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Randyonr3 · 12-04-2012, 11:57

Had a kid walk up to me last week, I say kid, he was about 25, and mentioned that I was "LUCKY" to have the boat I did and traveling the way my wife and I do..........
Got me to thinking about it and, Dont see any luck to it...
I started working just out of the service (vietnam vet), and my one job turned into three, as a welder durring the day, working in a service station on weekends and delivering papers at night..
And after a couple years, I had saved enough to put down on a House..

And other than a sailing dink, I didnt own a larger boat until my mid 40s, and that being a Catalina 22..

So over the years, I've scrimped, saved, worked 14 hour days and done without to get where we are today..
For Me, its been a long hard grind to achive this lifestyle........

I think there are some out there that need a "Reality Check" on what it takes to Purchase, own, maintain, and keep a vessel in opperation..

Lowcountry · 12-04-2012, 12:14

Well, "lucky" is often used synonymously with "fortunate." I think that was probably what he meant.

anotherT34C · 12-04-2012, 12:25

Sure I jumped through the appropriate hoops, but I was just stone cold lucky to have been born into a professional class american family that valued education. And sure, I bothered to go to college and graduate school, but I was again stone cold lucky to have been born with a mechanical and mathematical aptitude that allowed me entry into my profession.

Yes, I worked hard, but so do lots of folks. I was (am) extremely lucky.

zeehag · 12-04-2012, 12:48

worked my ASS off in intensive care and emergency room and post anes care nursing---overtime and double overtime--and i still had to steal my formosa from my neighbor---he hurt her so i had to save her....lucky to have had her as a neighbor, also lucky to have been a successful sweet-talker....

Mark1977 · 12-04-2012, 13:02

How did i get my boat? I worked and then worked some more. Still working, sometimes 30 hours straight on the deck of a fishing boat in a gale of wind, just to make some money to spend time on my own.

Matt sachs · 12-04-2012, 13:10

I was under the sand blast hood in the sun sweating my ass off the other day when I had my reality check. I asked myself if this is what I had in mind when I bought the boat. I said yes. Then I fussed at myself for talking to me to much...and went back to work. The voices in my head tell me I'm not insane...yet.

Amapola · 12-04-2012, 13:52

Like you and other posters, we worked hard and saved. We planned our future with care. We bought what we could afford and traded up when we could afford it. We are finally living the dream. We spend six months at anchor and cruising the Caribbean.

RabidRabbit · 12-04-2012, 13:56

Yea its the same story over and over, Work hard, save, work harder. I suspect some people will work way harder than many of us here and will never get to cruise or even get their famiily out of poverty. So yes I'm lucky to be out cruising and lucky enough to work smarter not harder. My parents always said save first then 50 years later relax. I didn't buy into that, and I still get atitude because I'm not 1950's family normal, like I'm a slacker, took the easy way, coulda got a house first, a real cop out to be sailing when i never put the time into conformist america. All Bullship. Many a ditch digger work very hard and won't ever leave the rat race. To say that luck had nothing to do with it is sorta crap. Makes you sound like the 1%. I doubt many people work 40 years with a cruising goal in mind from the start. I think more likely it slowly grows on them and then 10 years from retirement they put it into action. To then say "I worked hard my whole life to have this boat" is inaccurate. Waiting till retirement was a choice, coulda been a quiter. Quit and split. Whatever choice, still lucky to have 2 options,

rlaribee · 12-04-2012, 14:42

I haven't applied this approach to long-distance cruising yet, and have been considering it for several years now. However, I can say I've loved/owned 3 sloops (H25, P26, and C&C27), one at a time over 12 years. The Hunter and C&C had had previous owners who could no longer sail, were paying monthly storage fees, and were desperate to get out from under. The Pearson had been abandoned. I was able to acquire each one for a song. Each required a lot of TLC, but mostly elbow grease -- not much expense. It helped that I have a friend with a dock -- who loved having me tie up there. It also helped that I have no addiction to toys. After sailing each for several years, I easily sold each one for slightly more my total expenses (to acquire, restore, license, insure, fuel, sail, haul, store, and to give my dock-owner friend and his wife an occasional appreciation gift). I'm not saying that everyone can manage to sail for free. I was definitely lucky. But I'm confident that if one has the patience to wait until opportunity presents itself (luck?), it is possible to sail the heck out of old boats, nourish your soul, and have fabulous fun with friends -- without breaking the bank. (Long term goal: To do this with long-distance cruising!)

**Hudson Force** · 12-04-2012, 15:09

My wife and I financed our three boats and we both worked for 32 years while living aboard. Never buying a house was an aide to our boat ownership. We've been cruising and retired for ten years now, but we paid much in dues,- no "silver spoons" here!

JRM · 12-04-2012, 15:13

Call it what you like, luck, providence, or karma, but I think it's the height of hubris to say that I "earned" my boat. I don't believe in luck, but it's the most neutral of the possible descriptions, so I'll use the term.

I was lucky to be born to an American family that had a home. I was lucky enough to have been born with decent physical and passable mental faculties. I was lucky to break a leg when I was 12 and get dropped from my competitive soccer team so I started officiating, which taught me the joy of income and economics at a young age. I was lucky enough to get hired as a trencher for an electrician, and lucky enough to have the faculties to work my tail off and move up. I was lucky enough that they opened a specialized technology school, one of the first of its kind, right when I was eligible to enter.

I was lucky I had a father who drilled into me the pitfalls of debt, who was the first in his family to graduate high school, and who lived as an example of what lots of hard work and integrity can do. I was lucky enough to go to college at a time when by working and not partying too hard I could afford to pay as I went and start my first career debt free.

I was amazingly lucky enough to find a young lady who, although from a much more affluent background, was not only smart and a hard worker, but had such poor judgement that she agreed to marry me. I was lucky enough to find an absolute dump of a house in a really nice neighborhood, and doubly lucky that at the time Uncle Sam was handing out loans with 2% down. I was lucky enough to have had several jobs in construction so that I had acquired the skills fix it up myself.

I was lucky enough to sell that place for enough profit to buy the dump of a ranch we had. I was lucky enough that my new next door neighbor was so glad that someone was willing to fix the eyesore next door that he loaned me his tractor, backhoe, and any tools I needed but couldn't afford and often came over to lend a hand and expertise.

I was lucky enough to always find myself in the right job at the right time, and to have fallen backwards into the Internet game before the boom. I was lucky enough to be involved in a startup, and lucky enough to get completely screwed in the first sale, which taught me the valuable lesson that there are no friendships in business. I was lucky enough that because of my hard work there, I was able to negotiate some of what I should have gotten to stay on with the new owners, and was lucky enough that it took off. I was also lucky enough that when that first startup folded and my ex-friend was sued for fraud and lost his ass, since I had been completely cut out of the profits I was also completely cut out of the liability and loss.

I was lucky enough to sell that ranch at the height of the market and have enough, with some help, to buy our current place near the coast, and to have the coin to fix it up just how I wanted it. I was lucky enough to have a wife with such poor judgement that she agreed and supported me leaving the rat race of the corporate world and taking my childhood dream job of a firefighter. I was lucky enough to get hired from the first interview I was granted, and crazy lucky that a guy who say behind a desk for that many years was able to get through a frighteningly rigorous training academy.

I was lucky enough that I had been raised to live within my means, so that I wasn't overextended or drowning in debt when the bottom fell out of the economy and my home value dropped by half.

So yeah, I'm so lucky to have a boat and be able to sail. I may not be lucky enough to leave everything and cruise full time right now, but I'm lucky enough that I have a great life that I don't really want to permanently leave yet. I'm lucky that I'm healthy enough to wait a few years for that.

So if someone told me I was "lucky" to be able to do what I do, I'd have to tell them they don't know the half of it! Any one of those or any other thing goes differently, and I could be digging in garbage cans looking for my next meal. I may work hard when given the opportunity, but there's nothing intrinsically awesome in me that I earned the chance to. That was given to me.

I can look back at the amazing good fortune in my life and say that it's proof that there's some meaning to it. I see people's worst day every time the bell rings at work, and it's not because they didn't work hard enough or save enough, or scrimp enough. It's given me a whole new perspective.

JRM

-- if you read that whole thing, you're lucky enough to have amazing patience!

sailorboy1 · 12-04-2012, 15:15

Worked!

Chattcatdaddy · 12-04-2012, 15:28

I got my boat by working extra shifts at the hospital (nurse) and saving as much as I could. Then I quit my job and will taking off in a few week for trip down the chesapeake and on to the Bahamas and then Florida. The money will be running out by then and its find a low stress job (no more nursing for me) and save a little money to replenish the kitty and take off for more adventure. Call it luck or fortunate or whatever label you place on it.