Getting ready to break away.

[caribnsol]

Bucky, Welcome aboard, I am in similar circumstances, retired in Oct, have my boat, currently trying to get rid of property before heading south, probally land in the cocoa beach/melbourne area. At this point I am going to keep my bike ( I will find someplace to stash it).

Bill

[Charlie]

Bucky and Caribnsol:

I would like to extend to both of you the oppurtunity for free storage of your Harley's. I live in CA so there will be no rust. I have a garage where I can keep them both. I will take good care of them. Just to make sure that they stay in good working order I will exercise the bikes on Sunny days. LOL.

[caribnsol]

Charlie,

I appreciate the offer, another sterling example of the selfless-ness of cruisers !!! Though it would be stowed a tad far for me to do any riding, I will keep it in mind.

Bill

[gonesail]

one of the live aboards at my dock also has a harley in the parking lot that he mostly waxes and polishes but does ride some. find a good marina because many of them have a long waiting list in Florida.

AK

[David Pritchett]

The Endeavor 43 will probably move around a lot when you anchor. My 42 Endeavour was all over the place on the hook due to high freeboard.

[Bucky205]

The more I look at boats the more I wonder as to the ideal liveaboard. I like the center cockpits, seems would alleviate some of the waves over the stern in weather. I can see why they would move somewhat more with a higher center of gravity. I looked at a cat but do not really know the pros and cons of a catamaran.
A friend just bought a bar in Panama City, FL he is offering to let me store the bike and homemade toy hauler there.
The real estate market here is in a downturn. With two houses for sale it might take awhile. I can not afford a 50,000.00 loss on a house. We are looking at all the possibilites to try and find a solution.

[slomotion]

Bucky,

You are all over the place on this. That's neither unusual or even inappropriate. But, you have to start somewhere, and looking at ads/specs or getting tours of various boats is not the place to start. You will only get confused by the endless alternatives.

IMO, the best and easiest (but not cheap) way for you to get started on choosing a boat is to do a one week crewed charter in the BVIs. You want the Caribbean; you started out thinking about a Beneteau; and you can easily charter one in one of the easiest and most fun Caribbean sailing grounds. This will give you a baseline from which you can make meaningful comparisons with everything else.

The bonus is that with a crewed charter you can ask questions of an experienced captain as they occur to you; you can get real sailing/living experience on the kind of boat you might be interested in buying; you will get a compressed view of what cruising is really like; and you are almost guaranteed to have a blast. As I said this not cheap, but it is money well spent.

[Chiroeurope]

Bucky,

If you where in the UK we would say join the nearest Yacht club and that would solve the problem as they would help you get into RYA classes and get your ICC. Not to mention practical time on a sailboat in some wonderful waters that can also be challenging. We would humbly suggest that you also learn French as St Martin (French side) is gearing up their abilities to service boats and from what we have heard (second hand info here) are looking for experienced persons.

On the subject of boats, if that Amel 41 offer from the other member is sound and the boat passes a independent survey, buy it. Amel's have a extremely good rep' over here and even old models go for rather a bit.

Best of luck, The bike, My heart bleeds for you as also a rider (not harley's) and giving that up is a hard thing to do (due to having two little ones at the moment don't have one myself).

Take care.

[Bucky205]

After much looking I think we may have found a boat. She is an Island Packet IP38. I am scared to death. It seems like a big step leaving for another lifestyle. All of the information that has been provided in all of the different threads has been very valuable in making a decision.

[Tempest245]

Congratulations!

I certainly can't fault your choice, it's a fine vessel. It should serve you well for many years.

Tempest