Visit our Popular Forums

gsuescum · 24-10-2018, 10:58

Good luck with your adventure. I am in the same boat as you so to speak, but have already done a weekend US Sailing Basic Keelboat course last year and then I found a beat up old Hobie Cat 16 that I rebuilt and have been sailing for over a year now on the lake behind our house. I am signed up for ASA 101 & 103 courses in November, and just put a deposit down today on a 40' cat the week of July 4th in the Abacos next year.

I would recommend that you start sailing ASAP. Doesnt matter, mono or cat, just get out there and sail.[/QUOTE]

==================
Rabbi -
I agree totally with the get out sailing asap. Really would help.

FYI - I did my second charter of my life in the Abacos on a 45' Lagoon (to try one out). One thing they did not tell us in the briefing and something that I think is important; as you are entering Hopetown Harbor call out on CH16 and announce you're entering and describe your boat. i.e. "This is 45 ft sailing catamaran Albatros. Be advised we are entering the Hopetown Harbor channel now."

What they didn't tell us at the briefing is that the entrance channel is really super narrow and has a blind turn so you can't see if or who's coming out. There are ferries blowing in and out of there all the time and you want them to let you know if they are departing as they will not stop and will barrel through. We were at the wider entrance of the channel had coral just off our stbd side with the a big ferry flying by at 25 kts just off our port side. I would have rather waited the 3 minutes for that ferry to have cleared (I do it now anywhere that is tight, especially if it's a new harbor).

I'd do the same on Man O War Cay too. Their entrance is also super tight with a blind turn to port.

The Abacos were super beautiful. Enjoy!!

ssmoot · 24-10-2018, 11:24

Sorry if I missed it, but did you give a time-table for buying a boat?

Today you can get a Seawind 1160 for a bit over $300K. That'd be my choice. They aren't the most impressive boats in pictures, but get to a boat show and take a tour in-person. They're the ideal cruising boat for a couple I think.

They're simpler boats with more manageable sails. The galley is awesome (I'm the cook) compared to other boats it's size from "the big three". More ventilation than any other boat I've seen. More natural light. A combined living space between the salon and cockpit. The cockpit is family sized, not party sized, but still gives you room to spread out. The salon is huge! They use glass for the windows instead of plastic.

There's just a lot to like about the boats once you see them in person. Not to mention the fact that they're cored with closed cell foam, so you don't have to worry about a weakened core because someone didn't seal a screw properly. I think that's enough to consider a much older boat than you might otherwise as long as you liked the look of it.

/2c

Byrdman · 24-10-2018, 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsuescum

FYI - I did my second charter of my life in the Abacos on a 45' Lagoon (to try one out). One thing they did not tell us in the briefing and something that I think is important; as you are entering Hopetown Harbor call out on CH16 and announce you're entering and describe your boat. i.e. "This is 45 ft sailing catamaran Albatros. Be advised we are entering the Hopetown Harbor channel now."

What they didn't tell us at the briefing is that the entrance channel is really super narrow and has a blind turn so you can't see if or who's coming out. There are ferries blowing in and out of there all the time and you want them to let you know if they are departing as they will not stop and will barrel through. We were at the wider entrance of the channel had coral just off our stbd side with the a big ferry flying by at 25 kts just off our port side. I would have rather waited the 3 minutes for that ferry to have cleared (I do it now anywhere that is tight, especially if it's a new harbor).

I'd do the same on Man O War Cay too. Their entrance is also super tight with a blind turn to port.

The Abacos were super beautiful. Enjoy!!

Thanks for the Awesome tip! I'm really looking forward to this trip!!

gsuescum · 24-10-2018, 12:27

Brydman, a lot of the Abacos is really shallow. When you’ve narrowed you boat choices to just a few, pick the one with the shallowes draft!

Byrdman · 24-10-2018, 13:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsuescum

Brydman, a lot of the Abacos is really shallow. When you’ve narrowed you boat choices to just a few, pick the one with the shallowes draft!

I have already reserved a Sunsail 404 w/ 4'1"(1.25m) draft. I am familiar with the Abacos, Treasure, MH, GT, Spanish, Great Guana. I have a friend that has a house on GT that I have been to quite a few times but only on fishing boats, not sail. I have also been down to Hope Town on a fishing boat.

Since that is 4th of July week, a lot of boats were already reserved due to Cheeseburger in Paradise Party (AKA Stranded Naked) on Fiddler on the 2nd. If anyone plans to be there, let me know!

Byrdman

MasterJib · 25-10-2018, 06:42

Hi KingGuppy,

I noticed your post, particularly the part about making money whilst cruising. The reason being that I work for a peer-to-peer platform and sailing community that allows private boat owners to offer charters directly to potential guests.
Providing you have the right licenses and abide by local laws, it can be a great way to make money and also meet new people as well.

If it's of interest, check out Antlos, and if you have any questions just let me know.

I wish you the best of luck with it all!

Fair winds :-)

Smart555 · 25-10-2018, 13:19

Hello! We were in the same position as you last year! We lived in Florida and were dreaming about full time sailing, freedom and we’re looking for a boat for traveling. We didn’t have experience with sailing, only were familiar with operating the powerboats. We spent some time making research and trying to figure out what boat is more suitable and comfortable for our family. We took a look at about 20 boats and made a conclusion that we needed a catamaran 38-45” with budget of up to 300k
We went on searching for the catamaran in Florida. We had been chosen from Leopard, Lagoon and Admiral. Time was passing by but we still couldn’t find anything suitable because of either bad condition or poor equipment ( no generator, solar panels, watermaker). Or it was too expensive.
Finally we got our luck here in this forum when found an advertisement about selling the Lagoon 40” 2011 by owner.
Previous owners had been traveling around the Caribbean and the boat was situated in Antigua!
We had to increase our budget a little bit and got exactly what we wanted ( with almost all options for long term cruising)!
If you have a chance please come and watch a funny video tour that our daughters have made on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/eGzDuZL3XA4

As a result we have bought our boat in the Caribbean!
First we thought of hiring the professional captain to move it to Florida and during first year step by step learn the art of sailing along the Florida Keys. But then we changed our mind and decided to fly to Antigua with the whole family, take some sailing course there and return to Florida by ourselves. Said and done!
We spent 1,5 months sailing and hoping island to island from Antigua to St.Thomas enjoying our journey... and then unexpectedly for ourselves made a decision to go on sailing the Caribbean and change our plans and way of living. We turned around and after 4 days nonstop passage South across the Caribbean Sea we got to Grenada where during hurricane season have staying safely and preparing to new adventures!

Concerning your questions:

We prefer Caribbean because of more lasting season and good climates. Probably some day we would sail to Europe.

About Internet connection.
We installed Iridium go with unlimited package for 140$/month but it’s suitable only for calls, messages and limited access to email not for surfing the Internet.
Generally we use it for updating the forecast along with PredictWind.
Also we have WiFi buster which is helpful device when you stay on anchorage and can find free WiFi or buy access to some cruisers network. Honestly, good internet connection is pain for cruisers and often we need to look for cafe with free WiFi.

The success with negotiation depends on the offer price ....
You can count on 5-7% off with a good offer or even more if the price was too high.

The name of the boat have to be easy to memorize and clear to be heard when pronounced by VHF

The reasonable budget is around 25k $ if you’re handy and can do something by yourself. Anyway you have to plan some budget for start: for some upgrades and maintenance.

And one more moment. Be aware that maintenance, repairs and taking care of the boat will take more than 50% of time and then enjoying of snorkeling, sightseeing, walking around the islands, chilling by the beaches and drinking cocktails in tiki bars

)

Good luck and fill free if you have more questions.

Salt to Sea · 05-08-2019, 19:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by smj

Just gotta smile at this one[emoji38]

I hope he’s able to achieve his dream. I’m learning to sail on a Hobie Holder and will upgrade when ready - with dreams of spending the summers sailing with my family. But, calling 12% a bad return was great. You should defiantly expect 20% returns on average forever. I can’t see why we’d ever get back to terrible returns like 12%.

smj · 05-08-2019, 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt to Sea

I hope he’s able to achieve his dream. I’m learning to sail on a Hobie Holder and will upgrade when ready - with dreams of spending the summers sailing with my family. But, calling 12% a bad return was great. You should defiantly expect 20% returns on average forever. I can’t see why we’d ever get back to terrible returns like 12%.

His 2018 returns were a negative 6.5%, I guess you could consider that worse than terrible?