Want To Buy: Looking for a cheap sailboat project for adventure series

[CharlieVillain]

Hi.

I'm hoping to find a cheap sailboat project for a youtube adventure series I want to do. Basically right now I'm completely bored with life. I work online as a freelance illustrator. So I can go anywhere and do anything within the realm of occasional WiFi. The plan is to find a very cheap sailboat already on the water and quickly clean it up to livable condition. Move in and adventure around the world. All while filming myself learning to sail, working on art as well as boat projects, meet some other young adult travelers and all the crazy shenanigans that happen along the way.





Trying to find something already on the water in the free to $500 range. I'm willing to go up to $1500 for something I can move into and sail right away.



Open to suggestions and any possible opportunities.




Can be located anywhere in North America



Thanks for all your help.

[newlazydays]

51 sail boat lying in Green Turtle. Sank in Dorian now afloat. Rig is OK. Interior trashed. Good Project boat.

[Tetepare]

There’s a lot of people looking for the same thing. You want an almost free boat that requires almost no repair or investment that is capable of crossing oceans. Oddly enough, it’s rare this comes along.

[CharlieVillain]

It doesn't have to cross oceans, a decent coastal cruiser will work for now. Catalina 27 etc. Doesn't need to be in good shape. Just has to sail and have the basic beat up interior i been seeing in the ads for some $2000 and under boats

[liquidice]

Your job description brings this reality into the attainable. In fact, four threads and thread themes come to mind:
Free or almost free, dedicated to cheap boats
Making a living while living aboard, about viable ways to generate new cash
Composting vs traditional heads, about poop.
The adventure begins, a cautionary tale
There are boats out there. Learning to sail isn’t that hard, but when things go wrong, they can go very, very wrong. You can certainly learn just enough to get yourself killed. Many parallels to aviation.
I bought a $1200 craigslist boat 6 years ago. It’s been good for me. Do research, learn the market, and, if you’re feeling froggy, jump! Good luck!

[mvweebles]

Try marina auctions where owner has gone MIA. Or do what other pre-patreon folks who's parents have tired of gifting cash have done: try a Kickstarter campaign

[Chotu]

Your numbers are too low. You should get a job and put it into savings and then buy a boat. It’s not that hard to come up with $20,000 which would get you there

[thomm225]

You can get something decent for $1500 if you are lucky and know what to look for, but you probably do not want it to be in the water because you cannot examine the bottom without paying for a haul out

[capt_TE]

Interesting dreams and good project idea with the YouTube channel following this whole adventure. Back in Sweden we have many cheap and good sailboats that actually is capable of doing such thing w/o so much work. One of them is called Albin Vega - that is considered to be the smallest plastic single hull sailboat ever sailed to the northest latitudes far north of Svalbard. Several Scandinavian explorers have sailed this almost 30 feet, long keeled boat around the world.

What you can do is to take the flight to Sweden in april, get the boat and a summer-job, do the working-on-the-boat-project and then sail around in our protected archipelago waters to learn sail safetly. Then. After a year or so, you sail it back home across the Atlantic to North America

[capt_TE]

There is actually one Albin Vega in the Marina where I live right now that is for sell. They only ask for 1000 € and the boat is in really good condition if you do some weeks on her. Already in the water, sails ready, engine working, hull is in good condition and not damaged. A few refugees lived on it for a while but now they got a flat in town. They couldnt stand the swedish winter aboard It is perfect for such idea as yours Of course you live on the boat while doing all prep, so why not considering the whole world as you potential work-field?

[Peeew]

Perhaps look into charity auctions of boats that have been donated.

[skipmac]

If you're looking for a reasonable coastal cruiser under 30' then should be pretty easy to find one in your budget. Check boatyards, marinas and especially Craigslist in all the east coast cities. FL and New England generally the best locations for this. FL because there's so many boats. New England because there's a lot of boats AND it's really expensive to keep them there, especially if you're not using it.

I might comment that for a lot of people a 27' boat would get pretty cramped and crowded in short order, especially if you pick up a couple of friends or companions along the way. Spend much time on board with a couple of other people and you will have to be very, very good friends or will quickly not be friends at all.

[Bill O]

The first thing that came to my mind was what geographic location are you looking to get your cheap/free boat?

There are plenty of free/cheap boats listed on CL, especially on the US east coast. Ebay may be another source.
Sometimes you can find a good free or almost free boat, but you need to be somewhat handy to make them work. As w/any of these boats you need to make an assessment if they are truly worth anything or total trash (when to walk away).

In all these cases you want to be able to look them over and if the boats are currently w/in driving distance of where you live, it will make it that much easier.

Some constructive advice: if you are going to make utube videos on life aboard a fix it up sailboat, you're very late to the party and you will be just like all the rest. Think of a unique angle instead.


Bill O.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Some constructive advice: if you are going to make utube videos on life aboard a fix it up sailboat, you're very late to the party and you will be just like all the rest. Think of a unique angle instead.

And that's a fact. Over the last few years I've seen a wide range of boat fixemup videos. Everything from big old wooden boats with a big old budget to small glass boats fixed up on scrounging and "borrowing" and everything in between.

Seems like the stuff on youtube and blogs that gets lots of subscribers are very professionally produced and include plenty of attractive women with limited attire.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Seems like the stuff on youtube and blogs that gets lots of subscribers are very professionally produced and include plenty of attractive women with limited attire.

+1. Good cinematography and attractive women are not unique, but makes it does make it much easier to watch an otherwise "same story line" over and over again.