Finding Our New Live-Aboard!

[Mpricer]

Hi All,

My wife Jeanne and I (Mark) are searching for a live-aboard sailboat. We live near the gulf and are planning to do mostly coastal cruising, at least for a while. We haven't bought a boat yet and are still not sure what we want. We have some ideas, things that are sure, like beam, basic length layout etc. but we haven't yet tackled the hull type and construction questions yet. It's going to be an older used boat, we can't afford new. We would like it to be as new as possible but understand that an older boat may be all the budget will support. Anyway, I know these forums can generate lots of ideas so that's why we are here.

Also, we have put together a YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/channel/UCiBUb1fn-Bx5WAkxsfMlV_A as well as Facebook at www.facebook.com/questforthunder and a google + site at www.google.com/+Questforthunder.

You are welcome to check them out and you can get a better Idea of what we are looking at currently and it would be a great place to interact on the various topics we post. I would like to invite everyone to help us find "Thunder" you participation and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Oh and yes, there is an web site as well at The Quest For Thunder | Find Your Boat And Go Sail It. Again thanks in advance for your insight, suggestions and guidance.

Mark

[Steadman Uhlich]

Howdy Mark!

Welcome aboard CF!

Good Luck on finding your perfect Thunder boat.

I did go look at your Facebook page, your Youtube Channel, and your website. Being curious, I watched a few videos, and read several pages, but I did not find enough content on the website or on the facebook page that kept me engaged on the sites. I watched a few videos, but the Promo video seemed like a Beneteau commercial ad, so I was disappointed, as it did not seem personal or authentic to you (it seemed like a professional boat company ad, which the footage was). I think it would be better to introduce you and your wife in a promo.

Looks like you are putting a lot of time into producing stuff for your multiple sites.

"Go Navy!"

[Mpricer]

Thanks so much for the candid feedback. I appropriate it....I am new to this social media stuff and am just now getting the idea about content and focused target audience and all that.

In answer to some of your questions, we are looking to keep the cost under 100K, so we have been looking at older boats. I'm pretty handy so I don't mind some fix up, but I don't want to spend my life getting ready to go sailing.

Both Jeanne and I have spent the better part of our adult lives in the Navy, 28 years for me and she is now working on 30..lots and lots of time at sea, I was a surface warfare guy so I'm an expert in ship handling and navigation/piloting etc. We have had very little exposure to sailing a sailboat. We have taken sailing lessons and will continue our sailing education through lessons and other instruction. Even after we buy our boat!

We don't know much of anything about sailboats in general. Thus the broad approach to checking out boats. My calculus here is the more boats we go on the more we know what we do and don't like. Right now we are in the beginning steeps to this process and are trying to figure out what suites us...

We haven't even begun to discuss the issues of fin vs full keel etc. I tried that on a forum once, what a disaster.

We have discovered thus far that we feel we need a boat in the 40' range, Jeanne really like the boats with wide beams. We looked at a Tayana and while we both thought the boat was beautiful we felt like we were in a cave. Dark and cramped. So I guess that type is out...lol. The more beam the better.

As for the media outlets I've put together, there is no commercial intentions of any kind. Just an outlet for me and a way for our friends and family and who ever else may be interested to follow and participate in our journey to find that perfect for us boat and move aboard her to start that next chapter of our lives.

Again, thanks for your feedback on the YouTube stuff. As I mentioned I am working on focusing the video content a bit more and to tell more of our story. I apologize for the trailer, it was fun grafting it together and I do realize that the channel would be better served with Jeanne and I talking about why we are doing what we are doing. Look for a change to come soon.

I checked my web site to see if the slide show was failing, I couldn't find any problems with it...I clicked through all the pics without difficulty and double checked to make sure the descriptions were present at the bottom of each photo. I found no issues...sorry you had trouble.

Again, thank you for your input. I will take many of your suggestions to heart. Please consider participating in the blog section of the web site it would be a good forum to comment on the posts I put there about our journey. I would love to have an ongoing dialog.

Fair Winds and Following Seas,

Quest for Thunder