High-tech entrepreneur contemplating life as a liveaboard

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by blueskiesandsea

What I do not want to do is make a purchase that puts me in a position where no matter the experience, the boat is too much to handle without a crew.

Only you will be able to answer that question. A crewed charter is a fast way to get the answer. Another, highly recommended, way is to offer to crew on other's boats.It seems many noobs want to jump straight to captain, and miss a great learning experience. Learning from others who have already mastered cruising is very informative, even if occasionally for what not to do.

If you can be patient try buying/renting a small sailboat first, at least for a season. You will learn the feel of a boat under sail, which is something that is harder to learn on a larger boat. Also, try to crew on race boats as our racing friends really know how to sail a boat fast (just don't learn their love of risk). Finally, learn the theory (essentially vector forces) of sailing to provide a framework for analysis. Making the boat move with the wind is actually a pretty small part of preparing to cruise, but an important and satisfying part of it.

A couple of thoughts about boat size:

Things become easier with experience. Starting with a 50'+ boat will be hard, as in effort and skill. It is possible but a potentially hard row to hoe at first.

You are not alone in wanting a large boat. Unfortunately it is easier to build larger boats than to build marinas with large slips. A 50' cat is going to be very difficult to find a slip to fit in much of the world. For cruising and anchoring no problem, but finding a marina to wait out the storm season can be difficult. In the Med it was difficult to find a winter marina for my little monohull. Of course if you intend to put the boat on the hard and fly home for half the year that won't be as much of a problem.

Greg

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

If you have a boat that cost and consumes so much, you will be alien to normal people, especially in foreign places. You won't be able to make friends and enjoy experiences in the ways I do. Instead you will be targeted for your wealth, and face greater danger if you wish to visit the most interesting remote places.

Very good points there!

Also, if you have virtually no sailing experience so far, you don't know if you or the family will even like this way of living?

Hence my suggestion would be to take some sailing courses, get some day skipper certificate and then charter a few cats for a few weeks each to get a feel for the life style and different size boats.

[dougweibel]

Again, lots of good advice, but I do find some of it of too pessimistic/cautious a tone. You appear to have the temperament and intellect where you could go from zero to live aboard fairly quickly. My wife and I have no desire to be full-time aboard as we also enjoy skiing, flying and various other pursuits - our goal is to be 1/3 time aboard. However with just 2.5 weeks of training and 2 weeks of chartering experience we did feel competent to buy a boat and with an additional 5 weeks of working on the boat and 5 weeks of sailing it we felt comfortable setting off on a month cruise to the Abacos including two winter gulf stream crossings. My point being that I think the idea that you have to have 5-10 years experience to be competent to cross an ocean is probably appropriate for some but unnecessarily limiting for others. Also, there is no need to set off on some epic journey on day 1. You could, for example, start by cruising the Florida Keys, then move on to the Bahamas where your open water passages are fairly short, then with more experience but having been having a great time along the way move on to the Caribbean, etc.

With that said I would still be cautious in two areas. As I posted before find a way to get some experience with your wife and family before jumping in with both feet. Some people find the reality of being on a boat too different from their idealized expectations and if it is not going to be enjoyed by your wife and at least well tolerated by the kids you want to know that up front.

The second area is that you can do all the research you want; books, magazines, forums, boat shows, talking with sailors, whatever; you still won't really know/understand what you like and don't like in a boat till you have some experience living on and sailing a boat. In fact a lot of your preferences won't be formed till you have experience on multiple boats and can experience the contrast in design elements. You have plenty of budget. Spend some of it on chartering a variety of boats. Training does not, and should not, take away from the enjoyment if done right. A week of training can be (should be IMO) as enjoyable as a week chartering with a captain. If done properly the only difference should be that the sailing should be a lot more hands on and the captain should be instructing you a good portion of the day but there should still be plenty of time for some watersports, touring, hiking or whatever your favorite diversion for the locale might be.

Now, having given my advice I will go ahead and answer your original question. With your budget and situation I would buy a HH48 non-carbon-fiber-build and take delivery in Miami. I simply would not go into a larger boat as a first boat unless you want to have a captain onboard for quite a while; there is no way my wife would agree to a HH48 in your situation although I think I could talk her in to it for our next boat if we were inclined towards a cat of that price range. Remember that a cat is going to have living space more like a mono that is ~10' longer. This boat will be way under your budget, even if you did go for the carbon fiber, but the CF boat will be set up for racing and not what you need for you+wife sailing. i would not be concerned about those saying you will be out of touch with the locals in a $$$ boat. It is often more about your attitude and how you treat people when you interact with them.

PM me if you want to Skype about boats and planes and stuff

[captlloyd]

Originally Posted by dakno

I agree with most of the post here. Some seem to think you will buy a boat today and leave the US tomorrow. I know thats not the case. It sounds like you are a pilot. If so you are already expert in navigation and weather which is hugely beneficial and transfers to sailing. When you purchase your boat you will hire a skipper and sail, learn extensively the first year. You will have to do so just to get insurance which is required just to enter a marina. I say get the boat you want, not a starter boat. I have found that you will rapidly grow into a large boat and start looking a bigger ones. Its very expensive to buy and learn on one boat and then sell it to purchase another and start over. I have found that larger boats, (45-55) are easier to handle than a smaller vessel. They don't get knocked around by the elements nearly as much.

I second everything dakno has said here. I like what the op said about respecting weather. And no, just because you have a beautiful and large boat you will be isolated from the locals. Bad attitudes is what causes that and it certainly doesn’t sound like the op has that. Good luck, you remind me of Jay Leno, a guy with some money and a passion for what he enjoys.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I think its not so much how much money you have.. its more your mental attitude to other people and cultures..
A friend of mine refused to have a meal at a great spot in Marigot.. down by the market theres a lot of bars/eateries and just because the black faces outnumbered the white by 20 to 1.. it was a no no..
Yet another wealthier client/friend was so happy to hang out at a place I frequent in Sandy Ground that he spent 8 out of the 10 nights before I sailed with his Laurient Giles 62ftr for Spain hanging out at Francies bar eating barbecue road kill chicken and ribs with me and Lena.. we were the only white faces there.. [emoji3]
Most folk don't give a $#it what you have.. its what you are that counts..

Well said Boatie.

[daletournier]

Some people are more capable than others. For some buying their second boat first makes sense as they're very capable humans that don't need to start with dinghy sailing.

Friends of mine are just completing their 17 year circumnavigation. Hp had never sailed before he started, he got some lessons and then purchased a 53 ft Amel super Maramu. He has said to me "I got lucky, I got two boats for the price of one, my first boat and my last boat".

Another mate arrived here (Seychelles) two weeks ago. Took a sailing course 18 mths ago then purchased a Lagoon 450 as his first boat. Last year sailed from Thailand was to Chagos and back, this year Thailand to the Seychelles, another capable guy.

Both these guys were successful in their own businesses, they are action takers and problem solvers, most of all they are capable.

The op seems like a capable go getter guy, maybe he dosent need baby steps?

Not everyone is the same.

[CarinaPDX]

No argument with you Dale. There are lots of stories of noobs who bought a boat and just took off. Back in the '70s one guy went around pushing Westsail 32s with his presentation of his cruise to the South Pacific; he claimed he didn't know how to get a fix before he left (at a time when celestial was all we had). Supposedly he learned on the way. To put it succinctly he was either a fool or a liar, but in either case not an example to follow. Every year or two we get someone here who buys a boat and takes off. Remember the Westsail that ran onto the rocks in California on his first trip - only navigation tool was his phone? Or the guy that took off from Texas and made it to the Caymans? Then abandoned his boat when he couldn't handle water in his fuel, just 17 miles from a safe harbor (later found on a sensitive reef). Or for real fun, should we revisit Rebel Heart ?

My point is that there are both successes and failures, and often - but not always - preparation is the difference. It is easy to go great distances with little preparation - until something goes wrong. Of course 5-10 years aren't necessary to prepare (did anyone really say that here?). OTOH someone with a month of training and chartering and another month on his own vessel is at the other end of the spectrum.

I think the OP has demonstrated an excellent attitude - I have less concern for him than a few other posters. My goal is not to dissuade or to be pessimistic or judge, but to try to set reasonable expectations for what it takes to safely go to sea. Perhaps I am a bit old-fashioned but I take the role of skipper, master, or captain seriously (curiously, so does the USCG). The skipper is responsible for the lives of all aboard, by law and tradition. Anyone taking their family to sea had better know what he is doing, not just be self-confident (a commodity seemingly not in short supply).

Greg

[Juho]

I think the path you will take depends quite a lot on what kind of a person you are.

Do you have tendency to end up in small accidents, and learn only after you have made some mistakes? Based on your comments on flying, I assume you do not have that tendency. You are good to go. You understand that when at sea, you better have some experience, and you better understand how everything works, so that you can handle all possible situations when there is no help available.

Are you a technical person or not? In both cases the answer is that you should learn how your boat works, to be able to fix all the usual problems at sea when there is no help available.

Do you learn best by reading, or by attending courses, or by doing, or by sailing with some more experienced people? Whatever works for you, do it.

I support the idea of getting whatever boat first (maybe rent one or two) since you can afford that, and that will help you understand what you really want, and what is not needed, when you get your next boat (that will be ideal for you). Take your family with you, to see what they need and do not need, and if they like sailing. Do whatever your wife tells you to do on things that are most important to her (that might be e.g. the whole interior of the boat).