Our adventure begins

[Wookiee_King]

Hello! 2 of my friends and I have packed up everything we own and have left Illinois for good. It's boring and you only live once so we are currently 3 hours from Florida and are ready to buy a sail boat and enjoy life. We currently have no sailing experience so if possible we're looking for any advice/help learning more about the sailing community..it would also be great to make some friends and really enjoy our journey so if anyone has the time to show us the ropes and have a drink it would be amazing! For the record we're looking for a shoal draft boat between 27 and 35 feet preferably under $6000


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[HappyMdRSailor]

Welcome to CF Wookie!

Probably the wisest thing you ever did was to point the van South...

This hopefully will end up as an EPIC thread, as many others similar have done... We look forward to your adventures!

[Wookiee_King]

We felt it was an opportunity we just couldn't pass up..people sit around there whole lives thinking about how they could have done more and that's not happening here..we will find a boat/adventure and there will be plenty of pictures and videos to come later


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[Ribbit]

Good luck to you! I may even bump into you if things work out ok for me, all things being equal I should be down around Florida sometime around April 2016 (aiming to get back to the UK at least 6 months after purchase, so I need to cast off about the end of February/early March), doing the same sort of thing single handed. I may even have some beers on board.

I have been looking around online at boats a lot, but I have to admit that what you can manage with 3 of you, is an entirely different ballgame to what I will need (for example I will need a windlass for handling the anchor, need foresail furling rather than hank on, and I will have to have everything run back to the cockpit for easy handling).

With care, and the advice of those here that know far better than me, you should be able to find something suitable in your price range (don't let asking price put you off, it's a buyers market, and sadly lots of people are under pressure to dispose of their boats).

Three of you should be able to do all manner of necessary TLC jobs really fast and at reasonable prices, but make sure if your budget is $6.000, that the boat purchase leaves you enough left over to get essentials done. Cosmetic stuff can be done pretty cheap with plenty of applications of brainpower and elbow grease, and at your age, with three of you, there shouldn't be a shortage of either.

[Wookiee_King]

Well we are pulling into key west now to look at a Catalina 27. If we end up buying it we will need to sail back to Marathon for some cash work we were offered. Anyone in key west that knows how to sail want a ride to marathon? We plan on taking it ourselves, but would welcome a fellow sailor that didn't mind showing us the ropes.


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[Mayhemdog75]

Keep in mind that there are a lot of boats for sale. I would do a little shopping around before jumping at the first one within your budget.

[Wookiee_King]

We've looked at at quite a few boats since we arrived in Florida. I'm happy to say that today we officially became boat owners! An extremely nice guy cut us one heck of a deal on a Catalina 27 with a rib dingy and a 15hp outboard that purs like a kitten. It is anchored in garrison bight key west, and we move on tomorrow. We have some job opportunities in Marathon so we plan on sailing her there after a month or two of playing. As we stated before we have no sailing experience, so I'm really looking forward to meeting some of my neighbors.


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[HappyMdRSailor]

And the adventure REALLY begins... Congrats!!!

Post a new thread under "Crew wanted" to find your help...

But don't let us down by dropping this one!