Instant Cruising?

[scupper42]

Hello. First an introduction. I'm based in BC and have been coastal cruising for yikes, 25 years. We've owned a 20 year old Catalina 34 for a year and prior to that had a 40 year old English bilge keeler. There is me, my wife, and 2 boys aged 9 and 12, and of course the waterdog, Scupper.

We are contemplating pulling the plug, selling the house, cars, boat, etc and going cruising in warmer climates for an indefinite period of time. So the next boat will need to be a comfortable bluewater voyager. There is plenty of guidance here on what sort of boat to get, but I'm looking for feedback on overall approach.

Conventional wisdom says I should buy the boat (something 20 ish years old would fit the budget) and spend the next few years fitting it out appropriately for offshore work before loading the family aboard, heading out Juan de Fuca and hanging a left for Mexico. I have a couple of problems with this approach 1) boats here tend to be very expensive and there is a limited selection of decent world cruising types & 2) why make the family's first foreign cruising experience a run down the coast of Oregon with heavy fog and/or 3 gales before we hit San Francisco?

The alternative is to buy a boat, say a reasonably equipped Mason 43 or Fast Passage 39, in say BVI or Mexico. Something with a sound hull, rig, and engine and move aboard and go cruising. If we're going to spend our days rebedding stanchions why not do it in a nice warm anchorage with snorkel trips in afternoon?

I firmly believe that fixing/upgrading the boat is a never ending experience and I enjoy it immensely. I'm not sure that I believe it has to be done all at once and that I need to do a $100k refit on a 20-25 year old boat to get it ready to go. Seems to me there are plenty of boats that people have already invested a lot of money in refitting and that buying a sound boat "in paradise" is a viable option.

What are the downsides of buying the boat in a destination cruising area? Am I going to experience major frustration in getting parts and wish that I'd bought something in Southern California or Florida instead?

[hphoen]

Scupper42,

I think you're on to something. There are boats to be bought in the eastern Caribbean, and several spots where you can readily access parts and specialized labor (like rigging, refrigeration, electrical). My preference would be St. Maarten, although others may disagree. St. Maarten is duty free, so the parts are cheaper.

[uspirate]

I like your plan. there are boats around your area that have already been outfitted. (solar,wind vane steering, radar etc.) i would start there. one the other hand, boats down south owned by northern american have usually been outfitted as well. just alot less hassle (not necessarily money) buying in the general vicinity but they're closer to home.

[camaraderie]

I like Huds idea but I would expand on it a bit to include Florida. The Caribe boats TEND to be largely ex-charter or boats in need of much attention, which is not to say you can't find a good one...but expanding to Florida gives you many more choices and an easy jump off to the Bahamas or up the East Coast when you and the boat are ready. There are a lot of beat up boats in FL too...but the sheer numbers make it more likely you'll find something suitable.

[chuck711]

Hey a good idea. There are a lot of cruisers who live the dream then for the sake of a change or tired of yet another beautiful beach or waterfall,
want to sell their boat in the Caribbean. Especially in Trinidad. Your choice
is to head down a dangerous coast toward the Pacfic or hang out in familiar anchorages. For our trip we didn't even consider our trip began
until we were in St. Martin heading down the island chain. The good stuff.
Buy a boat and just do it. If you think hard enough you can come up with many reasons ( excuses ) not to.

Plenty of well equipped cruising boats or cheap charter boats. Both will do the job.

Your Catalina 34 will do it nicely.

Remember its the people .... never the boat.........who can deliver.

[bestfriend]

Damn! Just when I thought I had my future all planned out! Great idea noob , back to the drawing board for me. I love this place!

[Faster]

There's no doubt that 50 nm daysails between islands, 20 knots on the beam and mid-20degC temps beats the hell out of bashing down the west coast, even in summer. I, too, think you're onto a plan here (I've done both and I know which one's more fun.)

I think that heading down this left coast is, as an introduction to offshore living/sailing, one of the hardest ones to adapt to. Its not warm, fog is an ever present potential, weather systems marching at you one after the other. Few good hideyholes if things to go badly.

There is a video series "Ocean Wanderers" (on knowledge network now and then) about a Victoria dentist and his family that did buy a boat in Florida and ultimately went around the world over a 5-7 year period. A lesson learned from their experience (well documented in their series) was to really be cautious when buying the boat. They weren't and got to Floriday ready to go only to find the boat completely unworthy of the plan, (IIRC the boat was on the hard with a couple of feet of water inside) and spent a year or so, and over $100K, fixing things up.

But they persevered and did it, but imagine how much better the whole experience would have been if they hadn't had that unpleasant surprise.

[blt2ski]

marine Service center in Seattle has at least one boat in Mexico already for sale. I am sure that if you look hard enough too, there will be more than one person whom got from here to there and said "ENOUGH" and you can find a fully equiped, ready to go boat for a song if you will.

have fun on the trip, when you get there

marty

[jrd22]

Sounds like a good idea, but there can be complications that should be thought through. Number one is the number of trips you might end up making to go look at boats in far away (expensive) places before finding the right one, and possibly settling on something less than ideal because you just spent a lot of money to get there. When you do find the right one, then you need to very carefully and realistically assess what will need to be done to it (you said 20 years old, it will probably need a lot more than you or the surveyor originally think) and what local resources are available. If you are going to do a lot of the work yourself what are you going to use for tools, and where can you actually do the work. If hiring it done, again, what yards are available and what is the cost; will it be an offshore trip in an unknown boat to get there, are you OK with that? If you end up making half a dozen trips to find a boat and then several more trips for you and the family after finding the right one, the cost of the boat has gone up substantially. If I were taking my family offshore I would want to know my boat inside and out, every system, every hose and clamp, wires, batteries, rigging, sails, etc. This all takes time, and with the family on board wanting to "go", it probably won't happen. I know this sounds negative, I'm not meaning it to be, but buying a long distance boat can be challenging in a lot of ways that aren't obvious. On the other hand, the Washington and Oregon coast is no picnic either.

Good luck to you and your family and let us know how it all ends up.

John

[bestfriend]

I, for one, am starting to wonder if this was a plug by a broker to stir up much needed business in used boat sales in far away places. I guess we'll have to wait and see if he comes back to defend himself. I hope I am wrong. Come back and prove me wrong Scupper.