Am I dreaming? First boat - US to Aus $15000

[hellosailor]

Brent, I don't know how long ago you bought the galvanized wire, or where you found it. But for most of us, we couldn't find more than twenty feet of it for that price, and it would cost half again as much to get to the scrapyard that had it.

Yes there are great bargains to be had in used and sundry oddball lots--but for most of us, in most places, at most times, the odds are quite against those bargains. I've nothing against buying used, or waiting for bargains, but sometimes you need to simply ante up and pay the piper if you want to hear the pipes in THIS lifetime.

A $6500 bluewater ready boat? If I know two dozen people who've looked patiently for multiple years for such a thing, I still don't know one that's been able to find it. Plenty of derelicts and hulks and project boats that could gladly eat your days, but I think you're mistaking the thin edge of what's possible for what is likely.

[Ex-Calif]

You can always find a person on the left side of the bell curve and the right side.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of people who are in fact experienced blue water cruisers are not doing it for $6500.

Sure someone can do it and as MarkJ says they are usually the guys in port with their head in the bilge and their a$$ in the air.

Can you do it? Yes. Would +90% of the people doing it, do it? No.

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

A $6500 bluewater ready boat... I think you're mistaking the thin edge of what's possible for what is likely...

Hmmmm…. It is true that a very large recreational boating industry is built around the notion that one cannot get out of the parking lot for $6500 (usually with accompanying local/professional codes, regulations, policies and directives to sustain it…); however, the Slocums, Tangvalds, Moitessiers and others of their ilk certainly did it, more or less… it has been done (with variations), but certainly is not widely acceptable to many folks…

Most of us simply are not willing to go through the distinctly near-vertical learning curve on skimpy resources that characterized these pioneers’ formative years… we prefer something approaching the turn-key approach and to varying degrees are willing to mortgage our existence to achieve it – nothing intrinsically wrong with that either, attempted it myself… Nontheless, one doesn’t have to search the Net too far to come up with numerous skippers who set out without all the up-to-the-minute trappings… so I’d not belittle or denigrate the concept a whole lot, myself… it may not play well in Del Ray, Newport or Annapolis, but it seems valid enough…

[hellosailor]

Larry, Joshua Slocum "did it" sure. But that was in eighteen mumbly-mumble-when?!
<VBG>

Captain Slocum would have been bankrupted by the yard bill for his derelict while he was rebuilding it in Taxachussetts today. And, he started out with the skills and experience to know the job ahead of him. That's very different from someone who has to ask "is this possible?" indicating (no offense!) that they don't know what they are getting into. There are a lot of sellers and brokers who are quite willing to unload a derelict on the uninformed bargain hunter. A boat with structural problems, or extensive water damage, or other major expenses to come.

Tangvald relocated to be near a plywood factory, and again, was BUILDING his own boat. That's very different from buying one, the $2500 that he paid for plywood directly from a factory (ignoring the cost of relocating) would probably be $10,000 today, and that was just for raw wood circa 1972. In 1972 his $2500 could buy a decent new car, about the same as $20-25,000 today.

And Bernard Moitessier, again, came from a very different time and place than the one most of us are in now. In the 50's most of the islands he sailed to were just names on a map to most of the world. Today they require many more dollars just to drop anchor.

Impossible dream? No, certainly not. But for every dreamer that has pulled it off, how many have gone broke over a hole in the water? Or been lost at sea?

Folks forget, even Tanya Abei wrote that but for the grace of god, she would have been lost at sea and died before reaching Bermuda. She had no idea of how to navigate with her sextant, pre-GPS and pre-EPIRB with no way on board to get help if she missed landfall there. Folks get lucky, sometimes.

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

for every dreamer that has pulled it off, how many have gone broke over a hole in the water? Or been lost at sea...

Yeah, no quarrel there… still, most of the early voyagers were not remotely as well-heeled as the seeming norm for blue-water tourists today – at least the norm I see cocktailing across the glossy pages or drifting through our little marina from time to time – in part, I think, the glaring difference is/was because they weren’t on a sabbatical, they had changed life’s course entirely – which might imply the method for replicating same…

The more common standard today seems to be how to finance a trip for 6-months to a couple of years, living more-or-less as sumptuously as we do in our estate/condo (which we will rent out, and plan to return to…), on a vessel large enough to allow the occasional dropping-in of the in-laws and leaving enough left over to get the children through collage or whatever – the calculations, both financially and philosophically, seem widely divergent… I’d guess (also, and as you described with Abei) most modern cruisers prepare themselves far more rigorously, and endeavoring to incorporate far greater margins of safety, and protective redundancies, than the pioneering folks felt they needed…

[hellosailor]

Larry-
Speaking of standards, spirits, and life changes...Wasn't it Oz or NZ that about two years decided to start SEIZING vessels coming in that were "unfit" to go out again?
Making little things like a life raft mandatory, if you wanted to leave port again? (I remember a big ruckus about something like this.)

Dunno why, here in a thread about Oz and expenses, it just struck me that Oz often has very different standards, and often demands enforcement.

And careful passage planing, for like so many other places, they expect you to either eat or burn all sorts of foodstuffs before they cross the border. A Customs officer was once kind enough to allow us to keep both potatoes and blueberries (fresh, but in the "wrong" packages) as long as we promised to consume them ON THE BOAT. Who knew, we had Contraband Weapons of Mass Destruction in the pantry.<G>

[Talbot]

In addition to the costs shown here, The Aus Government will also bill you tax and GST for the vessel so add another 15%.

You will have to show up in the first australian port having just had a bottom clean (and be able to prove it).

You will also have to let them know that you are on your way with an estimated arrival time otherwise you will probably be locked up, or boat confiscated or heavily fined or all three.

I am assuming you are an Aus citizen - otherwise, you might be able to negotiate a stay of execution for up to 12 months on the import.

If you are Aus, then I assume you will be registering the vessels in Aus, which will entail more expense as this will require a minimum standard of safety equipment including epirb and HF

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

NZ that about two years decided to start SEIZING vessels coming in that were "unfit" to go out again?

T'was the Kiwis. Dunno if they still do it.

. Who knew, we had Contraband Weapons of Mass Destruction in the pantry.<G>

We are an island that doesn't have Foot and Mouth Disease, pototo blight, Mad Cow Disease or many other agricultural bugs.
we are trying to keep it that way by fumigating Americans and stealing their veges!

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Wasn't it Oz or NZ that about two years decided to start SEIZING vessels coming in that were "unfit" to go out again? Making little things like a life raft mandatory...

I recall seeing something about that, but as for now I have no plans to frequent those areas... sounds like "bring ca$h, lots of it," or don't come at all... wish they'd quit fighting in West Africa and get their act together, some minor notions in that direction...

[cathyoz]

hello
a mate virginia is sailing a slocum 43 back to Aus, she bought in Florida
she going through Panama now..
I had some heath issues , so could not join her ,maybe will join her in Tahiti .. but i am reading just now a book ...
"66 days adrift by William Butler"
interesting , maybe the one who think a life raft is no necessary should read it ..

all the best

[Steve Pope]

It was NZ that brought in exit rules for foreign and local yachts / boats, It was successfully challenged by a fellow CF user whose name avoids me at the moment. I believe the rule for foreign boats is still there, only it is not enforced. In the case of locals it is definitely in force, cat 1 is a must otherwise you don't get clearance. I believe we are the only country to do this, even the UK which is the nanny state personified doesn't, hence the Jester challenge that has just successfully been run without anybody falling of the edge of the world.

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by Steve Pope

It was NZ... It was successfully challenged...

I’m sure national/local governments don’t want blue-water vagabonds leaving their dilapidated vessels to clutter up the seascape, nor do they want to have to rescue some nut from their own stupidity – especially now with the pervading “right to be rescued” seemingly increasingly accepted…

Nonetheless, reputations for unfriendliness get around the globe rather quickly these days, and once established are difficult to snuff out… a foreign-policy acquaintance of mine once quoted “money is a scaredy-cat, it doesn’t go where it’s afraid…” Likewise too, sailors – or at least sailor’s money… few folks are going to venture to an area were the reputation is that they’ll end up “buying” a lawsuit – even if they might win, it is a hassle most will choose to circumvent simply by anchoring in different waters… which probably was what the NZ leaders had in mind all along… Likewise, some locales in Florida seem to be pursing this tack with typically bureaucratic flourish… also, apparently winnable by the voyager, but why bother…

In today’s advantaged world, it is hard to recall that just a few decades ago boaters of normal means were not always welcome many places – they tied up, not at marinas or yacht-clubs, but at the commercial/fishing piers… badly-informed elitism is still alive and well here and there, if somewhat muted when cold-hard cash is flashed… Browards are generally welcome almost anywhere they go, not so what seem to be more pedestrian craft (from the landsmen’s perspective), never mind that the skipper and mate may have their life’s savings tied up in it...

[jzk]

Originally Posted by cathyoz

hello
a mate virginia is sailing a slocum 43 back to Aus, she bought in Florida
she going through Panama now..
I had some heath issues , so could not join her ,maybe will join her in Tahiti .. but i am reading just now a book ...
"66 days adrift by William Butler"
interesting , maybe the one who think a life raft is no necessary should read it ..

all the best

Great book!

[Robertcateran]

I met someone who picked up a 33' Wharram for $3000 from a marital spat where one partner didn't want to give any thing to the other. He sailed it immediately from Sydney to Tassie without any dramas. If you can cover that stretch of water, you can easily go across the Pacific. Right place at the right time.
Robert

[imagine2frolic]

6 months ago I sold a 30ft. Columbia equiped for cruising.

New sails
New cushions
New standing & running rigging
New roller furler
New canvas except for dodger, and it was still good
New traveller
Fresh motor
windlass
2 autopilots
3 anchors
solar
radar
GPS
keel pulled & rebedded
and the list goes on.

She only was used once a year for 4 years while I was in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida on Imagine, my cat. I couldn't justify hanging onto her any longer. Frolic sold for $10,000.00, so the deal can be found. It is about timing. Being in the right place at the right time. BEST WISHES in your search..........