Quote:
Originally Posted by Jammer
In another thread, there was advice given to someone new to cruising boats to go out and charter various boats to learn the market and determine their tastes.
This is all good in theory but I don't think anyone does it.
My experience is that people who buy sailboats figure out what they want either by sailing as crew with friends, or through articles, forum discussions, etc. The main reason being that chartering is a very, very, expensive activity and the range of boats you can experience that way is limited.
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The odds of being able to charter a
boat style and model of what you want to buy are VERY low.
I think if you have never owned a boat, much less sailed for more than a daysail, that it is very good
advice to do so!
Why? Because inexperienced people think cruising is '
days of luxury in the sun'. A week or 10 days of moving, sun, moving, trying to get
food, boat problems, more sun, unexpected winds, sun, hard starting dingies etc etc will make anyone question if cruising is right for both of them.
This could save you tens of thousands of $. Or more likely 50k-100k $.
I knew a couple who spent tons of
money on a 51 footer, and 3 years, too busy working on it to sail that much. The went down the coast, got off the boat and that was it. Not an unusual story either.