10 Year Plan for Retirement

[freakburg]

I have reached the ten year mark until I can retire (School Administrator with Pension) and I am outlining the steps that I want to take in the next 10 years to prepare to move aboard a sailboat right when I retire. I know ten years seems a long way out and I totally understand if a comment is "come back in 5-7 years) but I am that guy who creates a spreadsheet for everything and I would really like suggestions on what it would be valuable to do in the next 10 years with some idea of the time frame for it all.

Brief background on myself. Lifelong sailor of little boats, worked as a sailing instructor in the Hobie 16 world in my youth and I have spent a lot of time messing about in Hobies, small scows, J24's, Shark 24's, Lightnings, MacGregors, etc. I totally understand that the sailing part is the easy part of living aboard and I also understand that sailing and docking a 40' Cat (my current desire for retirement) is a totally different ball game. My wife and I agreed to retire on a boat in our 20s and she is more up for it then she was 20 years ago, but I also want to make it as smooth of a transition as possible for her so she doesn't regret it : )

My current plan for retirement involves selling our house - we are moving anyways so that is a given - buying a 40' cat and sail up to Maine for Hurricane season and down to the Bahamas for the rest of the year. As we gain confidence we plan to branch out towards BVI, etc.
My current 10 year plan involves the following

- Language (Wife is fluent in French, I'm going to work on Spanish)
- Sailing Courses (Take every possible course that I can, I live near Buffalo and they offer courses at the YC there - I plan to start with anything that I can take online
- Get Naui certified
- Read anything I can on the subject
- Start to downsize our possessions towards what is practical for life aboard and what is not.

Again I totally understand if I'm just way to far out, but I would love some other practical things I can do to prepare for this. I would also love some direction on courses that I should take - I'm thinking of gaining the skills as well as what will help me with insurance.

Thank You!

[krid2000]

Originally Posted by freakburg

- Start to downsize our possessions towards what is practical for life aboard and what is not.

I would say that THIS and the steep learning curve maintaining and repairing the various systems on board are the most difficult aspects. Downsizing (unless just trashing everything) takes surprisingly longer than you think, so get started early.

HTH
Dirk

[MicHughV]

We get these 5 year...10 year....threads quite often...there really is no one size fits all here....
You will learn nothing of substance here.
You need to walk the dock...talk to other sailors...take sailing courses..charter a boat....go to boatshows...peruse the used boat market, etc ad nauseam...

[Renegde_Sailor]

The best advice I can offer having watched many folks show up at retirement to buy the dream boat and sail away, who ultimately never leave the dock is this.

Get your boat now, start getting it ready to sail now, start spending weekends on it, making short trips, figuring out how hard it is to actually live on and what you will need to fix.

What I see happen so much is first people move on the boat and make it comfortable to live on, new cushions, paint, upholstery, head and galley remodels and tons of custom canvas work, even new drapes all the way around.

But they do not bother to touch the systems of the boat.

Then when they get out to go sailing, they find out how much work the boat actually needs, and how ill prepared to go sailing they actually are, so they dump more money and time into her, often times having to go back to work for a couple more years to afford the upgrades and repairs and so often this leads to them being too damn old when they finally are ready to sail away, so the dream dies and the boat gets sold.

Or they just straight run out of money first.

The 40' cat is a nice dream, it is a boat a lot of people dream about, and because of that it is going to cost $$$$$$ the other problem there is that cat's are expensive to own because of their width the cost of berthing is so much more.

Before you plunk down the cash on her, considering what it is going to cost to keep her is well advised.

For two people with the occasional guests, a 40-45' monohull is more than enough, and they can be comparatively cheaper, you can buy a good solid monohull and stuff a new engine, systems, rigging and sails into her and still be money ahead of the purchase price of the cat.

The other thing to consider here is a lot of cats spend time in charter service, which means that they are well used, and often wore out by the time they hit the market, and when it comes to making them whole again, you now have two of everything to maintain as far as the engines go.

Additionally the rig on a cat is more expensive to replace as they have to run larger wire on them as the boat does not heel like a mono does, thus the system experiences constant higher loads.

This then transfers down into the hull, and by the virtue of their design catamarans are built light, and many a new owner has bought themselves a cat and found that the bulkheads the chainplates bolt through are rotted and/or cracked.

Cat's are nice for the living space they provide on the big bridge deck, but the added cost that comes with them has a way of slowing people way down.

I personally have watched someone buy a cat for $200K+ and then sink that much into it again when they had to replace both motors, and then re-rig the boat then adding solar and all of the other fixings to her.

They sold the boat before sailing away and only got $250k out of it, essentially costing them $150k + moorage for 2 1/2 years to watch their dream of sailing the world die at the dock.

And yes, they had a survey done when they bought the boat that completely missed the issues with the motors.

There is a reason the adage of "Go small, go now" was created, it is because people have a bad habit of lusting after too much boat, managing to buy it, then not being able to do what it needs to go sailing.

[JPA Cate]

I have to agree with Renegde Sailor, here. I think you should probably look smaller if you want a catamaran (and didn't mean a Cat[alina] 40).

I agree to get a boat now. And use it and learn to maintain all its systems, plumbing, electrical, engine and fuel, but also to spend time on it. Just to learn about how you are with traffic, with seasickness, with each other under stress of difficult moments. Cruising isn't for everyone. Some don't like it.

If lessons are on the books, your efforts will have a higher rate of success in the happy wife=happy life equation, if you take your classes from different teachers. Basically the idea underlying that is that your wife will become skillful on her own; and her self-confidence is what makes it possible for you to sleep well on your off watches. The two of you will become a LOT more dependent on one another when you have to rely on her to get you up when it needs to happen, and you can rely on her to safely get the boat to shore somewhere. Some land based people are not comfortable with all that.

For this boat, I would think anything that lights both your candles in the 27-30 foot range would do. You might even decide to cruise in it! In our early days of cruising, we met circumnavigators on 20-22 footers. The smallest capable boat will also save you a lot of money, that later you will find things to spend it on, in insurance fees, in berthing rates, equipment fees, haulout charges, even replacement engines are less, because of lower hp requirements.

For what it's worth, my hobbies before sailing were all outdoorsy: swimming, hiking, backpacking. If your good lady enjoys things outdoors and informal clothing, she is more likely to enjoy a sailing life.

Who am I to write such a thing? You can read about me up to when I joined CF in my profile. The short answer is that Jim and I cruised full time, living afloat for roughly 175,000 sea miles--when I quit counting them. We entered marinas only for boat work or visits home and once in a marina with a cyclone looming when we had guests. We began in March of '89 and maintained through April 2020, when Covid struck, and still living aboard, but at the moment not, we are house sitting during our winter. The boat is on a mooring. We are what is called around here, "long term cruisers."

The lifestyle requires flexibility, willingness to learn laborer skills and get dirty hands, and an okayness to take on jobs -- pink or blue -- without fussing. You will find that doing your own work (rather than paying others to do it) will be better in the long run, because it is common for jobs to not be done to one's satisfaction, and waiting for them is wasted time, when you have seasonal changes that affect where you want to be. And, of course there is some satisfaction in doing one's own work, anyway.

Ann

[CarlF]

I would charter a 40’ cat once a year for the next 10 years. The charter company may insist on having a captain aboard for the first couple of years but will then let you go on your own.

This will let you say that you have been in command of a 40’ cat when getting insurance in 10 years. It’s almost impossible to get cat insurance these days if you can’t point to substantial experience as captain of a similar size boat.Trainimg courses mean little to insurance companies.

This will also let you and your wife gain experience together so she will feel confident when it’s time to fully commit. My wife is better at the helm than I am. When anchoring I’m always at the bow and she’s at the helm. This partnership makes cruising more enjoyable for her and me.

I can’t tell you how many friends I have whose wives decided at age 60 that they didn’t want to do the sailing thing. Focus on not being one of those guys. Keep her engaged in the dream and pay attention to what she wants in a boat. And invite another couple on the charter trips. Both you and your wife will enjoy the time with friends. Friendships are a huge part of the cruising life.

If you are financially able, in five years consider buying a boat in the Moorings Charter fleet. They pay enough to completely cover the loan and then some - and you get four weeks a year free. At the end of the five years you can keep the boat but most people sell and buy something else.

Since you are a spreadsheet guy study the numbers but I think you’ll find it works out financially - you don’t get rich but you get five years of boat experience for close to zero cost. And you and your wife will then be completely confident moving onto your own cat.

[flyingw]

I would check to see how well funded your pension is and not make plans around having every dime of it in retirement. Many states are completely in the red on their funding and there are probably no bailouts coming.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

We get these 5 year...10 year....threads quite often...there really is no one size fits all here....
You will learn nothing of substance here.
You need to walk the dock...talk to other sailors...take sailing courses..charter a boat....go to boatshows...peruse the used boat market, etc ad nauseam...

After having been guilty of posting one 3-4 years ago (and being savaged by the usual rowdies on here), I'd agree with this.

Most of these posters though, IMNSHO, are really just looking for "comfort".

Just get a boat, and get out there!

(we did, and are planning our 4th winter cruising and first in the bahamas)

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Renegde_Sailor

For two people with the occasional guests, a 40-45' monohull is more than enough, and they can be comparatively cheaper, you can buy a good solid monohull and stuff a new engine, systems, rigging and sails into her and still be money ahead of the purchase price of the cat.

This math only works out if you're planning on living on the boat until you're dead and expect zero value in the boat at that point.

If you are planning a limited cruising duration, say 2, 3, 5 years, and will need to account for residual value when selling the boat at the end of the journey, doing this will likely find you well upside down on the boat in the end.

[Renegde_Sailor]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

This math only works out if you're planning on living on the boat until you're dead and expect zero value in the boat at that point.

If you are planning a limited cruising duration, say 2, 3, 5 years, and will need to account for residual value when selling the boat at the end of the journey, doing this will likely find you well upside down on the boat in the end.

Depends on what monohull you buy, buy a turd and dump money into it, you get turd money back out of it.

There are plenty of monos that hold their value well.