Hello! From a future retiree & sailor...

[Donny Bahama]

Cheers, everyone! I'm Donny and my wife is Krista. We've decided that when we retire (in 15 years, give or take), we're going to live aboard a boat. We hope to buy that boat in the next 5 years or so and spend the next 10 fixing it up. (The kind of boat we'll be able to afford, it'll probably take us that long!)

It would be our second boat. The first was a 24' Bristol Corsair that was lovingly restored by a former sailing instructor for the U.S. Navy. We loved that boat dearly, though most of the time we spent on it was at the dock. (I wasn't very good at sailing - but that's what LESSONS are for, right?!)

As it stands now, our plan is to spend the next 5 years saving every spare dollar we can, then buy the best boat (that's big enough to comfortably live aboard for the duration of our golden years) we can afford with what little we'll have, and dock it down in Mexico while we're restoring it. We're in Southern Arizona, south of Tucson, a little less than 4 hours from Puerto Penasco/"Rocky Point" - close enough to go down for long weekends and 1-2 week vacations where we'll get as much done as we can before heading back home, exhausted but with a sense of accomplishment. Once she's all fixed up, we hope to make La Paz or Loreto our home port.

I have a TON of questions about what to look for, what to watch out for, and how much it's all going to cost but I'll post separate topics for those.

Thanks in advance for your general thoughts on what I've said so far. I look forward to meeting new friends and I hope to find a mentor or two to take me under their wing!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Donny & Krista.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

Cheers, everyone! I'm Donny and my wife is Krista. We've decided that when we retire (in 15 years, give or take), we're going to live aboard a boat. We hope to buy that boat in the next 5 years or so and spend the next 10 fixing it up. (The kind of boat we'll be able to afford, it'll probably take us that long!)

It would be our second boat. The first was a 24' Bristol Corsair that was lovingly restored by a former sailing instructor for the U.S. Navy. We loved that boat dearly, though most of the time we spent on it was at the dock. (I wasn't very good at sailing - but that's what LESSONS are for, right?!)

As it stands now, our plan is to spend the next 5 years saving every spare dollar we can, then buy the best boat (that's big enough to comfortably live aboard for the duration of our golden years) we can afford with what little we'll have, and dock it down in Mexico while we're restoring it. We're in Southern Arizona, south of Tucson, a little less than 4 hours from Puerto Penasco/"Rocky Point" - close enough to go down for long weekends and 1-2 week vacations where we'll get as much done as we can before heading back home, exhausted but with a sense of accomplishment. Once she's all fixed up, we hope to make La Paz or Loreto our home port.

I have a TON of questions about what to look for, what to watch out for, and how much it's all going to cost but I'll post separate topics for those.

Thanks in advance for your general thoughts on what I've said so far. I look forward to meeting new friends and I hope to find a mentor or two to take me under their wing!

Hey Donny!! Welcome to the forum, and for saying such nice things about the Bristol.

So glad to hear you're planning to join the retired old farts cruising club. We'll be right out there with you.

You'll find a wealth of knowledge and support here on the forum, as well as a few devil's advocates, but even they will give you good points to consider.

Best of luck with your search for the right boat. I emailed you last night with our current contact info. Looking forward to seeing you around here on the forum, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us. God knows we've been down this road a few times. Oh...wait...we're on this road NOW.

[skipmac]

Hi Donny and welcome to the forum. By the way, are you related to Tommy?

Overall a good idea and similar to my plan but I do have some recommendations based on my experiences.

First, keeping a boat a long way from where you live is a pain. Believe me, I've done it a couple of times (I'm a slow learner, once wasn't enough). Trying to work on a boat a long way from where you live is a huge pain. If you plan to live on the boat while trying to do a major overhaul that is a humongous pain.

I have spent the last five years restoring a 1984 Pearson. Even though I live in Florida I'm in the middle of the state and about 2 hours from any salt water and over an hour from the nearest deep water marina. So I had my boat trucked to my property just outside of town about 15 minutes away and never regretted that decision. I can go by after work in the evenings to get a little work done. I have easy access to all my tools and parts at home. If I discover I cannot proceed on a project because I need a metric, left handed widget I can just go home and order one and only lose a half hour driving back and forth instead of a whole weekend.

Depending on the size of the boat it might not be that expensive to haul it to AZ. When you add up the costs of driving back and forth, the extra time you will have to work on the boat because it's closer to home and all the other benefits it will be worth it.

Now you just have to figure out what boat to buy.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Hi Donny and welcome to the forum. By the way, are you related to Tommy?

Overall a good idea and similar to my plan but I do have some recommendations based on my experiences.

First, keeping a boat a long way from where you live is a pain. Believe me, I've done it a couple of times (I'm a slow learner, once wasn't enough). Trying to work on a boat a long way from where you live is a huge pain. If you plan to live on the boat while trying to do a major overhaul that is a humongous pain.

I'm going to second this one, Donny. Our boat is only an hour and a half away (and two expensive toll bridges) and it has seriously impacted the amount of work we have been able to accomplish on it this past year. Two trips down every weekend is $30 in tolls and 6 hours of drive time (51 miles each way, 204 miles per weekend, in traffic). Over the course of a month, $120 in tolls plus roughly another $70 in gas and 24 hours spent driving back and forth. More expensive and more time wasted on long weekends and vacations.

The situation was unavoidable for us because the boat was already in this boat yard with a non-functioning engine and it served our interest to let them fix it. They have been giving us free storage while they have been working on the engine so that has worked to sort of balance out the equation money wise, but in no way makes up for the time we waste on the road. And we couldn't make use of those long summer evenings to run over and do a little this or that.

As soon as our engine is reinstalled we will be moving the boat near to home and expect the work to go at a much quicker pace after that.

You may also run the risk of losing interest in the project not because of the project itself but because of the commute.

[oldragbaggers]

I might also suggest that leaving a boat that you can't visit often sitting in the hot Mexico sun all year will probably create more maintenance than you can keep up with which will hinder your progress in the refit/renovation.

You may be way better off in the long run to take all the money you would spend commuting to Mexico, add it to the money you would spend fixing up the boat, stick it in the boat fund for a couple of additional years and buy a boat that doesn't need as much work closer to the time that you're actually ready to use it.

I realize it is the height of hypocrisy for me, of all people, to suggest such a thing, as we are the King and Queen Suckers of Old Derelict Boats. But I would like to think that we have finally seen the light as I swear (every weekend) that this is the last project boat I will do, and if I had it to do over I probably wouldn't be doing this one.

As hard as it may be to believe, Donny, the odds are extremely high that you won't save any money by renovating an old project boat, and in fact given your logistical situation it will probably cost you a lot more in the long run than buying the same model boat (whatever that might be) in ready to go condition. The only way I see it working out to your advantage is if you were storing the boat on your property for free, protected, and always accessible. Then you might stand a chance of coming out ahead.

We spent twice as much on the Bristol than what we sold it to you for. So think about that....we could have had a completely rebuilt, ready to sail boat for half the money without investing 2 years of our time if we had spent more at the outset and looked for one that someone else had done the work on or that had been properly maintained from the outset. Or spent the same amount that the Bristol cost us in the end and bought a newer and/or bigger boat that didn't need quite so much work.

We chalk it up to education, and also to the fact that we enjoy the work, but make no mistake, generally speaking it's not a way to save money.