Future:
Do not be put off by the "pros and cons" that inevitably and inexorable follows a first posts such as yours. Just be realistic about what you are doing. Perhaps the following will help. I'm predicating it on the Watkins that someone referred to, but it applies to pretty much any entry level boat. Be realistic. Think your plan through ON YOUR OWN. Take what you are told in brief e-mails on HolyMotherNet (including this one) with huge doses of salt!
Two grand is fine as an entry fee. For that amount you will NOT find, in your words "anything too nice". But that doesn't matter. Two grand is hardly any more than the
price of two tickets to a serious pop-concert, so just consider it the ticket
price and forget about it. The
hull will float. That's all you need for now.
It's only a baby boat. There are no complicated systems and that is GOOD. There shouldn't BE complicated systems in an entry-level boat. It should be innocent of new-fangled doo-dads of any kind. This particular one (the Watkins) has been injured by having
wheel steering installed rather than being tiller-steered, but if the boat has a
mainsail and a
jib that aren't quite torn to rags, you'll be on your way.
A good
cleaning and scrubbing, and you and your sleeping bags can move in and
live aboard. It'll be like camping, but what else can you expect for two grand what with camping
fees in national parks being fifty buxanight?
You now have a choice: If you want to
live aboard you pretty much have to do so in one of the
marinas that will even ACCEPT live-aboarders. That'll cost you, say, $250/month in moorage
fees. Plus about a grand a year in mandatory
insurance. Consider that
cheap storage for the boat, and the accommodation it affords being "free" rent thrown in. If you're gonna live ashore, you have the choice of paying the moorage at the marina, or
buying a
trailer that will carry the boat, and parking it in your driveway. IF you own the property, or if your landlord will let you. The
trailer will cost four or five grand, and best you have a 250-series pick-up truck to haul it with. You'll need a vehicle that heavy to stay within the law.
If you are in a marina, and the
engine doesn't work, you'll need to hang an
outboard on the transom, both because the marina moorage
contract will require that the boat be mobile under her own
power, and because you have no boat handling experience to tell you how to SAIL the boat in and out of the marina. So you'll need another grand to take care of that. To replace an eight or ten HP inboard in a boat like the Watkins with an new
engine right outta the box will set you back 10 or 12 grand. A used replacement installed will be about 6 boatbux.
So you see where this is going :-)
You will be far better off if you can afford 15 grand rather than two, or if you have the patience to wait while you earn the increment. For 15 Grand you'll find a 30 footer ready to go, and when you've gathered a bit of experience you will appreciate that a 30-footer has HUGE accommodations compared with a 24 footer. Take it from me that a 30-footer is in many respects easier to sail than a 24 footer. In a 30-footer, a geezer like me can live comfortably with his wife for months at a time. Young people like you can live in a 30-footer permanently.
In many ways 30 feet is the "sweet spot". 30-footers are big enuff to do what most people need done. They don't bust the
budget, and they are relatively easy to dispose of when that time comes. PROVIDED you understand that no man should put more
money into a boat - acquisition,
maintenance and "upgrade" - than he can afford to walk away from still with a smile on his face.
Once you've learned boathandling by muckin' about in the
ICW you can begin to learn about being a
skipper. That takes a lifetime. But if you are perceptive you can learn in, say five years, the essentials, the minimums of what you must know to be safe, if your intention is to take a boat - not a Watkins - out "where the scattered waters rave and the winds their revels keep"
Oh- one last thing: "going anywhere in the states for a good boat" is NOT sound policy. Overland transport to bring 'er "home" can cost tens of thousands of dollars. SAILING her home is NOT a safe option for people of no experience. The distances are far too long to tackle at a speed of five knots (6 MPH) and many of the coasts are far, far too dangerous for novices.
All the best
TrentePieds