Question? Purchase a boat now and pay-off or save for 6 years and buy?

[33trippindaisy]

Hi folks. Great question. It will have many different answers. For me I am looking at what you have, what you want, and where you live. The what you have is a dream many of us share......either for real or in our minds.

Your Money! You have 10k saved almost or about. You make 70k together after taxes in a City the size of Portland. You seem to be young, or early on in your careers which could be a really good thing. Maybe you can move to a more friendly sailing environment as for weekend sailing......maybe more money too.

Maybe its best to just use some of your savuings to buy a used boat, small enough to pay cash for and less than 5k. Use the other 5k to keep it in the Marina of your choice as a non liveaboard for a couple of years. You will get to understand what it cost to own a boat. Even as a non-liveaboard I spent ten thousand dollars a year just to keep a 33 foot boat in the slip, yearly things like bottom cleaning, other things that need replaced, and of course there are always little things like upgrades, and then there's the other things like sleeping on the boat and eating at the local spots, the booze bills (if you drink), the booze you share out with others (friends that might want a toddy), the food......always the food.

Then I had to have the cablevision on the boat too, and I had a separate electric bill too. So it was like having two homes, which it was. It was exactly like having two homes.

Yep, we did this for almost ten years like this, planning on retiring one day. Then after we had burned over 100k of our savings, we sold the boat!

Now keep in mind, our home was paid for and still is, our three cars/trucks and two Harleys were paid for, and the boat was paid for too. Actually we owned a minimum of three boats at the same time the whole time. Counting the 21 foot Sea Hunt I had for fishing, and the skiff for exploring, a 17 foot Sundance.......trust me you gotta have a skiff to go swimming and exloring, and yep several of us at the Marina did. Too much work to take out the big boat just for a swim, trust me on that. And yes we had an 11 foot inflatable with a small motor, but thats too slow......the skiffs were nice!

Is that four boats? Hmmm.....

SOOOOO, make sure your money is right, your mind is right, and your signifigant other is okay with the "burn rate"..... If these three line up....then go. Go as soon as you can, if you can.

I still dream of going. I still want to go. I still can afford to go. My wife of 43 years is done with boating. Her words. She even says go, I'll be here when you get back. So yes I still dream.......

I have a smaller boat now. On a trailer. We are finally retired, both of us. A small six figure savings account and a 50k plus retirement income and we are not going anywhere. We waited. She got cancer. I had a heart attack. We are both okay now and alive, but we are older and weaker. I just want to go fishing every now and then, and she likes to work in the garden and the greenhouse. Life is good.

We missed the chance, but I still have the dream. I still look at boats almost every day, and I dream. Oh how I dream.

Reach deep inside your hearts and make the decision, what ever it is. Then live by it. Good luck on your adventure.

[libbymr]

We love all the responses and advice on here! I imagine if I financed a boat now and it was just sitting in a slip in PDX that would not only put un-do wear and tear on a nice boat but be a big financial risk, especially if we could not find a live aboard slip.


Maybe the better option would be to buy a cheap boat now, like a old 30 ft boat, in cash. We could then learn to sail on that boat, learn what we want from a boat and more. My thought there, from everyone's suggestions, is now I don't have a huge financial risk of a boat, that is falling apart over time, that I have a loan on AND if I can't find a live-aboard slip (or find live-aboard in PDX on a 30 ft vessel pure hell) we could still afford to live on land.

We would either = (A) Own a boat with no debt, live on it, pay less in marina fees than in rent and use that extra cash to save for our dream boat

Or (B) Own a boat, store it in a normal slip, sail it for experience, still live on land and use whatever money is left to save for the dream boat.

What are some thoughts that come to mind from you all?

Thanks!

[CarlF]

After you retire and have your boat, where are you going to go to “live aboard”?

A) Circumnavigate or cross oceans
B) Mexico
C) Caribbean, Florida, Bahamas
D) PNW

The answer effects a lot of things

“A” needs at least five years of cruising experience and a very well equipped boat. It will probably be on your second boat.

“B” is a long trip from PNW but doable. But is that where you want to settle down?

“C” Best to move to Florida after retirement and buy the boat there. Much less expensive than buying in the PNW and making the long and hard trip through the Panama Canal.

“D” Pretty boring most of the year.

$10,000 of savings isn’t enough to play this game. Things go wrong that require “emergency money”

The second problem is that except for cosmetics, fixing things on an old boat is much more expensive than the higher purchase price to get a boat without the problem. Most people spend more than $20,000 after they purchase the boat getting it ready. It’s everything from new electronics to new foam for the berth cushions so your back doesn’t hurt. I’d buy a boat in pretty good shape. Otherwise you are likely to run out of money before starting your cruising life.

So I would try to save $100,000 before buying the boat. This isn’t impossible in six years.

An excellent strategy is to buy a boat from a cruising couple who are moving ashore. The boat will be well equipped for what you want to do.

Your biggest advantage is your apparent comfort with a smaller boat. When I was younger, most couples cruised on 28’-34’ boats. Many still do. It can be very comfortable if you like to live simply and don’t require a lot of “stuff” in your life.

As a “test” could you and your wife be happy in a Shannon 28? It’s a very high quality small blue water boat. Many couples have cruised happily in one for years - even circumnavigated. But it requires a certain kind of person. https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/198...on-28-3565138/

[Cadence]

If you find a 30' boat for 10K plan on investing another 10k on her just to make her usable. JMHO, I think you need to call marinas and yards in your area to get their rates on slips, hauling, etc.. Save every penny you can for a few years then revisit it.


A small trailer sailor might be an idea if you can park it in your yard/driveway.

[Migthy Ziggler]

I own a 32-foot sailboat in Portland. It took me 25 years to build up from a 17, then a 23, and now the 32. I learned a lot along the way and enjoyed working with the "practice boats" before getting the "real boat". In terms of cost, there is a big gap between the boat you can put on a trailer in your driveway most of the Year versus around the year boat in the water paying moorage fees. All of this is to say that I am in the start small and build up camp.

There are also some nice ways to get experience on boats for free in the Portland area. For one, go to sailPDX.Org where you can sign up as crew on boats. Also Meetup.Org has a sailing in Portland group. You can also private message me and I'd be happy to show you my 1986 Morgan 323 and answer questions. If you seem like viable crew members, we can add you to our list for different events. All of this would be post Covid.

Lastly, I have to defend the Columbia River as a sailing venue. I lived in Seattle for four years and had a sailboat there. Sure, you can't beat the beautiful big water, but here we have WIND. I have taken my boat all the way up to Hood River and down to Astoria sailing most of the time. One of the best sails I've ever had was between Hood River and Cascade Locks. It is a vast, complex, and beautiful river system. This is a little facetious, but if you fall in here you go for a swim. If you fall in other places in the PNW, you die.

[althea82]

We were just faced with this same decision. We live in the other Portland, make about the same after tax (and paying student loan debt), young-ish(36/30) and also climbers!

We decided to buy a 30’ for just under 10k. She has been sailing for a decade and has had quite a few boats. This is my first time sailing and obviously my first boat. So far, I’m happy we made this decision to buy a cheaper boat rather then finance a 40’er.

I get to learn to sail and understand the mechanical systems involved and we both get more experience with repairs. In a few years, when the student loans are cleaned up, we’ll sell our boat that we’ve put a lot of time and money into and finance something to live aboard. Until then, we just day sail and go on weekend trips.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by libbymr

Hi there!

My wife and I are relatively new to sailing and are looking at buying our first boat and going full time live-aboard cruising within the next 6 years.

We currently live in Portland OR, and I wanted to get some thoughts and advice from the folks on here as to what the best steps would be?

The two thoughts we had were to save up to buy a boat out-right in about 6 years. We bring in about 70k together after taxes, already about about $10,000 saved and spend about $1,400 per month in rent and utilities. What boat we could buy at the end of this time would dependent on how much we could actually save in those 6 years.

The OTHER idea would be to purchase (and finance) a boat sooner, 6 months to a year and then go live-aboard this boat in marinas while still holding our full time jobs. We could then use the boat for weekend sailing, practice, and vacations as desired. This would then eliminate our rent payments, which would turn into loan payments for the boat + the money we intended to save initially. Potentially doing it this way we could buy a newer or bigger boat that needs some work since we'd have the extra time and money to work on it?

We are pretty aware of how difficult living on a boat might be in Portland's winter and rainy season but her an I used to live in a 10 ft hand built tear drop trailer traveling the country while climbing, so pretty used to some hard living conditions.

I would love to get some advice from you all, maybe this is a great idea, or a terrible one. Either way I look forward to your responses!

Thanks!

Your idea about buying and living aboard is definitely possible. Judy and I did it for 10 years in Seattle. We lived aboard year 'round and Seattle is similar in climate to Portland. You'd need a good source of "diesel" heat to keep the boat dry and warm. We both worked professionally in the city so a big hanging locker for suits was necessary. By living on the boat we could avoid duplicate home rent costs and marina costs, We paid off a $100,000
boat in 10 years and also saved enough for a cruising kitty (inadequate it turned out, but that is another story).

HOWEVER! (and this is the big one) We already knew that we loved sailing. We sailed 90 times a year for those 10 years! We sailed year 'round. We sailed in the snow. Of course we sailed in the good weather more. We sailed ALL the time. That is what made the living aboard stuff worth while.

If you don't love sailing this is likely not going to work out for you long term (most people (not all) new to boats and sailing don't make it for very long.)

So I'd suggest you get into sailing while you save money. Portland has a great yacht club scene. You can join a race crew and get FREE sailing all year 'round. You may not want to be racers, but you will learn a lot and it all applies to cruising.

Become sailors first, then buy a boat.

[DanielPerry]

Originally Posted by libbymr

Hi there!

My wife and I are relatively new to sailing and are looking at buying our first boat and going full time live-aboard cruising within the next 6 years.

We currently live in Portland OR, and I wanted to get some thoughts and advice from the folks on here as to what the best steps would be?

The two thoughts we had were to save up to buy a boat out-right in about 6 years. We bring in about 70k together after taxes, already about about $10,000 saved and spend about $1,400 per month in rent and utilities. What boat we could buy at the end of this time would dependent on how much we could actually save in those 6 years.

The OTHER idea would be to purchase (and finance) a boat sooner, 6 months to a year and then go live-aboard this boat in marinas while still holding our full time jobs. We could then use the boat for weekend sailing, practice, and vacations as desired. This would then eliminate our rent payments, which would turn into loan payments for the boat + the money we intended to save initially. Potentially doing it this way we could buy a newer or bigger boat that needs some work since we'd have the extra time and money to work on it?

We are pretty aware of how difficult living on a boat might be in Portland's winter and rainy season but her an I used to live in a 10 ft hand built tear drop trailer traveling the country while climbing, so pretty used to some hard living conditions.

I would love to get some advice from you all, maybe this is a great idea, or a terrible one. Either way I look forward to your responses!

Thanks!

Hey, if you're cool with feeling 'on the frindge' a bit, as well as a "rougher feeling" and the added logistics, consider slip shares, working out a deal with a marina for a cheaper backwater slip (hopefully something like $25/day or less), etc. AND alternating to anchor(s). Marina in bad weather and good weather at anchor(s), or something to offset the cost significantly. If it doesnt affect the slip rate that much (especially if you can take space on a wall at a yard or a 'backwater slip" at a marina) then you could easily be putting another 2-300 bucks per month towards it.

[p435]

Buy your boat ASAP. You will need to get experience and 5 years are going like a 5 weeks. Don't start without experience.


Living on a monohull in winter in the water is not cold because of the water temperature; however I don't know the water temperature in Oregon. A cat is colder as the air flows under the bridge bringing the temperature down. A thick carpet does a lot. I lived 2 month in winter in our cat while it was on the hard; the worst situation. It was a bit colder but the diesel heater made it comfortable,

[Alistair242]

6 years is a long time. Who know where the world will be then.

Go small, go simple, go now.

[DanielPerry]

Originally Posted by Alistair242

6 years is a long time. Who know where the world will be then.

Go small, go simple, go now.

+1

I think plenty of people wish they would have gone sailing in less than perfect boats rather than trying to craft perfect romanticism. Theres a good balance, I started on run-down boats and Im perfectly content. Ive made so many memories.

[longjonsilver]

Don't borrow money to buy a boat. Buy a 1000$ dinghy, sail and save the rest to buy the boat you want. You should not pay more than 10% of your net worth to buy a boat, unless you plan to live aboard.
just my $.02

jon

[steffan]

Originally Posted by Migthy Ziggler

If you fall in other places in the PNW, you die.

+1. I didn't see a water temp over 60F this season on Lake Superior. 10-15 min tops, with a PFD.

Originally Posted by Alistair242

6 years is a long time. Who know where the world will be then.

+1. We closed on the purchase of our boat literally as the pandemic was kicking off. It turned an otherwise miserable year into one with a focused purpose. IMO owning, sailing, repairing, and maintaining a boat is far more valuable prep for eventual cruising than crewing or chartering can ever get you.