I'm going to start this out by saying that Tokyo real estate is expensive. Especially in Central Tokyo. For a 1300 square foot house you're looking at about $900,000 USD.
I started looking into alternatives when I noticed that about six minutes in either direction from my
current apartment (which is on a man made island in Tokyo Bay), there are two
marinas that allow
liveaboard.
Because I'm not a native of
Japan and not really very American these days either, I probably will spend most of the rest of my life moving around a bit anyway. The longest I've ever lived anywhere as an adult is 11 years.
Since my salary in
Japan is crazy high due to cost of living adjustments (I relocated here from the U.S. with the same employer), I have been working on everyones (in Japan, anyway) "million dollars saved in 10 years" goal, originally with the intent to buy a house.
This seems like a bad idea a year into that. Once I started thinking about it, I started wanting to do something else entirely.
With a decent ~45' yacht I can comfortably
liveaboard and relocate to any port city in the world (with relevant notice, of course).
So, I am now, financial heavens willing, on the way to hitting the bulk of my goal in 5-7 years, which means I should be able to start construction of a
new boat in 5-7 years, then use the 2 remaining years of construction time to see investments earn me the gap, or come up with a much smaller loan to cover the final payment in the very worst case.
Because I'm in Japan, my only good choices for builders seem to be in
Australia. I have researched and communicated with several
multihull builders in SE
Asia and I have not been impressed so far even if it would save me tons of
money.
I'm not dead set on this
boat but they make a nice
boat (and helped me with some speculator questions) so I've been looking in the direction of something like this:
The Perry 45 Motor Sailer
The thoughts are:
* Should be a boat I can maintain for ~30 years after launch.
* Should provide reasonable accommodation for
live-aboard as an option, including the amenities of your average apartment (e.g.
laundry, kitchen, a few bedrooms).
* Should have an estimated range of 1,500-2,000nm under
power, with a good efficient
cruise speed (6~9kts) so crossing the doldrums or an odd calm day doesn't delay the trip much.
* Should have
sails for long passages.
Diesel is expensive. Should have
power for coastal cruising, because sometimes you have to sail against the wind/sea.
* Must have the ability to travel very large distances in reasonable times. I'm from
Washington state, and if I'm going back to the U.S., it's likely to there - from Tokyo, via the westerlies.
* Survivability is a must (desalination, redundant systems, etc). Boat must be able to sustain life for up to 40 days at sea.
* It should be theoretically possible to beach the boat, given that it is possible but not likely for a tsunami to hit Tokyo Bay that will cause most boats at the marina to touch down on the bottom of the bay. If not survivable, this should be repairable level damage for the design. Note that the chances of the marina itself taking a 3-4 meter wave are practically impossible due to design, but bottoming out is an issue, and this is what causes the majority of boat damage to docked boats here.
I have a preference for catamarans as they handle open seas much nicer than monohulls in my experience and probably have
hull designs fast enough to outrun storms under power in an
emergency. The very last requirement is pretty much impossible for monohulls. Sorry,
monohull owners.
The downside (upside?) to
buying a boat built in
Australia is that my very first
passage is likely to be from Australia to Tokyo.
I've been researching this for nearly a month, but finding semi-custom boat manufacturers who build boats that are both nice looking and well engineered seems to be hard on the Pacific. My better options seem to be on the Atlantic (and mostly in
Europe, making it even more of a difficulty).
Since it's been several years since I've been at sea I am about to go get my class 1 boat operators
license in Japan (which is the one required for ocean going vessels greater than 5nm offshore) - I need it before I can register anything locally.
I should note that even though used boats are an option I would probably prefer to buy a
new boat from a proven
builder / design because I intend to own it until it sinks or I'm too crippled (or dead) to enjoy it.
So, help me out: Is this reasonable? Am I crazy (beyond normal)? Anyone have better suggestions or ideas here? I'm anticipating a yearly upkeep of $10,000 not including slip charges or
fuel on a boat this size; is this reasonable? What have I not thought about? etc.
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