if you had $20,000 to spend....

[AiniA]

I think you are looking for people to say that your dreams make sense on your budget. Unfortunately it just does not work. The first thing you have to do is get rid of the whole idea that you can get a boat that is remotely close in size to a 40' RV. For starters it is a boat and when you cruise you do your best to be anchored to avoid the cost of paying a marina (highest I have seen is $7.25/ft per night). This means you can't go for a convenient walk with the dogs for example. You need to decide how small a space you can get by with, not how you can bring your land life to the water. In our several years of cruising all over the world we have not seen anyone with two dogs. In the Caribbean we saw people with one dog and a constant battle with officials - one couple with a standard poodle (on a 50') who had spent $2000 on the dog in a year. Some countries do not even allow dogs in. Offshore I don't even think it is fair to a dog to deal with even normal conditions for a week or two.

Someone gave cost estimates. They seem a bit high to me, but not ridiculous. You mentioned not needing second sails which brings up the question of redundancy. Things break down at sea and sometimes you can't fix them on the spot so you need a fallback. It would be nuts to head out with only nav system in place. What happens when your laptop quits? Same thing applies to sails. You don't need two of everything, but at least a smaller jib to replace a bigger one and a trysail to sub for a blown main.

Perhaps you might be best to get a powerboat for the North American part of your travel and see whether you like living aboard and to give you time to build a much bigger budget for a serious cruising boat.

[Kenomac]

Here's another spending thread on CF: Look under "What we have spent so far...." The fellow is getting his boat ready for a trip to Alaska and then onto the South Pacific.

[Andrew Troup]

FWIW, asking for informed opinions about a boat for going to sea using terms like "master bedroom" is a bit like asking for information on a diesel engine forum using terms like "carburettor" for injection pump, and "spark plugs" for glowplugs.

There's a reason the language at sea is so different: it's not to increase confusion for those starting out, in fact it's pretty much the opposite: the language is often a cue to things which need to be approached differently from on land.

If we mislabelled heater plugs "spark plugs", that would not necessarily mislead the knowledgeable, but it would confuse the hell out of a newbie.

A sailing example: We don't need "port" and "starboard" on land, for a page-full of not very obvious reasons, one of which is because the places we live and work do not swivel around and point in different directions while we're not looking.

Getting back to the specifics of this thread: things which make for a good master bedroom on land do not work at sea, even more so than vice versa.

I'm not trying to throw punches in your direction, quite the opposite: you'll get more useful replies, and make more sense of the good ones, if you can get to grips with the differences between two very different ways of life.

Given that language is the currency in which information is handed over, it needs to start there, I reckon.

[hpeer]

If I had $20k I would have to give back $20k. I've spent right close to $40k in three years, on top of purchase.

She was a very good boat to start with, some new sails and motor and windlass. But some work had been done poorly and needed correction, and I needed to make her single handed.
AIS
RADAR
additional winches
Strong tack
Mast steps
Spre halyards
Drifter
120% lapper
Fix muffler, exhaust fiasco
Day tank
New sprit
Autopilot
Anchor
Etc, etc, etc...

I spent a bunch, the took a cruise, then learned a lot and spent a bunch more.

Hopefully we are near the end of the major bleeding,with a VERY nice boat that can be handled by one, in a pinch.

I may have wasted 20% along the way, education expense.

Truly much of this is spent because I could for she was 30 yo when we got her and had three transatlantics. So we could have done with less.

[zeehag]

ok all you naysaywrs and goblins--there is now forsale a really truly cruising with beautiful spinnaker formosa 41 with electric propulsion for sale NOW in barra de navidad for 20k usd.
he is leaving here tues for i think sea of cortez, and can be found under name of fire pitt, as that is his profession--fire eating.....lol
is a good boat..come on down to see---but i dont know where he will be after tuesday--look for the big green, blue and PINK spinnaker. (from a distance, the blue looks like forest green...lol)...yes, he SAILS the boat a LOT..they actually do sail decent


i will get his email address before he leaves so folks can contact him.

[SV.Maverick]

Originally Posted by scoobert

here is the one i missed:
1980 Custom Kennedy Sloop Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Well when I first read your post the first thought was this guys crazy, HOWEVER ever since the crash of 08 boats have been getting cheaper and cheaper. I just saw a mid 90's Freedom 45 go for 35k. A Tayana Pilothouse go for 20k, a Columbia 45 go for 18k and the list goes on and on. I even looked at the link you listed to this 50' for 29k looks good and I'm sure he paid less. A lot of people here bought prior to 08 when people were getting crazy amounts for their boats. The market on older used boats is now very much in the favor of the buyer. I think I am in the minority on his but I think u can do this as long as you don't care about brand and you can do the repair and fix up yourself. You will need your 20-30k in a savings account ready to write a ck as soon as you find one of these deals because they go most times to the first person to see them.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by scoobert

we will be raising our children on it, boatschool them, and we have two small labs and a cat to consider too.

I'd get a Giraffe as well - just to make it a real challenge .

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

I'd get a Giraffe as well - just to make it a real challenge .

i don't like giraffe's, they don't like to have their ossicones grabbed, and thats all i can think is how i would love to grab them.

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by sv.Lonestar

Well when I first read your post the first thought was this guys crazy, HOWEVER ever since the crash of 08 boats have been getting cheaper and cheaper. I just saw a mid 90's Freedom 45 go for 35k. A Tayana Pilothouse go for 20k, a Columbia 45 go for 18k and the list goes on and on. I even looked at the link you listed to this 50' for 29k looks good and I'm sure he paid less. A lot of people here bought prior to 08 when people were getting crazy amounts for their boats. The market on older used boats is now very much in the favor of the buyer. I think I am in the minority on his but I think u can do this as long as you don't care about brand and you can do the repair and fix up yourself. You will need your 20-30k in a savings account ready to write a ck as soon as you find one of these deals because they go most times to the first person to see them.

yes you are correct. i have seen smashing deals before i was saved up for it. now we have hit enough in our account that we can start to prep for sea life, and look for our first large boat.

right now we live in an RV full time, on land we own. land is gone this winter.
so we are starting to sell things.
first thing to go is 1 pickup. then my ATV, motorcycle, and boat. none of those will be needed for our new life.

here is where it gets tricky. if we can find a boat by winter we can sell our RV with a value of $10,000. (not what i am asking, what they actually sell for) and move onto the boat. if we have no luck finding one we will need to pickup the RV two pickups, and my work trailer, and head to FL for winter. then we can try again in the spring.

its actually hard in this stage. i have things i do not need that i paid a ton of cash for, that are not worth much second hand. my wife has the same situation. i am having issues with tossing perfectly good stuff that i will never need again.
a good example is my welder. i will have no use for it on a fiberglass boat.
paid over 800 with the tank. it may be worth $100 used.
how do you quantify that in your mind?

[brutb]

One less item to move to Florida. I did the same thing. I am sure many other full time live aboards have done the same or worse, giving away perfectly good tools, household items, clothes ect. Chuck it all that will not fit in your vehicles. You will have another yard sale at the marina when you Finally cast off the dock lines and start using your anchor lines.

[scoobert]

progress is going well on the home front.
yesterday we threw out 5 trash bags full of stuff. mostly clothes, a few blankets, misc stuff we dont use. we need to go farther.

on the boat front i sent out 8 offers. including one $18,000 offer on a $55,000 ketch.

[ctl411]

Wow $18000 on $55000. Finally someone for the brokers to hate more than me lol. Must be way over priced? But we did get a less than 1/2 asking offer accepted so you might get it.

[scoobert]

lol, the boat is a custom job, and therefor in my opinion only worth what someone is willing to pay. the fit and finish on custom boats is most times lacking. however the function cannot be ignored. the last boat that sold under 30K that i missed was custom too, and thats what i based my offer on. i can send similar examples for price range
its genuinely a nice layout for a family.

[ctl411]

All boats are worth only what someone is willing to pay. Keep at it you will find one if you don't get hooked on a narrow brand/layout. Will post our findings once a deal is done. Some won't move on price to sell but many have.

[scoobert]

the only thing i have worked out for sure is if it is a sailboat we need 46'+
powerboats tend to be more roomy, and i have seen a 39' that would work.