go to my blog and dig around - I also made 5 refit videos of most of what we did. If you've already been there, then disregard this reply.

Catchin' Rays

[monte]

Reasonable and feasible ken. Good luck