Greetings all.
This happens to be my first post on the forum. I have, however, been reading it for more than a year and a half. Like MANY of you, “I have a dream”, and like SOME of you, I have yet to see it come to fruition.
Without getting into my life story, I share my life with my spouse, we have a 1 month old son and essentially, we both dream of a
family world
cruise and/or
circumnavigation and hope to do so with young
children as well as our dachshunds (gasp! More on this later).
When we started this
project a year and a hald ago, my girlfriend had about 5 years of sailing experience on lake dinghies from childhood and I had… none. Right now, the plan is to leave in about 5 years, maybe as early as 3. We were living in an inuit village in the arctic (accomplishing another dream) when the idea for this
project came to us. We made a rough roadmap to reach our goal : essentially, we were going to use real-estate to finance our dreams and use the upcoming years to train and practice sailing.
So far, we’ve purchased an apartment building, have fully renovated and are ready to
purchase a second and/or sell this one. The building will easily generate 15k profit clear after all expenses at minimum for the foreseeable future so I’m more tempted to keep it and use equity in it to help
purchase new buildings and/or a yacht. Now, I’ve read that 15k/year MIGHT be enough if we are frugal (we are, we don’t even own a car).
Question : Do any of you here currently cruise away for an extended period of time from revenue generating buildings you own? Do you rely on family, friends or perhaps a management company? Do you own multiple buildings and if so, does it mean you have to spend considerable time and effort trying to manage it from afar? What about virtual assistants, would they be of use in such a situation?
Right now I have enough liquidity/equity available that I could purchase another building, however, the type of building I am looking at is larger and therefore has a more restricted buyer base. I don’t wan’t to be stuck waiting perhaps months or years to leave for it to sell if it’s too much hassle to own and manage from afar. The upside is that it would generate considerable
income, the downside is that I have no clue what managing something like this from a
boat would be like. There’s always the possibility of selling the building or one of the buildings to help pay for the
boat if liquidity is a problem, but I’d lose long term revenue.
That’s basically the plan as far as
money is concerned.
Concerning sailing practice and
training, what we’ve done so far is we both have done the Canadian Yachting association’s “introduction to boating” and plan on doing a variety of practical and theoretical courses including
diesel repair,
navigation,
radio, the whole gamut essentially. I’m not stressed about the courses, they are easy enough to find, register for and show up to. What I’m more concerned about is the practice part. All I have is 4 days of sailing under my belt and I KOW I’m going to need a WHOLE lot more before departure time comes around.
Our plan is to purchase a smaller temporary ship, somewhere between 20 and 30 feet, daysail it and do the occasional family
vacation cruise on it. Naturally, my wife leans more towards the 20 foot boat and I lean more towards a 30 foot boat! Another option would be to purchase the boat we intend on leaving on a year before departure and essentially do the same thing as with a smaller vessel except perhaps with a more intense regimen of cruising. Naturally, we’d rent,
charter or borrow from a friend a sailboat once or twice a year to maintain skills in the meantime. Here’s what I think of both options :
Small ship for a few years
Pros : less initial investment, more forgiving in case of “learning pains”. Easier to singlehand. Accumulate MUCH more experience over MUCH more time. Less expensive way of discovering if we REALLY want to cruise as a way of life. Would allow us to develop a better idea of what we want in a ship.
Cons :
Maintenance and operation costs may reduce available funds for larger ship. May lose significant value when we sell it. May be unable to sell it before departure.
Large ship for one year
Pros : less total investment. More available funds for the “ship of our dreams”.
Cons : Les experience. Riskier buy since no experience as boat owner.
To me, owning a small(er) ship for a few years seems like a no brainer, but I’d like some input here :
has anyone here just straight up purchased the boat they wanted for world cruising and “crammed” in a short period of time to get their skills to a point where they felt they could leave on their trip? If so, could you relate your experiences?
BTW, to give you a GENERAL idea of what kind of boat I’d be happy with :
1987 Celestial Ketch Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com
Now, bear in mind that this is not the “boat of my dreams”. But I’d be satisfied with it if it was at this
price.
Am I delusional in thinking that this kind of yacht, at this price, is capable of a world cruise ? Obviously without a survey it is difficult to determine condition of the vessel… We’d be happy paying no more than 100k but obviously, the less expensive the ship, the more
money for cruising.
As far as
children and education go, my wife is a
school teacher and I feel, perhaps mistakenly, that education is therefore covered, at least until high
school. As for the dogs… I really don’t want to part with them as they ARE family to me. I’ve read up a bit but the only thing I’ve learned is that, cruising with
dogs is possible.
According to you, is it realistic to expect an enjoyable world cruise with dogs aboard? I remember reading the blog “Out of bounds” as they had a dog aboard but that was at the beginning of the Interweb’s blogosphere days and it was rather short on dog details.
Ok, I won’t ask the “What is the best ship for my price” question but rather, what would YOU recommend for under 100k. I’m still a bit unsure of cored vs uncored
fiberglass, am open to ferrocement,
steel and other materials, don’t mind an older boat (but might prefer solid glass in an older boat). Also, I have no prejudice against former
charter boats and at the moment at least, want something larger than 39 feet, can accommodate a family of four or five, two dogs and OPTIONALLY some guests. I know, thousands of models, makers mean you can find what you want, but… help?
Regards,
Blade Runner