New here: lots and lots and lots of questions :)

[Bella Ciao]

@Plan D
I am in a similar situation as you but I am not jumping into purchasing a catamaran right now. Learn traditional Navigation, coastal sailing and beyond, Diesel engines and maintenance, get certified in a few areas and become proficient in it, get scuba certified, and get on a few transoceanic trips as a crew member and much more. Get some hands on experience and gain confidence before you make the purchase. Also remember, you’d have about 15% of the value of the boat into maintenance each year plus living expenses. Make sure you’ve sorted out your ongoing expenses and how you would be earning while sailing and no you won’t make enough money from YouTube (if that’s what you think). Learn/develop a skill that’ll help you get gigs to work remotely and help you keep afloat. Btw, look into Seawind 1260 or Lagoon 42. If I were to purchase one today, it would have been Seawind 1260. Big enough for 1-2 people living aboard and plenty space to have friends over to “party”. Smaller the boat, lower the maintenance cost. Also, if you are a people person, it may be challenging to live by yourself on a boat for extended periods of time. So finding a co-sailor or a romantic interest to sail with you shall be crucial. Btw, I am no expert, so take my words with grain of salt.

[Tom and Maje]

I'd advise you to learn to sail before you buy a boat. Not because you need to know how to sail to have a boat, but it will help you know what you really want in a boat. You'll be surprised by how the importance of some things over other things will change. Since you're looking at production boats, you can take lessons on them and/or charter them. That gives you an even better idea. My husband was in love with the older L46. We had lessons on one and after trying to cook in the galley while getting tossed around we went with an L40. I can easily brace myself in that galley. We also had lessons on a L43. That's when I decided that I really didn't want the engine under my bunk. There are also all sorts of safety things that one overlooks before one knows how to sail.

Good luck,

Maje

[nortonscove]

Sailing short handed or as a couple, or with unacquainted crew for that matter, my first thought would be which helms are best set up for coming alongside with minimal assistance. Think jumping from the helm on a gusty day hoping to get a line ashore before the big cat blows off and into someone's bigger and vastly more expensive cat.

[JPA Cate]

Hello, Plan D,

I was struck by your comment that you don't like tiller steered outboard motors. I routinely have driven our 3.4 m. dinghy with its 15 hp Yamaha 2 stroke for about the last 17 years...and the dinghies before it. For us the 15 is quite a satisfactory size. I have also, for the past 8 years, driven periodically, a console dinghy for our sailing club, which offers the race boats' crews rides into the club and back out, so they don't have to bring dinghies when other clubs race to our venue. It serves as a chase boat for the kids sailing lessons, as well. The console dinghy has a 25 hp o/b, and while it is both more powerful and slightly larger overall than our dinghy, our RIB is much easier to manage. Jim and I hoist it for passages, and do not often tow it. Towing dinghies slows the mother boat.

My sense of it is that the tiller steered dinghy is much easier to drive well. The steering is far more direct. My driving can be precise. Both types of inflatables get blown around easily in slow speed tight maneuvering, and the tiller steered is a lot easier to recover than the console with its 4 turns lock to lock. It isn't the effort involved, it is the directness that is key. I would not bother with a console type dinghy. It may look "cool", but they are far heavier, and for that reason are prone to breaking all but over-engineered davits. They are not safely towable, particularly at sea.

Good luck with your project.

Ann

[joelhemington]

Please remember that sailboats are NOT liquid assets. If you don't believe me just go and look at any boat yard with all the pocket cruisers on the hard with a for sale sign on half of them. Contrary to the popular belief here, that you should buy the smallest boat possible, I say get the one you want up front and fit it out as you practice and find what makes sense to you. any money you spend on that smaller boat will be dust when you try to unload it to get your dream boat. Catamarans have one big drawback - you need to be cruising as they cost an arm and a leg to dock most places. In addition, I am a firm believer in having 24/7 watch while underway so that means a minimum of three hands on board. Yes, I realize that many couples circumnavigate quite successfully with just two people on board - but that means a lot of sleep deprivation for both parties which can't be enjoyable or optimally safe when TSHTF.

Should you purchase your boat on the east coast, I'd recommend contacting Dave (Auspicious) in the Chesapeake Bay area to do the survey with you and hire him to take you sailing for a bit once the boat is yours. He can shave a big slice off the learning curve for you. While classes are nice, ultimately you will be the captain of your new boat (which carries a lot of responsibility) so knowing your boat inside and out is the most useful thing you can do upfront.

[CaptRehab]

I am not surprised that isolating at home during the pandemic brings out lots of dreamers. I started dreaming about the lifestyle back in 78’. On a 3 week charter in 84’ I made buying a boat to sail the Caribbean my retirement goal. Despite the fact that 1 week into my retirement cruising lifestyle I found myself in 14 day quarantine in Grenada, I would not abandon my plan. I have a 9 year old Nautitech 441 catamaran and I am very happy with my choice, but I need to rely on years of experience and skill to even get by while locked down on my boat. I knew my anchor was undersized and did not trust it. Sure enough it dragged twice but only resulted in requiring me to move to a mooring and purchase a new anchor which I had already budgeted. After a month on the mooring I noticed my mooring lines were badly chaffed. I dug out new lines to hold me until the Government allowed the chandleries to open. Now I spliced some thimbles onto 1” lines and made a proper mooring bridle. I also had serious issues with keeping my batteries charged. I have struggled to keep them going so I can run my refrigerator. I made headway with a new solar charge controller but I need to replace the bank. If I shell out $8K and wait for some uncertain amount of months, I can get a new bank delivered to the island. In the meantime I monitor the charge every day and run an engine when needed . I needed to fix the VHF to communicate with other cruisers and found the problem to be in a poorly installed antenna cable splitter which I bypassed. Now I am happy to touch up varnish and service the winches. Living the dream is a commitment to building the skills and doing the work yourself. It may be scary and it is difficult but even in lockdown on a mooring I am happy to be here.
My point is you will be more likely to succeed as a novice if you get a small simple boat to start with. If you have no experience and you get a large complex yacht you are likely to find yourself in trouble and unable to handle it without help and often at great cost. If you are serious about escaping, spend the next year getting the basic skills and finding a well loved small boat. Nobody is going on long voyages right now.
Good luck, and maybe next year we will see you in the Caribbean.

[petermjdavies]

Hi. You've got a lot of responses. I agree with the folk who say that it would be good to acquire some experience before you go spending big bucks. I'm sure you can find cat sailors in your area.

I'm from the UK. There are cats here but WAY more monohulls. One reason is cost and availability of moorings. While I don't want to start any kind of pissing contest between mono and multi hull fans, you owe it to yourself to at least try a mono hull.

Bigger isn't always better, but it is always more expensive. And the systems you need to know become way more complex. I'm sure you are a pretty useful person, but....

1. Can you maintain and service fridges and freezers?
2. Do you understand gas safety?
3. Can you pull apart a watermaker?
4. How is your knowledge of 12/24v systems? Have you ever done troubleshooting on loose wiring?
5. How are you on boat local area networks like NMEA 2000?
6. Do you know how to work with holding tanks?
7. How do you maintain/correct charts on your planned boat?
8. Have you ever repaired a sail?
9. How do autopilots work?

Depending on your sailing area, your budget, your capabilities and knowledge, these are all things that could make the difference between a great life aboard or a disaster.

By way of explanation, I have just moved up from a 28ft sailboat to a 33 ft sailboat. Even with that small move I have added built in autopilot with gyro compass, hot water heating, extensive battery capacity with alternative charging systems, holding tank, a bunch more inlet holes in the boat, etc. Oh and radar for the first time. Previously had AIS but no radar. All are new systems to me. Havent got any where near freezers, local area networks, wifi or network extenders.

I definitely don't want to dampen your enthusiasm. Go for it! But buying a 45foot boat isn't the right first step unless you have at least some of the skills mentioned. And you should have most of them before you decide to cruise in areas where help and skills may be hard to find or expensive.

[petermjdavies]

Some great advice here.

[s/v Breakaway]

One other comment, even if you have the money to hire-out most of the maintenance, which will be considerable on a large boat, skilled technicians are hard to find and usually very busy. I have waited weeks for a fuel problem fix, and I live on the Chesapeake Bay, which is loaded with chandleries and boat yards!

[David Mathis]

You don’t know how to sail and want to start with a 45-50 foot boat? And you want to have non-sailing friends come aboard to help. This has the potential to be as successful as a skeet shoot and badminton tournament at the school for the blind. Have you noticed that marinas commonly have boats of the size you’re considering for purchase that never leave the dock? Perhaps the owner takes them for one very short cruise during which he quickly learns that he is far over his head in trying to operate what he envisioned would be an easy step up from the Sunfish that he learned to sail at summer camp 20 years ago.
Before buying a boat of this size and complexity, learn to sail and spend considerable time on a boat this size, not just during the times of gentle breezes, but also during nasty weather. Then decide.
Have you considered a trawler? They’re much easier to handle when alone than a sailboat of the same size.

[Plan D]

So much great advice here. Thank you all for your contributions.
I've been slow to respond because I'm still working my ass off trying to save my business.
I have a long, steep and treacherous hill in front of me. I'm in the yoga/cycle/organized fitness world. Who knows what's gonna happen with my industry. Scary times.

Just to be clear, I'm not the type of person who would just go buy a boat and figure it out under way. I would start with sailing lessons, chartering, educating myself in every way possible.
I started here because I can't actively pursue other means of learning at the moment. But this life does excite me if my professional wings get clipped.

I've learned so much from this thread and this forum already.

Please keep on sharing information. I'm still excited

[mglonnro]

It's all great!

Especially Adelie's first comment that wanting to be a sailor is crazy

Everything about sailing is a compromise!

Tweaking one parameter in a positive way will tweak some others in a negative way.

For me, docking and close quarters handling are the most stressful aspects of sailing, so the smaller the boat, the better. Out on the sea, and being new to it all, you have hundreds (or thousands ) of mistakes and screw-ups ahead of you, and here too a smaller sail area, a smaller boat, less power in the rigging, will mean less potential damage to the boat and yourself whenever whatever happens.

On the other hand-- everything about sailing is falling in love with the boat when you see it. Who cares about the rest? It's crazy and irrational, and the best thing that has ever happened to you.

[Nahbrown]

You’ve obviously done your research with regards to boats in your budget. I recommend taking a live aboard Sailing course To ensure that sailing is for you. If you find that sailing isn't for you then buy a Power cat instead.

We did exactly that and learned a ton and confirmed that we loved sailing. There are many choices but we went with LTD Sailing in Grenada. We sailed a Leopard 44 for a week and got our ASA certs which helps with insurance as well.

[flagatorclearwa]

How ironic. I drafted a long first post for this forum and then decided to keep reading threads and came across this one. Obviously I'm not the only guy rethinking his life right now! A lot of great advice and warnings here, and some of my questions have been answered. I especially liked the "YouTube is not real life" comments. I do have some questions not really addressed yet, so I'll just post what I had drafted:

I’m a 59 year old Floridian who, until a couple of months ago, lived in Clearwater. A few years ago I became convinced the U.S. was headed for hard times and I needed to make my business as lean as possible. I developed software to totally automate and virtualize my business. Now I can run it in a few hours per week from anywhere as long as I can access the internet. As my company sells a business service to restaurants, hotels, retail stores, etc. my business is on ice anyway, and I have no idea what the future holds for it. Early this year I felt like time was running out for the real estate bubble, so I listed my home and the commercial property where I built my company in Clearwater. My house sold in March and I moved up to rural north Florida to my vacation home on the Suwanee River. The commercial property just went under contract, so in a month or two I will be cashed out of all hard assets other than my river house. I’m secure financially.

I’ve been killing myself working for 30 years, and I’m ready for some changes. If I’m lucky I have maybe 10-15 years left to be physically active and live life. As much as I love my place here in Dixie County, I know I can’t live here full time permanently. I can only pontoon boat for so long. I’m bored out of my mind. As I’ve anticipated some life changes for a while, I've done some preparation. I’ve spent many months travelling throughout Mexico and Central America, thinking about the possibility of becoming an expat. I have permanent residency visas in both Mexico and Panama. I speak a little Spanish and I pick it up pretty quickly. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a YouTube channel called Project Atticus about a couple that restored a project boat and have been cruising the Caribbean. Something clicked in me. It seemed a lot more interesting than living in a glass skyscraper in Panama or a beach house in Mexico. I started binge-watching. Then I found this forum and have been binge-reading. I’ve spent hours looking at boats on yachtworld.com. I’ve found even more YouTube channels, including Sailing Parlay Revival. I’ve renovated many homes in my years, so I could relate to the project. After hundreds of hours immersed in this stuff, I think I have more questions than answers.

I’ve been boating for over 20 years, and handled my most recent boat, a 41 SeaRay Sundancer, with no problem. I’m familiar with the basic systems and comfortable with most maintenance and minor repairs. From having the Sundancer, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to go back to a large powerboat. I’m too cheap to go very far burning 25 gallons of diesel an hour, and the places that interest me are out of range on a boat like that anyway. I have nothing but time, so sailing seems like a good option.

Am I too old? Sailing seems to require a whole different level of physicality than power boating. I watch the guy on Project Atticus strap into a harness and hoist himself to the top of the mast to fix the rigging. He makes it look easy, but he’s 28. I’m not sure I can do that.

Am I starting too late? Can I learn enough in a reasonable timeframe to safely cruise the Caribbean? Power boating up and down the ICW and 20 miles out into the gulf is as adventurous as I ever got. BTW I have no aspirations to cross the Atlantic. Just the Caribbean (including the Mexican and Central American coast).

Can I do it alone? I’m single, and I’ve yet to see a YouTube sailing channel that is one guy doing it alone. I can afford a newer boat, so has newer technology made being solo more feasible? If not, how hard is it to find one or more people who would go with me?

In considering vessel types, I’m pretty sure a cat is what I’d like. First, the wide beam just seems safer and more stable. Second, I like being above the waterline. I hated being below on my Sundancer. I only went down there to sleep. I wouldn’t say I’m claustrophobic, but I like a little space and headroom, and I like to see outside. I like the confidence of having two engines, and assuming it works on a cat like it did on my dual-engine Sundancer, it makes maneuvering in the marina and docking much easier. I also like my creature comforts. I want ample fridge and freezer, an icemaker, and at least AC in the master berth. I can’t sleep in heat. The 38-45 Leopards and Lagoons the charters use look awesome.

I saw a smart suggestion on a blog called The Boat Galley: charter the boat you think you like. Are charters running in the Caribbean? It seems like everything is still locked down. If I charter, can I hire a skipper that will teach me about the basics of sailing so I can decide whether to take the plunge?

I would gladly crew for free to learn, but of course no one wants crew (even for free) that has no sailing knowledge or experience.

Is this whole idea silly and should I just take up golf?

[Captn_Black]

I've seen a couple that hung a net over their beam for their cat, in case it fell overboard in the night. I don't know if this would work for your dog, but perhaps is worth thinking about.