Pack It Up and Sail. Ambitious Undertaking?

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Of course just because something arrived in NZ doesn't automatically mean she wasn't powered mainly by luck rather than being in a condition to go again

That's why I said "some" of them may be suitable tread carefully!

What I think would also work is simply getting freindly with folks on boats.

Agreed. If you are near where the cruisers congregate, and can offer them wheels and/or a hot shower from time-to-time then you will have their undying gratitude. Getting out for a few day sails, seeing lots of different boats, meeting the different styles of cruising folks would all be very educational.

Even if you aren't close, northern NZ is a central hub in the cruising world and will start to get crowded with boats from all over come November or so. If at all possible definitely worth some investigation and a visit if you want to see the very broad range of boats and lifestyles all in one place. And, it looks like it fits neatly in your timetable.

Also might want to check out local yacht clubs wherever you are. You can usually find someone or other willing to take some novices out for a spin, and once you learn a little will meet other folks and possibly find some places to crew on local races. It's not cruising, but a great way to learn something about sailing.

[rtbates]

It's not rocket science. The Bumfuzzles are a perfect example what can be accomplished by 'green' sailors..

[Boracay]

I'll echo the sentiments above about crewing on other peoples boats. Much cheaper and you'll learn heaps. Get started with the local races, then help owners with moving their boats then go for the serious cruising. I'd even suggest offering to help with antifouling but somehow available crew never get that desperate.

You could even help me get Boracay from Cairns to Darwin and maybe on to Bali sometime in the next couple of years.

That said crewing for others is nowhere near as romantic as having your own boat. Mooloolaba is pretty close to the epicentre of Aussie east Coast Cruising and I walked past a few boats for sail there, some even in your budget (scroll down to bottom of listings). I understand they have direct flights to NZ these days, or Brissie is just a shuttle away.

[FecklessDolphin]

You might want to consider checking out the book "Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach" by Don Casey. It advocates a simple, inexpensive liveaboard lifestyle as a means to achieve the goal of living on a boat. I found it well written and read it straight through.

[Ex-Calif]

Some thoughts about the plan...

Start sailing now. Why wait until you have a boat? Any experience you gain in the next year will help you with the purchase as you will know better what works and what doesn't.

Buy in NZ and head to the states shortly after is a tough ask, especially with no open water experience.

Why sail across the pacific? I have a personal bias here but Asia (especially Thailand) is cheap to eat and live. There are a good selection of boats available and surrounding Phuket are tons of easy to sail to destinations while you gain experience. A young couple sailed a Westsail 32 from Seattle to Singapore over a couple of years and sold it "ready to go" in Singapore within your budget.

You could sail a year easily in and around Asia and micronesia.

The final part of you plan Immigrating to USA. Have you investigated the immigration requirements? I don't think it is as easy as showing up...

[sloopygirl]

I'm with the majority here - GO FOR IT!!!!!!! You may find that you never want to go back to land life. I just wish I had thought of the idea when I was in my 20's instead of my 40's. Of course everyone you know thinks you're crazy - so did everyone I knew! They just don't get it, but when you start sending back amazing pictures and emails - they'll be totally envious.

Do it, have a great time, good luck and best wishes!

[Surf City]

We were 29 when we went cruising the first time, and our first "house" was a boat. Now, we're cruising again as a family. You can do anything you set your mind to. We recommend reading about the Bumfuzzles. ( http://www.bumfuzzle.com ) Go back to their beginning. They didn't know the first thing about sailing, bought a catamaran, and sailed around the world. Now they too are cruising again, this time with kids.
Jenny
s/v Full Monty
http://www.svfullmonty.com

[youmeandthed]

our budget is like yours, we are the same age, and have a two year "plan", plus we had little experience before going; we are half way..... totally doable, not easy at all.

[barnakiel]

Hi,

If you have "1/10" (read: next to nill?) experience with sailing, then why invest your (I guess) hard earned money and (priceless?) time into something you know so little about?

Why not go straight for your long term target - settle down and have children?

In three years your wife will be 31 and if you want 'a few' little ones then it will be actually pretty late to start.

Be a young parent before you become an old cruiser!

Cheers,
b.

[xduncanx]

Ok, I'll attempt to rescue this thread before it devolves too much. As with regular conversation it's best to steer clear of some topics unless all parties involved are keen to discuss them.

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

The final part of you plan Immigrating to USA. Have you investigated the immigration requirements? I don't think it is as easy as showing up...

In our case it should be close to being that easy. Naomi has a US passport, her mother being a Minnesotan. On that topic, we really are from luckyville. I hold a French passport through my father. Not bad for 2 fully fledged kiwis.

but, back to topic.

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

I'm not so sure as others that NZ isn't a good place to find a boat, would take some investigation. In another month or two cruisers from all over the world will be gathering in the Bay of Islands to get away from the South Pacific typhoon season. More than a few of them will be disillusioned/done/tired/whatever. Some of their boats will be fully kitted out for cruising, having made it from the US and Europe.

Wouldn't it be nice to live around the Bay of Islands. This seasonal pattern is good information unfortunately we currently live in Christchurch and I don't know much about popular sailing areas in NZ but the east coast of the South Island must surely be some of the least frequented. However in Christchurch we have 1 marina and a couple of yacht clubs which we will look into for information about the local sailing scene. We will be in Auckland for a few weeks around christmas over which will be a good chance to look at a few boats. Also we may be heading further up north (closer to the Bay of Islands) over this time as well so we will try to run into a few cruisers. We are still keen to buy first instead of crewing but open to the idea.
But this area is where our toughest questions lie. Anytime away from Christchurch, we are 99% sure that christchurch is not the place to buy, is time and money away from our income spent on buying a boat, fixing what needs to be fixed, getting the boat ready for sailing extended periods, learning to sail our boat. Obviously the goal is to narrow down this period as much as possible so we can get on with sailing. I guess this is getting a bit too specific for an international forum, these are our own decisions to make and there a various pros and cons for whatever option we choose. I'll go through our current thoughts but i'm not expecting responses to all, if any, of my babbling.

If we were to buy in NZ we have the opportunity to move up to Auckland and stay with our families while buying and fitting a boat. Also Naomi's family would be a great resource for accomplishing this. On the other hand, boats are more expensive here and we are a bit daunted by making a difficult voyage away from NZ as one of our first. If we can manage that hurdle however the south pacific and south east asia are some of the cheaper cruising grounds (and not the least beautiful either).

The other option is to buy overseas. Florida was my first thought. I'm confident we could fly there and stay up to a month and still afford to buy a boat of similar quality as we would in NZ. With this option we could sail Caribbean and central america (and south america?). How expensive is the Caribbean compared to south pacific?
We could look into other places Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Somewhere in the Mediterranian seem like good candidates.

It seems many of you advise starting with crew work and while i agree with all the reasons for heading down this track something holds me back, probably the the limited time we have and/or the lack of control. We will pursue this course though because if we manage to find right opportunity to get on a boat and help crew a substantial crossing it will be extremely beneficial.

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Also worth having a look at the Cruising Equipment thread / list in my sig - the collected wisdom of CF

Already have this link bookmarked. I've just skimmed over it but looks like it will be very handy when looking at boats.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Hi,
If you have "1/10" (read: next to nill?) experience with sailing, then why invest your (I guess) hard earned money and (priceless?) time into something you know so little about?
Why not go straight for your long term target - settle down and have children?
In three years your wife will be 31 and if you want 'a few' little ones then it will be actually pretty late to start.
Be a young parent before you become an old cruiser!
Cheers,
b.

Not sure what to say, we have our reasons and whatever choice we make will be because it feels right.

Thanks again for all the advice to help us get started and on the right train of thought.

Michael

[gjordan]

xduncanx, You last post convinced me that you have the right attitude to be a successful cruiser , and remember that many successful children have been raised on boats. I wanted to raise my child on a boat, but I waited too long and aging parents and changing job situation made that impossible. GO YOUNG, GO CHEAP BUT JUST GO.____Grant.

[Pblais]

I'm planning on using you for the abundance of information that can surely be found here

Surprise! It's pretty much all we do here

You've got limited time and money so you need to figure some things out on how you can stretch money and time. Inside the budget you have you'll end up fixing a boat up and maybe even spending more money as well as a lot of time. The plan to just head off some place and buy a boat may be OK but the costs of fixing it up and just being there an extended period of time will add a lot of costs. Knowing where to find the things you need when you get there would eat a few weeks up quickly. Buying a boat in FL would set up an easier trip rather than heading off from NZ. You would want to go to FL near the end of hurricane season so you could be ready to go when it's over. The costs of cruising in the Caribbean can range a lot. Food costs more so just expect that.

I would encourage you to sail NOW! Small boats or even tiny boats in protected waters just as a form of exercise and getting a feel for "seeing the wind" will help you more than you might think. You will learn the basics quickly in a tiny boat. It will make it easier after getting a big boat. It's also just plain fun! At no point should any of this not be fun!

The process of fixing up boats is not trivial either. Being an engineer might help but the details in even simple repairs are prone to short cuts that come back to get you. It just takes a LOT longer fixing anything on a boat than you would perhaps think about on a car or a house. You can get into those details here as well. We have a LOT of that information too. A month isn't that long when getting a boat ready and more time in a nice place might not be so bad Boats in your proice range won't be that easy to make ready. Materials and boat equipment is quite expensive any place on the planet so having spare cash is a requirement.

In the short term you can read a whole lot here on CF and find questions you never thought about asking. It's the first part of not being green. You have go through a long period of finding out all the things you didn't know to ask. This lets you get into a mode of finding the answers to a million questions.

When you get to the point of understanding the questions you really are no longer green and dangerous to yourself or others. You will then bae able to think about the asnwers and load your brain with valuable information and have a place to store it. At that point you should know what your real limitations are in an objective way. With all that you can take on a trip that will be FUN! Being happy and having fun is more important than where you go or don't go. Preparation overcomes fear more than anything else. You both need to work hard keeping it fun at every possible stage of this trip both before and after you take off or it may not be later on either.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by xduncanx

In our case it should be close to being that easy. Naomi has a US passport, her mother being a Minnesotan. On that topic, we really are from luckyville. I hold a French passport through my father. Not bad for 2 fully fledged kiwis.

At the risk of staying off topic Whilst I can see that your Missus having a US passport would likely make your emigration to the US to live and work easy, your simply having a French (EU) passport may well not mean much for your Missus and her Visa needs if only visiting (even if it would make her emmigration to the EU with you easy, in the same way as for you into the US). Of course I am no immigration expert (on either US or EU) - but IME when dealing with offcialdom (especially foreign to you ones) always best to check and not assume as "easy" can nonetheless come with a variety of hoops to jump through (including "you needed to apply before you got here" ).

Anyway, back to boats

We will be in Auckland for a few weeks around christmas over which will be a good chance to look at a few boats. Also we may be heading further up north (closer to the Bay of Islands) over this time as well so we will try to run into a few cruisers. We are still keen to buy first instead of crewing but open to the idea.

Got to do what works for you - crewing or buying, or a bit of both (at least to get you started / help with your questions, if not all answers ).

As you have identified, Christchurch not exactly local to many other places . But IMO a minor detail .....for a Cruiser up in Auckland the opportunity to visit Christchurch by road and then have somewhere to stay would be very attractive, at least for some - and IMO certainly within the ballpark of a tradeable thing. Time on their boat (for a week or 2?) in p/x for a trip down to Christchurch and same hospitality ashore (even if you have to "stow" them with a relative or mate!) - all the better if you can rustle up use of a car for them to use by selves locally or even to do a lap of the South Island.

What you could do is start another thread on CF titled something with Kiwiland in it, there are (or were) a few folks from NZ (or simply visiting by boat) on here and see if you can hook up at some point. Could even do the same on other forums (apparently there are other boaty forums on the internet ).

The attraction from your POV is that you get to pick the brains of those who have already travelled distance (and who are not trying to sell you their boat!, so likely very honest on the downsides as well as the upsides). Plus of course you discover for yourselves how big or small 35' of boat is and also start getting an idea of what actually works for you layout wise......of course no one person (or even group) can give you all your answers, part of the journey (and fun) is puzzling them out for yourself - which is a polite way of saying take everything on advisement, real world or internet (including from me!) until you know for selves how good / valuable (or not!).

If looking to buy overseas (i.e. waiting until you are good to go) - then your time beforehand would be well spent on your own boat. and the good news is that the boat size doesn't actually matter (will learn plenty under 20 foot in a daysailer). It's about learning to Sail, to crew (both of you!) and to Skipper (also both of you!) and being a boat owner - all very different things, even if of course they overlap. Nothing cheap locally? build your own!.......plenty of plans around - and if you use the "stitch and glue" construction technique could probably use Grade 8 wire (or a close cousin!)

[Cheechako]

Fly to Florida, buy a boat there......... a big selection, learn to cruise in the carribean.

[Gone Global]

Absolutely you can do it! Keep it simple and don't get caught up in having all the "crap". My girlfriend and I are in our 20's and out here doing it. Its not hard at all. The first month or so took some adjusting, but we each figured out our rolls on the boat and now its nothing at all to move, sail, anchor, dinghy, etc. You might not be able to do a full circum nav. but the way your talking and financially you would have a blast for a few years doing the bahamas, carib., and central america. If anything else don't listen to the naysayers. You will hear alot of it from people. Ignore it and just go. Enjoy it while you can!