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Originally Posted by SeaVenture
If you have the money to buy an almost complete boat and/or the cash to have it fixed by a yard, then waiting isn't a bad idea. If you need to do it slowly so you can afford to do it right, then you may need to plan ahead as we did. We've been frustrated that it's taken this long, but all things work together for good
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SeaVenture, thanks for your post. I checked out your site, and it's fun. You do have a big boat, and big adventures.
Waiting for us is hard, since it would be fun to find and buy a blue water boat early and start working on it, similar to what you did. We have some property we could sell to finance the boat, or we could do a home equity loan and pay it off, etc. We visit boats that might suit our needs as they come on the market, just to get ideas, but in some ways it's torturous. Whenever things get tough at work, I think "well, if it really hit the fan, then I'd just start cruising immediately." This is both a comforting thought and something of a siren's song.
We don't want to start before we have a good financial plan, but it certainly is tempting. It's also tempting to have "the boat" for several years before the break. For a 38-40 foot boat, however, we'd be looking at monthly mooring fee of at least $240 or so. Multiply that by 12, and we're in for $2880 at least a year. (It would be easier if we were cruising and spending more time on the hook.) For the about the same amount, we can charter a Crealock 34 for two weeks in the San Juans, Desolation Sound, etc. If we toss in maintenance and repairs on annual basis, we could charter 3-4 weeks a year. Hmmm.
There's a thousand roads to choose from, and for each us some are better than others, but none are inherently the best. What I need now is more cruising experience (two weeks this summer, and a bunch of weekend trips), and hopefully more next year (3-4 weeks, I hope). At some point, we'll decide about a big break, but for now I need to balance out the stress of work with the desire to sail, and try to make things complementary for awhile.
It's a tough thing!
Jim H