Help Please --- First Time $1M+ Purchase

[PaulForster123]

Hi all, your assistance would be most appreciated...
We have decided and at long last in a position to sell up and sail off full time and are considering our first Catamaran and have found the boat of our dreams a Sunreef 62 30 months old one owner and out in Tahiti. We are in the UK during lockdown and are needing help with relevant info we should be considering with the broker.
Yes novice sailors, just a formality we know, first boat ownership lol.
We would like your kind assistance in the sort of questions and information we should be asking prior to undertaking expense in surveying.
Our general considerations have been around taxes and country registration, mooring, maintenance, warranty issues, ongoing ownership costs.
The list is endless however you don't know what you don't know so any help you kind people can offer will be much appreciated.
We are planning on circumnavigating full time over the next decade and are looking to be out on the water in the next 4-6 months subject to this Covid fiasco.
Kind regards, family of 4 in cold dark Yorkshire...soon to be in warmer waters.

[smj]

Check for availability of insurance. If your novice sailors I’d doubt you will be able to find an insurance company that will cover a 62’ catamaran for you. May have to hire a captain for awhile?

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by PaulForster123

Hi all, your assistance would be most appreciated...
We have decided and at long last in a position to sell up and sail off full time and are considering our first Catamaran and have found the boat of our dreams a Sunreef 62 30 months old one owner and out in Tahiti. We are in the UK during lockdown and are needing help with relevant info we should be considering with the broker.
Yes novice sailors, just a formality we know, first boat ownership lol.
We would like your kind assistance in the sort of questions and information we should be asking prior to undertaking expense in surveying.
Our general considerations have been around taxes and country registration, mooring, maintenance, warranty issues, ongoing ownership costs.
The list is endless however you don't know what you don't know so any help you kind people can offer will be much appreciated.
We are planning on circumnavigating full time over the next decade and are looking to be out on the water in the next 4-6 months subject to this Covid fiasco.
Kind regards, family of 4 in cold dark Yorkshire...soon to be in warmer waters.

Nice problem to have
Seeing how you are a family of 4
Charter a RYA school boat for a few weeks and
gualify up to Yachtmaster.
If it’s only your family and don’t have any others
except the instructor might get around covid restrictions
Theory course you can do online

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by smj

Check for availability of insurance. If your novice sailors I’d doubt you will be able to find an insurance company that will cover a 62’ catamaran for you. May have to hire a captain for awhile?

"Doubt" is being kind. With no boating history I would ask at what length they would insure you at all. I'd be surprised if they insured you at 42 feet.

[PirateGuy]

Feel free to PM me for private or onsite consultations. Retainer plus expenses required.

[smj]

Originally Posted by PirateGuy

Feel free to PM me for private or onsite consultations. Retainer plus expenses required.

Paying a retainer to a guy on a forum named PirateGuy..............

[Tupaia]

Notwithstanding issues mentioned by others.


We know nothing about your background.



Moving - permanently 10 years on to a boat?

never having owned a boat!

never having lived on a boat!

never having been on this boat!

the boat is in Tahiti during a pandemic!


A 30 month old boat does not have a warranty, the fact that you are even asking about a warranty indicates your naivety.


A 62ft cat is a massive vessel in all respects.


"taxes and country registration, mooring, maintenance, warranty issues, ongoing ownership costs".



This is just money lots of it and will be the least of your worries, if you can't fix things yourself, on a massive complex vessel, then finding skilled people that you can trust with your life and that of your family is a much harder task.


"Parking" a 62ft cat in a marina is not like parking a car, even in a articulated truck you can stop if things start to go wrong.



Boats are not like houses. Not fixing the roof on a country mansion means the roof leaks, not fixing something on a boat means you and your family could die.



Do you even know that it is still cyclone season in FP at the moment?


What you are suggesting is akin to a first flying lesson on a commercial airliner, on a long haul flight with 200 passengers on board, with no maintenance or ground crew.



I hate throwing cold water on peoples dreams and I wish you every success in your adventure.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Paul.

[Snore]

Paul

Let me start with complimenting you for asking before the purchase. I have delivered boats for many who purchased then sought guidance.

In business when you had a new or unusual situation, you sought out a competent consultant, or hired someone with the relevant skills. Your new adventure should be looked at in the same manner.

Suggest that you start with what the insurance carriers will require. I have taken an owner and his friend from non-boaters to being able to handle a Saba 50, in coastal waters, and their insurance company accepted that. But a 62 is a lot more boat!

Once insurance is worked out, now look at boats. But as a newbie you may not be able to see the value, or lack thereof, in a vessel. Having someone like Bob Perry, who is a yacht designer, or someone else to mentor you through the process. Your mentor could also be the delivery captain that you plan on using.

During the purchase phase you should also be taking some basic classes. Independent studying would include reading up on the physics of sailing and weather and radar.

Finally, when the boat is purchased you should be part of the delivery crew.

[belizesailor]

Have you considered the option of building some experience first before you plunk down $1M and make a major life style change all at once to something you know very little about?

[sailingabe41ds]

Whatever happened to...I bought a Capri 16, then moved up to a Catalina 25, followed by a Hunter 36, and finally I have my Jeanneau 41DS. Oh, and in the process I learned alot. I learned so much that I decided my trip around the world was reduced to just going up and down the west coast of the US/Canada/Mexico when the times comes.
I am so glad I did not buy that Jenneau 40 something as my first boat 30 years ago.
You are in the UK, know very little to nothing about sailing and you are going to move into a boat in Tahiti. Not a good idea. I would read what Tupaia stated over and over again till it is memorized.

Seriously, good luck to the OP....but do you homework, practice a lot, and learn to fix things before you leave the shores.

Abe

[Cool Hand Luke]

Originally Posted by smj

Paying a retainer to a guy on a forum named PirateGuy..............

Classic

[Cool Hand Luke]

Just to throw in my 2 cents... unlike sailingabe41ds, I actually did buy my SO409 as my first boat. I'm not saying what he did was right or what I did was right, but to each his own... everyone is different and every person has their own wants, needs, desires, etc. Also, every one of us is in a different financial position, different age (hence, different amount of time left on this Earth), etc. If you want it... GO FOR IT!

Learn a lot... it's fun learning about your own vessel. I love my SO409 and couldn't see myself in any other boat as my first boat.

Definitely hire a good surveyor... possibly two different ones. Be safe and come back here with questions.

We're all in this together...

[MIRELOS]

...AT FIRST YOU ROW A LITTLE BOAT
Believe that's the name of a wonderful book, good short read about boats and life.
I started with 25, 27, 35 and now 60...years of experience.
BUT, I have a friend who purchased a new 50' cat, loaded up his family and crossed the ocean......so ask yourself...am I ready?

[yeloya]

Hi Paul,

I have no clues how novice you are in sailing, but it really doesn't matter.. What it matters is how much you want to become, how much time and funds you have to be a good sailor enough to do a circumnavigation with a 62 ft cat.
To start with 62 ft cat, is not a good idea as a first boat. I am also not big fun of Sunreef boats, they are heavy, not easy to handle and I know that they had many quality issues. (we have repaired couple of them..)
1 mio USD is a lot of money, I would spend a small portion of it to charter a boat of different size, if possible with someone who can teach you. Once you feel yrself comfortable with it, you would have enough experience to judge which kind of cat would fit yr requirements the best. I'd doubted that this will be a Sunreef 62..

Cheers

Yeloya