Want To Buy: Looking for Advice/Suggestions for family of 4

[bergmd]

It has been my families goal to purchase a catamaran and sail with our two kids for a couple years. I've been saving up for this and educating myself about all the expenses and problems. We have $180k in the bank and will have another $50k in a few months. We both work remotely and will have aprox. $9k per month income during our travels on the boat. We are going to keep our home in Wisconsin for returning during summer months.

Ideally we would like to host other families/friends, during the winter months, to maintain the kids social connections(and ours) and maybe offset a few of the expenses.

What should our budget be for a boat that will sleep 8 or more? Most boats , that do not need $20k refits/upgrades, are out of our price range. If we host people, we want them to feel comfortable and safe on what ever we get.

Should we ditch the catamaran/hosting idea, and just get an affordable($80k) monohull?

I'd love to get some input or suggestions from this amazing community.

If you know of any boats, I'd love to get a PM from you.

Thanks In Advance,
Troy

[TheOffice]

you should probably look at a boat that was chartered. They will have the max number of cabins (but you will be sacrificing an owner's suite). Beware of engine hours and standing rigging and sails and be sure to get a very good surveyor. A cat will offer more privacy but it sails much differently than a mono, so charter one before you buy.

[bensolomon]

My experience is that less people than you think will ever come visit you (like none). Therefore, buy the boat you love, be it mono or cat, for you and your family.

Each vessel has its merits, and the mono vs cat discussion has been discussed ad nauseum here and everywhere on the net. You should be able to find info on that part.

Best of luck on the cruising life!!

[BenBowSirocco]

I was told a rule of thumb years ago and also think it is mentioned in Beth Leonards excellent "Voyagers Handbook". Whatever the boat costs: make sure you leave another 60% of that for upgrades/changes to suit your needs in the first couple years. This has turned out true of both sailboats my wife and I have owned.

Another thing I picked up from the manager of a prominent boat yard in Ft. Lauderdale: boats cost 20% of their value per year to maintain.

Now these are not hard facts, but anecdotal measures to guide your budget. But I agree with Ben, get the boat that is right for YOU and your family. Because you and your family will need to handle, maintain, and live on it. Everyone else is just a tourist happy to be doing something new.

Last but not least: boats are exponential.
A 40ft boat is a very differently sized animal than a 50ft boat. Many highly experienced lifelong cruisers will tell you, bigger is not always better.

My wife and I helped a family buy a boat recently and the most helpful thing for everyone was that we sat down and made a three column chart: Must Have, Nice to Have, Can't Have.

Good luck! Honestly, the boat is in some ways the hardest part of the entire process of the transition because they are very unique and take a lot of inexperienced guessing. So stay positive and keep an honest priority list.

[Tillsbury]

A boat that only needs $20k spending on it is called “absolutely ready to go” and is likely to be out of your budget. Plan on spending 60-70% of your capital budget at most and the rest on fixing it over the first year.

I also agree that people rarely come to visit, and if they do in warm climates kids are usually happy on deck or in the cockpit. You don’t need spare cabins. The smaller the boat you buy the better it will be and the less it will cost to fix.

Personally I’d buy the newest monohull I could that sleeps the family for 150k, and save the other 80 for a bit of fixing up and unexpected expenses. But if you’re not sure that your other half is keen on sailing you might have to go catamaran, which would mean going older for the money. Older cats are not at all like the shiny spacious ones you see on YouTube.

Make sure you spend a week with your family aboard both before you commit to one or the other.

[akprb]

Go cat.

You can find an older one in decent condition and your monthly 9K is plenty.

Buy as much waterline as you can afford.

[Whosails]

If you are planning to host for any kind of payment, you must have a Captains License. A few people have landed in jail in foreign countries doing that. Even a bottle of wine is considered payment in some places.

[bergmd]

Great points everyone. My dream is to be on a catamaran. It's good to hear the reality that friends don't visit often. If they do, I'd feel guilty charging them any ways.

So I think my best decision is to find an older cat that has a decent cockpit family area. That's pretty hard to find. If anyone sees anything worth a look, let me know.

[bergmd]

Originally Posted by TheOffice

you should probably look at a boat that was chartered. They will have the max number of cabins (but you will be sacrificing an owner's suite). Beware of engine hours and standing rigging and sails and be sure to get a very good surveyor. A cat will offer more privacy but it sails much differently than a mono, so charter one before you buy.

I'm nervous about buying a charter boat. Why are they taking it out of charter? Most I've seen require major $80k+ refits and need to be converted to a full time live aboard.

[TheOffice]

Most charter boats start with a 5 year contract. The owner can move the boat to another company, sell it or keep it. Yes, it will require a refit, but 80k seems high to me.

[jragman8]

Try Yacht World for a Prout 50. Has everything you want for a price you can afford. Ready to sail.

[catlife]

While I agree with a lot of what's been said, a lot will depend on your family's lifestyle.
We have lived aboard a cat for many years and still get lots of company. A catamaran offers a much more comfortable lifestyle for your family in general, but definitely with guests.
There are older catamarans out there that can be bought within your budget. They may not be as pretty as the newer ones, but if they are safe and sail well, and are within your budget, cosmetics aren't so important. We know lots of families cruising comfortably within the budget you outline, as long as you don't spend your time at dock and eat out a lot.
As it happens, our boat is up for sale, and is ready for cruising. We have cruised ourselves in the Bahamas full time for over 15 years, and averaged 12 weeks of company a year. If you want to take a look, the boat name is Dances with Dolphins, and its up for sale in Fort Pierce (currently on the hard for hurricane season) at $175,000.

Good luck with your adventure whatever you decide to do.

[KP44]

Originally Posted by bensolomon

My experience is that less people than you think will ever come visit you (like none). Therefore, buy the boat you love, be it mono or cat, for you and your family.

Each vessel has its merits, and the mono vs cat discussion has been discussed ad nauseum here and everywhere on the net. You should be able to find info on that part.

This is the most sage advice I have seen. Buy the boat with only yourself and your own needs in mind.

[uweboerst]

We are a family of five and have lived on our boat for many months at a time, when we sailed America’s Great Loop and last year we sailed to the Bahamas for four months. Our experience is that a catamaran is the right boat when you have kids. We play a lot of board games, cook, do crafts, do homework, all while sailing to our next destination. Life does not stop on a catamaran like it does on a monohull, when its under sail.

We have two catamarans, a Gemini and a Lagoon 47. The Lagoon we’ve just listed on yacht world - she was the ideal boat for us, as long as our two oldest children were with us on the boat and the size of the Lagoon allowed our older kids to bring their friends on trips. She sleeps eight people in four cabins and has four heads. When you live on your boat it’s important that everyone has their own little space. The Lagoon has a great saloon. We put a projecting screen above the sliding door, because a TV screen takes up too much space and connected our phone to the projector and radio system for surround sound to create our own little home cinema.

For us it was important that our galley has a fridge and separate freezer, and that both run on solar power. And we put a washing machine on our lagoon which is powered by the generator. When we sailed the Bahamas for four months, we only stopped twice in marinas to get diesel. We sailed probably 85% of the way from Florida to the ABACOS, to Eleuthera and the Exumas. The older model of the lagoon is an incredible fast sailboat. It’s quite addictive.

https://youtu.be/1r6PG1QznOE

[dakno]

Cat or Mono, you will wear yourself out with that. Best to do a sunset sail or charter on each. As far as maintenance cost, newer boats have much lower cost than vintage. I bought a 2008 model 41' mono in 2015 lightly used for $160k. In the 4 years since my total outlay not counting dockage is approx. $21,000...this includes new prop, sail, ac, batteries, 3 thruhulls, macerator, +misc. I also spent $5k on a full cockpit enclosure, $3k on davits, 1k on boom tents& awnings. The point is that 20% of boat cost annuallyfor maintenance is way off for a recent vintage boat. In my case 20% annual would equal 32k yearly x 4 =$128k...My actual outlay was $31,000 <>. Newer is better unless you find a boat that has had everything replaced/updated.