wow, some excellent feedback... I mean it.
I currently am pricing over 80 line items that must be done once the
purchase is made. Many of them gathered right here in this forum. "There's a good one, let's research it and add it too the list."
So far the dream is still attainable... as far as finances go.
Yep... and... Yep ... oh and yep on that one too! =D We know that a boat is just one big money pit... goes with the territory. [We
sold our
monohull... (all the yes' have been made, just waiting on paperwork)] ... guarenteed... we put way more into that boat than what we got for it.
We see the prices... we are making comprimises. The first boats we everr looked at was a Yapluka 72 footer... wow... what a sailing machine - reality is, we will NEVER own one of those--- so we are working down from there.
We are thinking if we get one for 200k and sink 100k into it, that would get us a pretty nice boat. And the 100k would not have to be all at one time either. We bought our 1998 40'
hunter sloop in 2000 for 29k... it was in bad shape... when they pulled her from the water, she had 3 feet of green moss hanging from the
hull. We then spent over a year getting her back in shape... probably another 30k worth of goodies,
repairs, and gadgets. ... and then a bunch of nickle and diming that is incaculable ... probably well into the 10's of thousands.... in the end, after almost a year after we put the forsale sign on her, we settled for 62k... and I think the young couple that bought it from us will have some good times. (they were the ONLY couple who even looked at her... but all it took was that one look...). If you put "40' hunter forsale" in any search
engine... we consider ourselve extremely lucky.
We love the sea and can hardly wait to get back to it. But this time we want to
liveaboard... travel comfortably... see the world instead of the surrounding waters of the marina (or
Puget Sound - our old sailing grounds) and...
.... the most important reason behind this is...
... my wife said she wants a cat! =) I spoil her as much as I can! Is there any arguing beyond this point? LOL
We are prepared for the big bills that come in the beginning... and the blood letting drain on the pocket book that follows. As the old adage goes: The only way to begin a journey is to take that first step.
A famous person said this about sailing but I forget who: "As long as it floats, I think we can
work from there." [or it goes something like this.]
Again thanks for the the info... good stuff!