Hello Everyone

[superhotmuffin]

Hi, my name is Michael. I'm into macrame, domestic grime-fighting and crop-circling, but only in the summers when the crops are at their most abundant to circle. Well kinda, but actually, to make a long story short, I'm going to give up the land lubber life to become a live-aboard ... something. Unfortunately, I live in Denver, don't have a boat-load of money (pun intended??) and it makes things sort of logistically umm difficult. I'm planning on taking a small backpack and my Visa card and heading ?somewhere? to look for a project boat that's sailable or can stay put for reasonable slip fees while I "elbow-grease and duct tape it into submission." I've been trolling eBay, CL,etc around the upper Chesapeake and Tampa/St. Pete, without much luck. So, I figured I'd introduce myself here and see what happens. I'd love to hear from anyone with similar experiences or some good jokes. Looking forward. Onward 'n upward.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Michael.

[El Pinguino]

G'day Michael, welcome , etc.

Colorado? Am I imagining it or have we been getting quite a few people from Colorado recently wanting to buy a boat and 'live the dream'?

I guess it is some sort of altitude sickness

Seriously ... buena suerte y buena fortuna....

[superhotmuffin]

Yes it's true, everyone in Colorado is "high" in more ways than one If you happen to know any of these Coloradoans, I'd like to ask them some questions.

[Caribbeachbum]

I've just returned home from a trip to Denver. We stayed downtown, played pool at Tarantula, ate at an awesome German restaurant (Rhein Haus), watched the Rockies crush the Cubs, and had breakfast at Sam's. What a fantastic city you live in!

You can find a perfectly serviceable, < 30' yacht for under $10K. So long as you understand its limitations and are OK with the lack of elbow room, you can spend the rest of your life sailing from place to place and never see it all, and that's without even crossing any oceans.

Here's a Caliber that you could cross oceans in: Caliber 28, St. Pete. A bit over the 10K budget, but worth it. And they'll take less, that's just the ask price.

Good luck!

[Caribbeachbum]

Also, if budget is a problem, please read this awesome post by Skuzzlebutt: GO NOW.

[superhotmuffin]

Thanks for the welcomes and advice. After consuming the proper number of PBRs (for sustenance) and using at least 3 brain cells, I believe that in order to make this happen I'm going to have to go to where the boats are. My concern was that I'd go somewhere, blow all my dough on crack motels and rental cars, not find anything and have to start over. But I think trying to do this remotely isn't going to work. My couple ideas are to try the upper Chesapeake, as a lot of posts I see seem to be between Baltimore-ish to Toms R. In Jersey, which is all of about 150 miles apart - just don't want to run out of summer weather elbow-greasing & duct-taping. The other idea is Tampa/St. Pete - warm all year, but less dense so less opportunities. That's it, down to two brain cells. Goodnight.

[Don C L]

Welcome here and good luck. No ideas of heading west? One thing, at least where I am, some marinas have length restrictions on liveaboards. Something to watch for. If you don't have experience and tools and cash for materials, and time to work, try to avoid a fixer-upper at all costs! The person who fixes up a boat spends a fortune, the person who buys that fixed-up boat gets a bargain. Look for a boat that needs only cosmetic work. Many moons ago I had a Columbia 24 I lived aboard off and on, but that was in my early 20s. Now I'd definitely need all of my 29 feet, if I were single... older classics that have been fixed up can be really good deals sometimes! They were built well to begin with.