Ruin My Dreams Please

[mvweebles]

Steve - I'd add to your list that the hardest leg of cruising is cutting docklines and going. There are 45+ posts in this thread saying your assumptions are unrealistic. They are. But so what. You are young enough to make a couple mistakes. This could be one of them, but it could also be the memory that brings the last smile to your face when you are old and peeing into a plastic bag hanging off your wheelchair.

Find the cheapest boat in decent shape you can pay cash for and go. You will learn what you need to along the way, or figure out it isn't for you and cash out. Your a finance guy so I'll give you one more: keep your powder dry - preserve your capital. Buy cash and buy cheap.

Leave aside the specific plan of where you will go. There is an old saying that an ant climbing a tree cannot know which twig will be the terminus of his journey.

Good luck. Go cheap and go now. You'll learn what you need. Necessity is the mother of invention. There will always - always - be 1000 reasons not to go.

Peter

[malbert73]

1985 Bluewater Gulfstar 50 Sailmaster Cutter - $79,000
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...d.php?t=231640

Or just buy this boat and go. Btw not my boat and I have no stake in this but you’d be 1000% better off in something like this than a lightly outfitted beat up charter boat

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by Sailshabby

Find a boat you can buy for cash. Spend a couple years (I know, I know, but you’re young!) working on it and sailing her.

what he said .. and don't buy an ex charter boat either

[mvweebles]

I re-watched Sailing Florence's walk-through of their Oyster 37. They strike a good balance between total austerity and comfort. They highlight need for storage for sails, bikes, and water toys. But also the trade-offs such as no watermaker (they carry 500 liters), generator, and no freezer. They also mention their maintenance costs are low as they departed with good sails, new engine, and rigging. Personally, if I were in the OP's shoes, I'd ask the collective CF wisdom for a similarly well-found 36-38 footer in the $25k-$30k range that isn't too awfully tired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGuiKC53fds

Peter

[AiniA]

A few thoughts come to mind based on our experience on a circumnavigation. To overly generalize there are two kinds of long distance cruisers - retirees who have boats worth $30k (of whatever dollars) to well north of $1 million and young people (mid 20s to mid 30s) who are doing a life pause to go sailing. Obviously you are in the latter group. Most of these folks have modest boats in the 27 to 33 foot range that are older than they are. Most of them, interestingly are from Sweden and Norway. We met several (as in 8 to 10) who were doing a three year circumnavigation. The length of circumnavigation, or even the cruise you are taking about is controlled by the seasons - you need to be in X in a particular season to avoid or take advantage of particular weather patterns.

The most common boat we saw was a Vega 27 which is quite tiny by old folks' standards but seemed to suit the younger sailors. This is not to say that you should get a Vega, there are other good boats out there that are cheaper still. For the sake of discussion a Vega in really good nick would have an asking price of around US$15000. Some are much cheaper but would need more upgrades.

If I understand it, you are on Lake Ontario as am I. I would suggest you buy a really cheap boat (<$3000) and sail the crap out of it for a summer or two. Then sell it for worth whatever you can get, or give it away. By that point you will know what you want and can afford. Buy that boat and bring it back to LO and do your own updates. You want to know where every bolt and wire is. When I started I knew nothing about the technical part of boats but you learn. Between my wife and I we have six university degrees but nary one course in diesel mechanics, but I digress ... Anyway you need to know a fair bit about a whole bunch of topics and taking a few courses will only get you so far.

In my shoes I would skip the sail to Australia and sell that boat there - that is really complicating things. Do the three year circumnavigation starting on Lake Ontario and bring the boat back here where you can sell it. If you have questions PM me.

If you don't have it, get a copy of Cornell's World Cruising Routes. It compiles a lot of information available elsewhere in a convenient form. It basically tells you when you can, and cannot, go to certain parts of the world. It has suggested sequences for long passages as well. Also great fun to read on a cold winter's night.

https://www.nauticalmind.com/79081/w...uising-routes/

[j.g.evans]

I agree with the comments of Sailhabby. 6 months is not enough time to know and get an old boat ready.

Cruising is a great lifestyle and I recommend it. My wife and I have cruised 6 months at a time for 12 years. My wife would have been very uncomfortable with no home to go back to. Perhaps 6 months at a time would be a way to acclimate to a cruising life and enhance the kitty.

My final comment is to not do this unless you can fix everything. Cruising is really fixing a boat in exotic places. You will have to carry plenty of spare parts. Even in the rather civilized Caribbean you will have difficulty getting parts and "expedited" delivery may take months.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by AiniA

...If I understand it, you are on Lake Ontario as am I. I would suggest you buy a really cheap boat (<$3000) and sail the crap out of it for a summer or two. Then sell it for worth whatever you can get, or give it away. By that point you will know what you want and can afford. Buy that boat and bring it back to LO and do your own updates. You want to know where every bolt and wire is. When I started I knew nothing about the technical part of boats but you learn. Between my wife and I we have six university degrees but nary one course in diesel mechanics, but I digress ... Anyway you need to know a fair bit about a whole bunch of topics and taking a few courses will only get you so far.

Exactly.

Get off of youtube and get some actual experience. Only then will you start to know what you don't know.

[trouble]

Steve, find a boat Captain with a boat who is willing to sail wherever you like and how ever long pay him, you will have money in the end.

[DanCan]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Steve, after reading your response I now believe you're making a mistake. Too much emotion, too little real experience and probably too much youtube ... But I could be wrong.

I just hope your partner is reading this thread.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll figure it out -- likely after learning some unnecessary lessons.

In all fairness, the OP never said he watched a lot of you tube videos, just for the operating costs.
Nevertheless, it amazes me how any folks out there consider watching YouTube videos “experience” and “learning” )

[RSB333]

Love the dream! Please don't assume your partner will love it, too. Mine loved sailing, but not voyaging, and our budget covered frugal cruising, but not a lot of flights home to visit, staying in comfy marinas instead of anchoring out alone, etc. If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

good luck!

[Shrew]

If I were new to boating, never mind cruising, and I were to approach such a plan, I would do the following:

1) Remain working, you will need money.

2) Buy a boat and move onto the boat. Continue working and spend money repairing, upgrading, outfitting while you have an income. Sail around on nights and weekends. This alone will give you an idea if you think you like living and working on a boat.

3) Continue working, but now start saving and living off of roughly what you think you plan on allocating monthly. (Obviously slip fees will need to be paid and excluded from income (you won't be paying for a slip while you're cruising). This will tell you whether you can live a simple basic life.

4) If 3 and 4 are doable, then take the nest egg you've been saving and go cruising on your outfitted boat.

It will take 18 -24 months as a reasonably conservative estimation of time.

[trouble]

Steve, Read Mr. ORielly last post and do it. it is by far the best advice for you and your partner.

[chuckr]

HUMM -- first STOP watchin utube - we have some folks down here doing that - never owned a boat before - never sailed before - so sold their house and business and now want to sail to the Med - I tried nicely and I mean real nicely to help them but when they said the guys on this or that boat on utube said this - I stopped


second I like stories -- we have been out 13 years now - and crossed the pond twice. When we were out 2 years we met a couple in Maine and tried to get us to go with them on a circum nav - they had bought a brand new 40' boat of really high quality - we decided we were not ready nor was the boat and I purchased SoulMates a Jeanneau DS40 new a few years earlier. We went to the Bahamas and did a if we continue list and sailed to the Cheas Bay to Deltaville VA for upgrades. We then sailed south to Miami, Mexico, and eventually to the Bay Islands of Honduras - I have an ssb on board and one morning I went to the cruisers net and the woman we met in Maine was the net controller. We chatted and I said I will sail over to their anchorage in a couple of days. She don't bother we are leaving for the USA in a day or so and are selling the boat - later I saw the boat on line for sail and someone got a heck of a deal - they almost dumped it -- cruising was not for them.
We have helped a few others to try to get into this lifestyle and some successful and some a few months to year out and they sell the boat at big loss as it was not for them. Cruising is for some people and not for others and a 3 week charter will not do it.


I will not get into the finances as there are smarter guys than me here but we did 10 years of cost data and do a search and you will find it. It is not as cheap as some say. One big issue is insurance. You will need some if you go to some places to tie up and without it you will be asked to leave. Your trying to get insurance with zero experience is going to be really hard - do a search on insurance here and see how many people who have a lot of experience are having a hard time finding insurance.

[chuckr]

Steve now some reality -- we just crossed the pond and it was not a pleasant crossing. We got delayed in northern France for almost a month trying to get across the Gulf of Lyon and by the time we made the Canaries it was Dec. The weather began to change but not a lot - so we headed to Cape Verde - we hung around and left on the least bad window with another boat. It took us 2 weeks with most of the time winds of 20-25k with gust of 30 - Seas were 10-12 on the stern and for 5 days add a 10' swell just aft of the beam - it was a bit unpleasant. But we have a great boat and just flew our whisker all the way - Our friend did the same - and he got beat up too.


We had another friend leave just behind us from the Canaries and ran into the same weather and blew out his spinnaker and a genny - any idea of the cost of replacement?


If you really want to cross and ocean go to the Canary Isl in November and get on an ARC boat - and tell them you will pay and become part of a crew - you will probably enjoy a lot more at a lot less cost -

[JPA Cate]

Credentials: I have been cruising with my husband for the past 32 years.

"If you really want to cross and ocean go to the Canary Isl in November and get on an ARC boat - and tell them you will pay and become part of a crew - you will probably enjoy a lot more at a lot less cost -"

If you were to do that, you would learn a lot. About sailing, skippering (which is a whole new issue, actually), and that would be good. The skipper bears sole responsibility for the welfare of his ship and his crew. It means you need to think far ahead, and question your own ideas with "how could this go wrong?", and have the strength of character to not do something you want to do, sometimes.

What it totally leaves out is your GF. She, too, needs to find out if she likes sailing, or likes you well enough to trust her life to your skill level; she will need to find out how she feels about casting off her career at this point, if she has one; she will need to find out how to manage seasickness. One of the least productive things a guy can do is take his favourite lady out and make her cold, wet, seasick and terrified.

Imho, the two of you need to start sailing and see how it is for you. Jim and i actually did a round trip from San Francisco to Hawaii and return, just to see how it was for us --did we like it?--on an ocean passage, in his 30 footer.

Something else I'd recommend is to go out in bad weather and experience and learn where to sheet the storm jib for heaving to while you still have access to warm showers. (Which you may not, on a small boat. But small boats will teach you more, and faster, too.)

Ann

Another issue is whether or not your plan involves her helping fund this adventure, whose names will be on the ownership papers, and so on.