Hello All.

[Mr Julius]

Hello everyone. I just joined today and wow. I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. Lots of great questions and comments. A wealth of information. I might be up all night reading! My plans are to buy a boat within 2 years to live on and eventually sail on long cruises. I'm glad to be here. It might take me a bit to get up to speed as far as posting rules, etc, so bear with me please.

Mr Julius

[Don C L]

Well Welcome here! The more you can tell everyone about your level of experience and preferences, the better the advice you'll get! We all started out sailing in some dinghy somewhere, so don't worry about asking what you might think are foolish questions! What kind of boat are you thinking of?

[JPA Cate]

Yes, WELCOME ABOARD,

As Don mentioned above, the more you tell us, the better aid we can be. There are people from many nations represented here, with different weather and sailing conditions, so telling us approximately where you are is also useful.

If you want to learn about a poster, whatever they put in their profile you can access by clicking on their avatar.

Ann

[Mr Julius]

Hello Don and Ann,
Thanks for the tips. Well, I'm 53 years old, I live in Southern California, (Orange County) no children, divorced 14 years, and currently single. I ride a Kawasaki Vulcan 900 pretty much on a daily basis and I also have a Aprillia 500ie scooter. (Hey, it gets 62 mph! LOL) I plan on selling my condo and buying a live aboard sailboat. After I buy my boat, my mortgage, property taxes, and my monthly $370 HOA fee will all go away. I'm looking to spend no more than 225k for my boat. I like the Hanse boats (made in Germany) I'm interested in the 345, 385, or the 415. The price will determine what length of boat I buy. I plan on living/sailing alone unless I get lucky and find a female companion that doesn't have a problem with the live aboard lifestyle. I sailed quite a bit when I was younger and have cruised out to Catalina, Anacapa, and Santa Cruz Islands off the California coast. We'll, that's it for now. I probably said too much, but o well. Should I have posted this info in the section where I first introduced myself? I'm still figuring all of this out. Let me know if I need to copy and paste this somewhere else. Thanks!

Mr Julius (My first name is Mark)

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Mark.

[Waterway Guide]

Welcome aboard, Mr. Julius!

[JPA Cate]

Mark,

Welcome aboard, again. Thanks for the fill about yourself and your plans. Jim has always bought previously owned boats, due to the costs of commissioning a new one properly, a desire to let someone else stand the first few years depreciation, and so forth. So, good luck with your plans.

Ann

[Don C L]

Hi Mark, you will get a lot of great advice on the boat purchase here, but I was also curious about where you'd like to base yourself. If you want to return to the Channel Islands I know there are slips available in Ventura and Channel Islands right now... you probably know of the cost of getting a slip in Santa Barbara, but it sure is a nice place to live as a liveaboard. You might look into boats available there with their slips. Now if Catalina is your preference then you probably know of those harbors closer to you. The reason I say this is that sometimes there can be a really great boat right under your nose in a nearby harbor that pops up for sale...at least that happened for me. You have a pretty hefty budget, at least compared to me!, so you are sure to find a very nice boat! Are you thinking of buying a brand new boat?