World Cir / Cat Type / Expenses / Too old to start?

[jdazey]

Condition is more important than age. We considered a couple of the Danson Outremers. One in good condition should be capable. Look for fresh sails, low hours on engines (or new), standing rigging. Those items should tell the story of how it's been maintained, but you'll need to check everything out.

[Tin Tin]

A 38ft cat will get you round the world, in the $200k price bracket. One of things to look at when living aboard for long periods of time is the sleeping arrangements. If you get a faster skinny hulled cat chances are you will have beds where you need to crawl over your partner in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or vice versa, high set beds are a PITA for us older folk.
The other issue is 90% of the time will be at anchor, and the rear cockpit becomes the place to relax, have an afternoon nap, have meals rather than inside, especially in warmer climates. Given the above the boats that lend themselves to this are Lagoon 380- 400, FP Athena/Lavezzi (Maybe a Mahe), Leopard 38 - 40. Walk through cockpits from the sugar scoops are also nice to have , as are engines in their own compartments.

There might be a few others but the above will make up the majority available on the market. You won't get semi island style beds until later model 42ft+ and will be double the price.

[chris mac]

I would recomend (admittedly a biased viewpoint) looking at lagoon TPI's. Either the 37 or 42. They are definately older 1990-1995 but very well put together, seaworthy, and have great sailing capabilities.
The 42 will be at the edge of your budget and the 37 well within it.
If you want any first hand knowledge or opinion on them, I am glad to share my experience.

[teneicm]

YMMV, but here's a take from our recent 10 yr circumnav on a cat. $3.5k a month, on average, is probably doable, but tight. For us (family of 4) we usually averaged around 2,000 - 2,500 a month BUT that didn't include the many times where we stopped for repairs, or had major work done when all of a sudden we found we we're dropping 10k+ in a month. So on average 3.5k is probably just OK for 2 folks.


The 200k for a circumnav ready cat is going to be tough. I've seen what 200k gets you, and it's typically a ex-charter, bare bones boat that needs a lot of re-fit and/or additional equipment to make it liveaboard and ocean transiting ready. Realistically, I'd say you might need another 50-100k for your boat budget (but you might get lucky and find a great deal).


If the budget is tight, consider a mono. Less overall maintenance costs per foot, and you could get a boat ready to go in the 40ft range for around 100k. Either way, good luck and hope you do it. It's an amazing experience.

[wingssail]

I don't think your ages are a problem if you are fit and flexible. Boating lifestyle is active. Are you active now?

Your monthly budget is probably sufficient, though not in the "comfortable" category but I wonder about the underlying "cruising kitty". In addition to monthly you will have annual expenses (Travel, boat refit projects, annual maintenance, etc). You need to be aware that these will occur and plan to fund them. You won't want to dip into your investments to pay for a bottom job. And one more money point. A $200,000 catamaran may require some upgrades or repairs. You will need to fund those and they can be expensive. Your $200K boat may cost $300k before you are ready to depart.

But I would ask a more basic question: What is your motive for doing this? Do you have plenty of boating experience and know that you will love it? I'd think that a slow start, with local cruising and living aboard for some period would be useful. Many people do not take to cruising and you'd feel foolish taking a big jump and then finding you don't like it. Plus the investment might be lost.

Many people will urge you to "just do it" but I think that quite a few newbies find they don't like it after all.

[Cynara]

Ie your wife sold on this plan

[jalmberg]

The plan is great. My wife and I just did a transatlantic at 68. The one modification I’d make would be to sell the house and invest the proceeds. This will save a lot of hassle and boost your income if need be. After circumnavigating you probably will have a different view of the world and my not want to return’home’ afterwards, anyway.

[django37]

Wife and I started round the world when we retired at age 69. Sold the house, the cars and even the dog. No trouble at all underway. Now home in Denmark at age 77, and we have memories for the rest of our lives