So wife and kid are on board with the idea.
I can, and do,
work from anywhere. (And ~7 weeks of vacation)So that should help with bring able to
cruise once we find the right
boat.
We have no qualms with projects as I've done everything from rebuilding motors and transmissions to residing my house.
That said we're trying to be smart on expenses here, so we're looking at older
boats in the 30-36' range. Our "long" term goal, is to be able to at least sail from NC down through the keys and depending on sea legs maybe island hopping some in the
Caribbean. What we're trying to avoid is a never ending
project that is a marina/yard queen.
Now
history complete, we've found a few
boats in our ideal
price range (around 30k) that we really like. Some are just going to be too much
work after we saw them, even if they look like they'd be awesome with about 2 years of hard work. [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]
The one the wife likes is an older one that's already pulled out and up on stands. It needs the
hull painted, some minor
wood work (crack in the
cockpit floor
hatch that accesses the
diesel, and some trim/polish inside the cabin) and cosmetically could have the
deck painted. The issue I've got with this one, it's
for sale by the boatyard brokerage guy, but to
survey, we'd have to pay to move it to
water, then see trial and if we like it, pay to pull out, then
paint the underside, then pay to put it back in the
water to sail away. The
cheap in me is annoyed by that. The yard was a pretty firm answer of "no" to moving it in/out for heavy discount. The owner just lowered the
price to a realistic price so he's not budging. (Yet)
Is it pretty normal if it's out of the water to have to pay to launch, pay to
haul out, pay to launch?
The other
boat is a little less boat 85
Sabre 32' (instead of a35') but appears turn key and is already in the water. Also a little cheaper and newer. That's my thinking, but wife has watched one too many YouTube videos saying older heavier boats are the only ones strong. Sigh. (She's not gonna join so... She's not gonna kill me)
Am I being unrealistic thinking that a 32' will be enough for
weather smart cruising the
Caribbean? Should I rethink my
budget and save some more? Take a loan out?
Sell a kidney?
I really liked a
Catalina 36 for ~50 but it sold/has an accepted offer. Should I plan to drive a lot farther then sail it back to NC instead of
buying it here?
Any strong recommendations in that price range? Strong run away streaming type? (We looked at one that was in a yard and had about 2' of standing water in it. Oops.)
Thanks for any suggestions.
Chris
(HSC rugby was from playing rugby at Hampden-Sydney decades ago.)
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