Greetings from a Newbie

[bru]

Hi everyone, great forum!

My wife of 23 years and I recently did the whole "what the hell are we doing with our lives" thing and decided it was time to plan for a new way of life. The kids are grown or growing up, the youngest should be off to Uni in a couple of years and we want to get off the treadmill of routine daily life and enjoy ourselves for a while.

I've always loved the sea, boats and ships coming as I do from generations of shipbuilders and mariners. Sailed a fair bit (mostly in dinghies) in my youth but not for a lot of years as we live about as far from the sea as it's possible to get here in England!

The boss has never sailed but has a yearning to go to distant lands to see what there is to be seen.

Hmmm. I want to sail, she wants to travel. Sounds like a good starting point!

We've been pottering around the inland waterways on a variety of boats for the best part of 20 years so we're well versed in the ups and downs of boat ownership.

Given our near total lack of experience and know how, we plan to both do the RYA Competent Crew qualification (1 week sailing under instruction) during 2007 followed by Day Skipper (another week practical plus theory) either later in the year or early next year before buying a boat.

Provisional plan is to downsize and release capital to purchase a suitable boat by selling the house (huge mortgage, loads of equity) and moving into much cheaper rented accomodation. We'll then buy the yacht and spend a couple of years fitting out and sailing weekends and holidays whilst still working full time before cutting the mooring lines and setting off for big wide world.

We're not going to be big budget cruisers though - when I say loads of equity that's relative to the cost of the mortgage. We'll need to spend as little as possible on buying and fitting out the yacht and we'll hopefully have enough left for two to three years cruising plus a contingency fund before the money runs out (although we plan to grab any legal opportunity to top up the finances that comes our way as we go!)

I've enjoyed reading these forums and learnt a lot from them so I figured it was time to come out of the woodwork and say hi. Now I'm here I'm bound to ask a load of dumb questions from time to time!

Regards
Bru

[delmarrey]

Your story sounds like many others here. I'm sure you'll enjoy the site. There is lots of good info in the archives but ask away we can get you on the proper heading.........................................._/)

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha bru,
Welcome aboard!! Good to have you here. It truly is a great forum.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[swagman]

Hi Bru,
Welcome. Great to hear the plans and look forward to your contributions - and questions.
JOHN

[Weyalan]

Welcome aboard,

Your plan sounds rather similar to mine. Good luck! Don't underestimate the cost of the refit... If you buy a "cheaper" boat, the refit costs can be significant. Nevertheless, don't be put off - its a great dream that you can make into a reality.

[Pblais]

Sounds like a very reasonable set of priorities and a fine route to get there. You just need to get the plan in motion and work through the details having fun all along the way. It is supposed to be fun! You would want to get as much as you can.

The forum is a great place for working through details. If we don't have enough we will make more upon request.

[bru]

Thanks for the welcome folks,

Nice to know that our plans aren't totally off the wall!

I gotta revise one thing in my original post though - this isn't a great forum, it's a superb one! I've spent most of the last couple of days reading thread after thread constantly amazed at the knowledge which is freely shared and, above all, the courteous and friendly way in which the members conduct discussions (I've had some very bad experiences on forums etc. including a nightmare time as a forum admin which came close to ending up in the law courts)

We're still working through our initial ideas to firm up our plans a bit - the point about not underestimating refit costs is well made 'cos I could spend our entire budget in nothing flat with one order to Force 4 Chandlers after half an hour perusing their catalogue! There's going to have to be a lot of prioritising along the lines of "what do we need more? Radar or a watermaker?" sort of thing I reckon!

[Pblais]

It seems you are catching on to the forum and starting to see the questions you will eventually need to get to. We are getting close to 55,000 postings so I'm sure there its a lot to peak your interest.

As far as money goes you probably are shocked at what things cost. It's something that happens to you when you first start thinking about fitting out the boat but the feeling never goes away.

The trade offs you need to make are complicated and it's best not to spend too much before you get more information and experience behind you. You suddenly start seeing more than you used to see as you watch and study boats. When learning to sail suddenly one day you can "see the wind" and just by looking you know the general speed and direction. You get up each morning to read the wind forecast and think that maybe today would be a great day for a sail but you need to be back by 4 to miss that storm front coming in. You watch the weather with more interest. You look at things and see more detail and with more clarity. You also find more questions. It's why so many people come here and they keep coming back.