Hi,
The above: "HELP!" will be recognised by any fan of the fab four as being from "Yellow Submarine" (the animation) - the opening of the film.
I hope non here will say "Thanks but we don't need any...".
It is the time where bonuses and other perks are coming up and I can seriously consider getting out of my Hongkers Shoebox in the mid levels advertised as "spacious studio with all mod cons and close public transport" (it is under 30sqm net and 15 minutes from the Mid levels escalator) and
head for one of the
Marinas and get me a
boat to live on. I wanted to do that ever since I saw "Miami Vice"...
Disclosure - I used to sail 420 and 470's and crewed on
racing Omega's in my youth, so I have my sealegs (shows up everytime I'm on a
ferry in Hongkers and it blos up a wee bit) and remember most rules of
navigation.
Ok, not being an HSBC investment banker those 28m Sunseekers, 68' fairline or even 60' bondway liveaboards are out.
Of course, Hongkers is the only place on earth where you move to a 35'
boat to get a lot more living space. Swing morings with
shore power and
water run 3k Kong Bucks a month, sampans are the
water taxis in the typhoon shelters and run 24 hours for small
money, so as a lifestyle it has attractions where 15k get a shoebox studio in an unfashionable part of town.
So my first priority is
liveaboard.
I do want to sedately
skipper around Hongkers on days off if the
weather is fair (who wants to
cruise in rough seas and rain - ugh) as well, so cocktail/fairweather boat and movable party/shag pad are high on the list.
I hope once the boat is sorted I can take a semi-retired consultant role, for less pay.
If I do it would totally hippatitis style (terminally cool) if I could skip the
hong kong winters and
motor down to Boracay or a place like that and spend the off season off shore... That will definitly take a serious costal cruiser, if not
bluewater boat though.
I have kinda narrowed down my options. Being fairly poor either option will be a bit of a
project boat.
1) A 20 to 35 Year old appx. 50' glassfibre
power boat (say 45' - 55').
There are a fair few on the market at prices I can probably armwrestle my bank managers to agree to and if it is a 50' or less I can drive it on the "small" licence which is basically just a theoretical examen. Of course, boats at this age are like teenage girlfriends... Given that I am close on the girls ages, having a boat with a similar character may be too much.
Advantage - those boats usually have solid GFP hulls and if they stood up to HK
weather till now the
deck cores have likely been revisioned or the original yard did a decent job. So the structure should be sound and moderatly low maintance.
Disavantage - I suspect most of the systems will be shot - and to a degree where just replacing all piping and through-hulls and an
engine rebuild will be the least of the
work. And I aways hear that spares for
marine systems are seriously expensive. Like "Marine Oakum" at 5 Bucks per lbs, while "shore grade" oakum runs more 5lbs per buck.
2) A
teak wooden Jonque in need of TLC - usually also 50' - ish.
These can be very
cheap (like 1/10 of a comparable size GFP powerboat) and Hongkers has active shipyards that can repair these at relatively affordable cost. These pack usually 150 HP or so Gardner of Birmingham Diesels that where made into the late 90's to the same pattern from the 30's and can be
rebuild almost infinity and these are working engines, not
racing ones, so they should last.
Ok, you will
skipper along at 7 knots at top rev's, not 27 knots (so Boracay is out - but not cruising around hongkers) but
fuel for a few trips and
engine rebuilds are probably about equal to an oilchange on the big powerboats. And a Jonque of course has seakeeping that makes your average bathtub with a small outboarder look
seaworthy.
Jonques usually are very beamy (an 18' beam on a 52' boat is not unheard of), and with such a small engine,
tanks and engine rooms take less space. So you get loads of space.
Advantages - less than halve of GFP Boat by the time it is revisioned fully (including engine) and floats back on the water. For that it is a bit like an empty flat. No need to install
marine systems, most fair weather +
liveaboard Jonques in Honkers pack domestic aircons, fridges,
washing machines etc.
Having minimal existing "liveaboard" systems we can take advantage of latest trends and for example cover the substantial roof area with flexible
solar cells (at wholesale
price from
china just north of the border a 1KW+ roof is on the cards), add prismatic FiFePo
Batteries as house
batteries, do all
lighting as low voltage LED and so on. Much of this gotten directly in
China and installed
DIY can be ridiculously
cheap (and yes, I know how to do it safe on land even in corrosive industrial conditions that make marine use look a cakewalk).
Disavantages - wooden
hull needs constant maintainance, annual bill on haulout likely 30k vs. 3k on GFP boat. Limited range and speed. You do not want to be out in the open when seas get rough.
Bottom line, the Jonque is definity cheaper (may not need to armwrestle my bank manager) and much of the needed
work to make it livable I could do myself (e.g. electrics,
plumbing, some carpentry, painting etc.) and latest systems can probably put the boat mostly "off grid".
An older cruiser is basically fully fitted and if you treat your engines right can go far. Minor structural problems I can probably fix, as I can
plumbing, electricity and so on. Engine rebuilds are probaby "ben dover and no ky" no matter if they are Caterpiller,
Volvo or
Perkins. Aircon and other systems I don't know enough.
So, HELP!...
If you have in any way experiences that can illuminate the path before me, please share them. In the end you cannot tell me what to spend my
money on. But I'd rather learn from others sucesses (and failures) than from my own.
Greez SSAL