Family of Six

[Coronath]

Hi Everyone,

Taking a leave of absence from work this year to go on a sabbatical with our family of six (parents plus four teens) to Africa where I have been working missions in years past. We have been planning toward sailing to the Mediterranean and flying down into Africa (I have only flown to get there before).

Over the past six months, we have been to the east coast (Virginia and Maryland), the west coast (California and Oregon), and a marathon trip driving from Galveston to Key West and back up the east coast of Florida looking at boats.

We have an accepted offer, financing is pre-approved, but insurance for the crossing seems to be the sticking point.

I posted this yesterday at: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...es-158540.html

We have owned two sail boats (Mac 21 and Catalina 26) that we sailed on lakes, but our first experience with blue water will be in January when we go for a week of ASA sailing training all together.

If you have any advice to help us, we would be grateful to hear it. If we can't get insurance, then we will just fly over and put off our sailing dreams until retirement.

Well, that's who we are and what we want to do in a nutshell.

Thanks!

Keith

[valhalla360]

Obviously there are costs and complications to each but here are 3 possibilities:
- Ship the boat over on a freighter.
- Pay for a delivery captain to ride along.
- If you haven't committed to a boat yet, consider buying a boat already on the Med.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by Coronath

Hi Everyone,

Taking a leave of absence from work this year to go on a sabbatical with our family of six (parents plus four teens) to Africa where I have been working missions in years past. We have been planning toward sailing to the Mediterranean and flying down into Africa (I have only flown to get there before).

Over the past six months, we have been to the east coast (Virginia and Maryland), the west coast (California and Oregon), and a marathon trip driving from Galveston to Key West and back up the east coast of Florida looking at boats.

We have an accepted offer, financing is pre-approved, but insurance for the crossing seems to be the sticking point.

I posted this yesterday at: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...es-158540.html

We have owned two sail boats (Mac 21 and Catalina 26) that we sailed on lakes, but our first experience with blue water will be in January when we go for a week of ASA sailing training all together.

If you have any advice to help us, we would be grateful to hear it. If we can't get insurance, then we will just fly over and put off our sailing dreams until retirement.

Well, that's who we are and what we want to do in a nutshell.

Thanks!

Keith

So, you are borrowing money to go long term on a boat with little blue water experience? And your itinerary is unclear… sailing to Africa? Well… what part? Africa is rather large.

[MarkJ]

Keith,
I never let insurance affect my use of what's insured.
My boat is not insured (I use the term "self insured") and I have sailed the world and continue to do so.

Life is a risk. But what life is there if some peanut company says you can not live it?


Mark

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

So, you are borrowing money to go long term on a boat with little blue water experience?

They're going to gain experience as they go ... Call it 'the Bumfuzzle way". Nothing new under the sun, plenty of people go cruising without any real experience and most do very well.

If you have to finance the boat, you add an extra risk, obviously, in case you do lose the boat and your insurance doesn't cover it (or if you have none). Solution: go with a boat you can afford without a loan or accept that in order to live a little, we take risks every single day and go without insuring the boat.

Daily traffic on land is a lot more dangerous then crossing an ocean, yet we don't think twice about it.

Having said that: there are insurers who will cover inexperienced people on expensive boats. Not cheap, but not possible to get insurance. (See the other topic).

[Coronath]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I have requests in for quotes from the suggested insurers now.

As stated above, the plan is to sail to the Mediterranean and then fly into Africa. That is the plan in a nutshell. I have given the specific itinerary to the insurers. The boat is in the Caribbean. We hope to sail from there to the US east coast, out to Bermuda, cross over to the Azores, Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, France, Italy, Greece, Israel. Fly into Africa and back. Sail from Israel to Greece, Italy, France, Gibraltar, Canaries, Caribbean, and back up to the US.

Insurance has become the sticking point of the whole plan, and if it doesn't work out, we will just fly to Africa for the mission as I have done in years past.

Keith