Future Boat Owner

[saxoldies]

Hello everyone,

I had the pleasure to discover sailing last summer, thanks to the Admiral (yes, she already has the title!) who hassled me for years before I finaly agreed to follow her dream. I know, call me stupid, I deserve it. The minute we got on the boat for our ASA 101 class (on a Soling 27), my life changed. We literaly fell in love with sailing, did the ASA 103, sailed everytime we could for the rest of the summer and then got depressed in October when the season ended (we sail on Lake Champlain in Vermont). Since then, we are dreaming and planning to sell everything up here, buy a boat and take off with our new life.

The hardest part now is finding the right boat, we spend hours on websites looking at used boats and everyday we find something we did not see the day before. I have to admit that this forum is of great help in our search. I open the forum every morning while sipping my coffee and look at all the new threads to gather every bit of information. We hope to be able to realize our dream by the end of this year, but we know there is a lot of work to be done to do so.

Thanks to everyone, and keep posting, I need all the infos I can get !

[skipmac]

Similar thing happened to me. Never been sailing, went once and was instantly hooked. Went home, sold everything, moved onto a boat and didn't come home for 2 years.

Unfortunately I can't give you a simple answer to which boat. That would be like trying to tell you which woman to marry. Got to find the right one for you, and at least for boats, your preference may change over time.

If there was one perfect boat then there would only be one model out there for everyone to buy.

At least to start, you have to lay out some basic parameters.

1. Budget (maybe that should be 2 and 3 as well). Be sure to allow plenty for fixing, upgrading, repairing after you buy the boat. Then don't forget what it will cost to live onboard and cruise.

4. Size. Bigger boats have less motion at sea some most people consider bigger more comfortable. Also more room for your stuff. But they cost more to buy, cost more to sail, cost more to dock, cost more to fix. Also, after a certain point a bigger boat can be more difficult to handle. That limit is different for different people. Some think over 30' is too big, some think under 40' is too small. Costs money out of the boat budget but might help you in your process to charter and live on a boat or several different boats for a week or so.

5. Hull type

6. Rig

7. Hull material: wood, glass, steel, etc.

All these points have been covered on the forum, some at great length. Have fun reading.


Skip

[Boracay]

8. Time and energy. Everything, save maybe a 2 year old cream puff, is going to need some sort of fix, upgrade, maintenance, or overhaul. These can take a huge amount of time and can drain your energy.

So as you have gone through points 1 to 7 above, work out how much fixit time you have available, calculate what is needed for each boat, then double it.

If double what is needed is less that what you have available that's one more box ticked.

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Welcome, Sax!
You sound like me a bit. I just took ASA101 this past summer too, in Texas. I had a great time and feel like I can't wait to get a boat. I've been looking around online and researching some of the boats that look interesting. Best of luck to finding your boat.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, saxoldies.

[swagman]

G'Day,
Can I add my welcome and congratualtions on the planned life change...........
I'm sure you'll find your perfect boat, just don't rush it.
Its easy to forget when sailings concerned, its the learning and exploration thats usually more fun than the arrival!
So savour every minute of it - enjoy.
Cheers
JOHN

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you here.
kind regards,