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Old 18-11-2016, 02:39   #1
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New Adventure, the beginning.

The idea here is to share our beginning into sailing and living aboard.
So a few things to know, we are new to sailing and to the idea of living aboard. We area family of four Americans and live in Dubai,UAE, which is pretty cool.

So far we have being looking at the very limited catamarans here. Which is a 2013 Leopard 48?, 2013 Lagoon 380 and 2007 Lagoon 440. We have been looking on line at Bali and others. I use USAA for banking. I applied for a loan but they do not like live aboard and will not loan without having previous history with a 350k loan. credit history is good but my largest loan has been 120k. It would also require survey and be registered with the U.S Coast Guard. Both are good things but also something to over come.
Fun fact: I bought my house and also own a separate 8 acres. But when I tried to buy a smaller cheaper home the joins our 8 acres, I was turned down. I was told I could only receive a loan for More than my current home! So can not get 75k but I can get one for 200k! WHAT!? And now I cant get 350k even with a job that pays 2 times what I had, Go figure.
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Old 20-11-2016, 08:27   #2
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

Try Navy Federal Credit Union.
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Old 03-12-2016, 00:31   #3
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

Thanks for the lead, we will contact them and see what happens. We have decided to wait till after December 6th to apply.
In the mean time the wife and I will take open water dive lessons. This is just another step in the boat living plan. Lessons are paid for and we took advantage of a 45% off sale! We thought we would buy a few things that we did not want to rent, like a snorkel... What we got was two full kits. Fins, wet suits, Aqualung Pearl and ProHD BCDs, gloves, Aqualung Core regulators and triple gauge set, mask and flex snorkel. We went middle of the road for everything and this brand was all they carried.
We could have rented and tried stuff out which is what I would normally do. But at almost half off we just committed and time will tell.
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Old 03-12-2016, 07:36   #4
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

NFCU have a branch in Bahrain on the Navy base. I use to use it when I was working for Aramco in Saudi.
As far a Survey, that's goes without saying for a $300,000 investment. Don't really know the benefit of documenting with USCG, but it doesn't cost much, so no big deal.
I would recommend you look for a boat in the Caribbean or Florida. You could get an ex - charter pretty cheaply. You could have it delivered to Dubai. Leopards and Lagoons are both well built Cats. I have chartered the leopard a few times and a buddy owns a Lagoon and is very happy with it.
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Old 19-12-2016, 02:13   #5
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

Sharing our first open water dive pics. Visibility was poor (maybe 6ft max) but we were able to go down to 7 meters. Next up is our last 2 dives in Fujairah, which we've heard is great for marine life.


Old habits die hard...I wasn't trying to end the dive.
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Old 12-02-2017, 21:06   #6
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

Hey everyone, here's a quick update.

We're still looking for a catamaran. If I post a location and the name of the boat, would you guys be able to give an opinion on it?

We became Open Water certified!

The wife and I have completed a few dives by ourselves and we'll
be starting the Advanced Open Water course soon.

Last weekend we made it to the Red Bull Air Race and at the end of this month we'll be heading to the Dubai International Boat Show.
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Old 12-02-2017, 21:30   #7
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

FYI never tell the bank you will be living aboard. If you are going to keep your house just tell them the boat is a second home. We went through a yacht mortgage broker and were very pleased with the results. Our loan is with Suntrust and we were able to get a 20yr loan for less than 4%. Considered paying cash but with money that cheap decided to finance. Good luck in your search!

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Old 24-02-2017, 16:09   #8
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

You've a cool idea! that's really worth to spend some money for rent yacht. During my last vacation in Dubai I was renting a boat in Dubai Marina for several days. I've no regrettes, relaxed with the whole family. And the price is acceptable, if rent yacht from the owners, not from the intermediaries. I would advise https://charterclick.com/, here all of the boats are exposed and can be booked online or payed, not overpaying nothing
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Old 04-03-2017, 03:12   #9
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

We attended the Dubai Boat Show this week. Saw some neat stuff but it wasn't what we were expecting.

We didn't get to see any catamarans so that was kind of a bummer nor did we get to prance up on anyone's Mega Yacht.

However, there was some really cool things to view. We saw an underwater drone, 3 man Titan mini sub, Flir setups, wind measuring tools that plug into your phone or tablet, and a gyroscopic stabilizer for boats as small as 30ft.

I'll pull some pictures off the go pro to share.
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Old 04-03-2017, 03:38   #10
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Re: New Adventure, the beginning.

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, MarkL.
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