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Sailboat ready to cruise?

10K views 66 replies 24 participants last post by  JonEisberg 
#1 ·
We have been doing our research and searching the listings for the right sailboat to take our little family cruising in a couple years. We've seen a lot of boats in a wide range of conditions--from excellent maintenance and obvious loving care to neglected piles of trash.

I also see a lot of boats that the owners claim are "ready to go cruising." The descriptions go on to say that the boat has either been cruised extensively and is therefore outfitted for cruising mode OR that the boat just underwent a major overhaul/refit/upgrade. I get excited about these because it sounds like they would require less money invested beyond the purchase price. At the same time, however, I read many cruising blogs that talk about when they bought their boat and how they had to do months of work changing the electrical, redoing plumbing, putting in entirely new standing rigging, and on and on and on.

So my question is this: Do boats exist that come "ready to cruise?" Can the listings be believed? I would say that for enough money of course you can get one ready to go, but I see a lot of boats listed even down in MY price range that make this claim.

I understand people want to work on a new boat no matter the condition so as to familiarize themselves with every nook and cranny, but these bloggers and forum posters sound like they are completely rebuilding the boat and its various systems, not just testing things out and getting familiar.
 
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#2 ·
No, No, No No No No No No. If there were we'd see every tom , dick and and harry out here, some folks with a ton of cash can't seem to even buy a new boat, much less go sailing or cruising. don't get excited, it's a lot of work, if your not prepared to spend a lot of time and money I'd suggest you just stay in your armchair.
 
#3 ·
I think aeventyr60's response is perhaps a bit harsh.

Most people are selling boats for one of two reasons:
1) They lost interest/time/funding to use it. Usually they don't come to this decision quickly, so the boat hasn't been maintained for years by the time they decide to sell. The boat might have once been ready to cruise, but it'll now require years of deferred maint to go and probably has a lot of outdated or dead hardware.

2) They are upgrading to a larger boat. They'll probably take some of the gear from the current boat to the new one, so it might be missing some cruising essentials like a good dinghy, maybe the best anchor moved to the new boat, the grill, and other accessories.

Sometimes you get lucky and find someone who discovered that sailing isn't for them pretty quickly, but they owned a well maintained boat. That was pretty much true with my Pearson and it came well equipped and only requiring a little catch up on the maintenance. I still spent long hours of work getting it cruise ready by my definitions though.

alex
 
#5 ·
Just a little reality check. Stick around, you will learn a lot. Beware of the ez solutions, get rich quick scheme style answers. No such thing as cruise ready, maybe for the previous owner, but the new owner, doubtful.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Cruise ready is such a over rated, over used term, it's the same as saying " I have a carfax " not going do you much good when something goes south on ya a couple hundred miles offshore.

Shoot, I bought a cruise ready boat knowing I was going to gut the SOB to make it cruise ready and I'm STEAL working on it
 
#7 ·
I think the biggest thing is that what you consider cruise ready and what the PO considers cruise ready probably only have a couple things in commen.

that being said I have heard of ships that get back from an extended trip and the owners decide that its not for them any more. so it does happen but not often.

rule of thumb I was given as a rough estimate is figure your budget use 2/3's to buy the ship the other 1/3rd to get it ready for what you want.
 
#8 ·
I think the biggest thing is that what you consider cruise ready and what the PO considers cruise ready probably only have a couple things in commen.

that being said I have heard of ships that get back from an extended trip and the owners decide that its not for them any more. so it does happen but not often.

rule of thumb I was given as a rough estimate is figure your budget use 2/3's to buy the ship the other 1/3rd to get it ready for what you want.
 
#10 ·
There is a big difference between having all the gear you need and being 'cruise ready', whatever that means. Certainly there is a continuum of boats from junk to gems but don't think you can buy a boat and take off. There is actually a big advantage in having to work on your boat before you leave since you will know the details better for when something goes wrong in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.
 
#12 ·
There is a big difference between having all the gear you need and being 'cruise ready', whatever that means. Certainly there is a continuum of boats from junk to gems but don't think you can buy a boat and take off.
I'm with KS on this.

Before buying our current boat I looked at a lot of "cruise-ready" offerings. I learned it mostly meant the boat had a lot of equipment on board, all ranging in quality and usefulness. I quickly learned to ignore the equipment list and focus on the basics: hull, deck, standing rigging, engine, tankage, etc.

New sails are fine (although "new" can be a relative term ... get the date of construction), but you'll be replacing them at some point anyway. Ignore electronics. Lots of doodads do not make a boat cruise-ready. A solid anchoring system is a good sign, but about the only piece of equipment that peaked my interest was a windvane. It signalled that the boat really had been cruised extensively, plus it is a piece of equipment that really is quite expensive and hard to install.
 
#11 ·
I guess "cruise ready" never truly happens as the boat is constantly in need of maintanance or repairs. Unless you can do most of the work yourself the land sharks at the marinas will help you with your cruising cash. In my experiance it is hard to find a marina that will not bad mouth previous work done to your boat and they always find issues. The survey either did not reveal how much work was needed or everything just went bad after the purchase was made. If you are handy you will likely be OK.
 
#13 ·
We bought our boat privately from a couple who were actively cruising. They were planning to list it on YW in a few months when their cruise ended but we convinced them to sell to us and not forfeit the brokers fee.

We could have left the day we bought her. Yes, it was ready to cruise. Was it the way I wanted it? No. I spent a bit of money updating systems and making the boat just the way I wanted her.

Do not overlook the advantages of doing your own refit. You will get the exact equipment you want and you will know how it was installed so repairs will be easier. Things will break and you will need to know how to fix them. Or if you have unlimited funds and do not plan to cross oceans, just pay someone else to fix.
 
#14 ·
It also depends on what your definition of "cruising" is. In my searching, I met a couple who had lived aboard and cruised a boat north out of Florida all the way to the Chesapeake. They thoroughly enjoyed the boat and the cruising they had done, but in the process, they really wrecked the boat. There was no way that I would let my kids, or even my wife, aboard that boat. And it's a shame, because that make and model would have been perfect for us, but not that boat. Yet there they were, "cruising." Obviously, we weren't using the same dictionary.

Regarding the work you see being done, remember that some of them do as Mike and others have suggested and buy the boat based on the hull, standing rigging, etc., because they want to refit the boat to meet their wants and needs. I've seen blogs where they literally stripped everything out of the boat (including bulkheads, cabinets, etc.) and completely remade it. The beefed up the tabbing, added raceways for all the cabling, refitted all the hatches and ports, etc., and even changed the floorplan to meet their needs. What they got, in the end, was a semi-custom boat for much less than they would have paid to have one made from scratch.

As far as your specific situation, remember that, at your budget, you're buying a 30-ish year old boat. Back in the early 1980's, the power requirements onboard were pretty straightforward. You needed to start the engine, run the AM/FM radio and VHF, maybe a Loran, and the cabin lights. The power cables that run through most boats of that vintage are smaller because they just didn't need to handle much current. Today's boaters, by contrast, want to run laptops and iPads, watch movies on big-screen TV's with surround sound, run the microwave, refrigerator, dehumidifier, etc. To do that safely, unless the PO did it, you wind up having to gut at least some of the old wiring and run new. And, even where the PO did it, it doesn't mean it was done properly. For example, on my boat the PO ran some new electrical wiring using what appears to be non-marine wiring. Sure, when the PO ran it, I'm sure he knew what that meant as far as longevity for the wiring, but he didn't care because the cost was much lower and he would just do it again with non-marine when the time comes. Now I own the boat, and the time has come.

So, are there turn-key boats? Yes. Are they easy to find, especially in your price range? No. If you're persistent, though, you may find one, just like Tim did. One way to do this is to have a Craigslist ad asking for boats that meet your criteria. Like Tim, you may find someone who is thinking of selling, but wasn't necessarily really ready.
 
#22 ·
As far as your specific situation, remember that, at your budget, you're buying a 30-ish year old boat. Back in the early 1980's, the power requirements onboard were pretty straightforward. You needed to start the engine, run the AM/FM radio and VHF, maybe a Loran, and the cabin lights. The power cables that run through most boats of that vintage are smaller because they just didn't need to handle much current. Today's boaters, by contrast, want to run laptops and iPads, watch movies on big-screen TV's with surround sound, run the microwave, refrigerator, dehumidifier, etc.
Just to show contrasts for me cruise ready would mean not having all of that junk. It would mean having a boat with a self sufficient electrical system, which means one that has the basic comfort items covered and that can keep itself charged off of solar and wind. For my definition power consumption has actually gone down in the last 30 years because all of the lighting is now LED and not incandescent, and thus consumes about 10% of the power that it did 30 years ago. It's rare to see my boat pulling down 5 amps total, and that's with the laptop and tablet charging, all electronics turned on, and all lights turned on. My two group 24 house batteries are complete overkill and easily stay charged from a modest solar panel.

Every cruiser needs to figure out what cruising means to them and how they'd equip the boat. "Cruise Ready" just tells you that it met someone else's definition.
 
#15 ·
I think that if you keep looking, you CAN find a boat that's got the necessary cruising equipment but you'll undoubtedly want to personalize it to suit yourself and the things you plan to do with it. For example, about 10 years ago I bought a 44' sailboat that was "cruise ready" and the couple who owned it before me were living aboard in the Bahamas. But I decided that, though the radar worked, it was old and nearly obsolete and in Maine, where I intended to cruise, fog is common and a good radar not optional, and I also wasn't satisfied with the primitive GPS. Then, I added an Espar heater, IMHO another necessity for comfortable northern cruising. Of course all these things were considered before I made an offer on the boat. That was pretty much it for the first couple of years but as time went on I was constantly upgrading and improving various systems and I suspect you will too. For me that's part of the fun of boat ownership. I don't know what your experience level with boating is, but if you pore over the listings online, pretty soon you'll get pretty good at being able to read between the lines of broker hyperbole and be able to determine which boats have been appropriately upgraded and well cared for. I'm currently going through the same process in my search for my next boat. Good luck with your search!
 
#16 ·
If I were to list my boat for sale, I would def say it is cruise-ready... as we are currently cruising on it.

As was mentioned earlier (by TIm I think), there are boats out there which are relatively ready to go, but you will probably want to add or change some things yourself. What I would suggest is finding a boat for your use that has a lot of gear on it, like the liferaft, EPIRB, Tender and motor, Davits, maybe even solar array. Just so you know, those few items on my boat add up to over $15000 my price. The life raft, as you have kids, is an especially undervalued piece of cruising equipment that is expensive to buy but generally not highly regarded as a huge plus by many first-time cruisers. DO be aware that they have to be repacked which is expensive too (can easily run a grand or more, depending on the raft). Anyways, keep looking at the cruise ready boats with the idea that they may have a lot of gear on them which you will want but probably will still require you to do some things afterwards to make it comfortable to you.

Just as an aside, there really is not a good definition for cruising. We cannot even agree on it on this site and we are all sailors! For some, cruising is going sailing for the day while for others it is fulltime, nonstop, movement and living aboard. As such, you will see a wide variety of "cruise-ready" boats, based upon one persons definition and the fact that it sounds good (via a broker).

Brian
 
#17 ·
Cruse ready is such a vague term as to really have no meaning. For some it could mean that the boat includes blown out sails that aren't ripped (you know the ones listed as excellent shape because they are in one piece, but original to the 40 year old boat) a sextant, a set of old charts, a pair of rusty dividers, and a pencil stub. For others it means that there is a whole suite of electronics including radar, chart plotter, forward facing sonar, night vision cameras, AIS VHF, new carbon fiber sails, upgraded stainless steel ports, re-cored decks, EPERB, 20 person life raft, dingy davits, with RIB with outboard and on and on. Granted the first one will likely fit your budget, second one not likely.

Thing is only you can decide what you need. Some like KISS, others need all the comforts of home, and then some. There are those who require a shower stall, others are happy to have a garden sprayer to hose themselves off in the cockpit.
 
#18 ·
Mine was cruise ready when I bought it. Just had had an extensive refit and came with lots of spares.

Don't look in Annapolis or San Francisco, look in the 'chicken harbours ' Gibralter, Vilamoura St Maarten etc. Places where poeple have looked at the next leg and said "whoa too much. "
 
#23 ·
I believe the term "cruise ready" is an oxymoron. No boat is ever completely "cruise ready".
There is always something that needs to be done, should be done or the captain (or first mate; I sail with no admirals aboard) would like to get done.
That's what all those beautiful anchorages are for!
At some point you have just get underway, the boat will never be perfect. It's up to the captain to decide what must be done before departure and what can be put off for a time, anyway.
Case in point; our Tigress windlass base cracked apart so badly only 2 bolts were holding it loosely to the deck in Francis Bay, St John. I filled the base w/ Bondo to reduce movement when in use and we made a bee line from the BVI to St. Martin to purchase a new one (no way to repair the old one). After a two week wait, instead of the promised Tigress, a windlass I consider too small for the boat anyway, we had to purchase a Falkon, a much better windlass, but with a different footprint, so it was not going to be "plug and play", so to speak like a Tigress.
But by now it was late June, in the hurricane season and we had no desire to hang around in the "zone" to mount the windlass.
So we set sail, not exactly hurrying, but not dawdling either, until we were statistically safe in Grenada. Every time we used the old windlass we thought it would just pop over the side w/ the anchor and chain, but miraculously, it worked perfectly until we took it off.
Now the new windlass sits proudly on the foredeck, gleaming in the tropical sun. But we were lucky, I admit that.
Of course, there isn't a good captain that doesn't have a fair amount of luck!
 
#24 ·
Just like the wide variety of sailboats I've been seeing, there is an equally vast array of posters in this forum and I appreciate all of your thoughts. Many of the responses we've been getting have made a lot of sense. I think we will tend to have a pragmatic approach to sailboat maintenance and attempt to do it ourselves. I really like the idea of keeping the systems on board as simple as possible. We will not have a TV. We would prefer to have our fresh water pumped manually, toilets flushed manually, and want to be as self-sufficient as possible. Have most of you replaced your lights (cabin and otherwise) with LEDs?
 
#25 ·
In fact, I'll just repost somebody's thoughts I saw on another thread about simplifying your boat systems. I think I'm gonna be more like this guy when we finally get the boat and prepare to take off. I apologize, but I didn't cut and paste his name. Anybody remember who posted this?

"I'm going to offer a slightly different view on this. I think your maintenance costs and time input are directly proportional to the complexity of your boat. The simpler you keep your boat, the cheaper and easier to maintain it in good working order. Unlike most people, I have been removing "systems" from my boat only to replace them with reliable, inexpensive-to-maintain manual systems. Some examples of my "upgrades" are:

Foot pumps for all fresh and salt water (No pressurized water anywhere. I carry 2 new foot pumps in case one fails)

Nature's Head composting toilet (Simplicity itself. Nothing can go wrong with it and there is no maintenance)

Manual windlass (no electric motor, wiring runs, breakers, extra batteries and complex charging systems)

Solar power for all my energy needs (no genset, wind power or complicated charging systems)

All LED lighting (never change a bulb! Allows you to reduce your battery bank size and charging systems)

One large 160amp house battery for all my power needs (simple wiring and less to go wrong). I also have a 70amp starter battery for the diesel engine.

Windvane and tillerpilot driving the windvane for my autopilot needs (simple, extremely energy efficient and cheap and if the tiller pilot fails you can carry a spare to switch out while you repair the other one)

By leaving off the following items you will save yourself a LOT of expense and maintenance down the road:

Genset (another motor and electrical system to maintain)

Watermaker (high maintenance - build in bigger tanks for more water)

Electric windlass (high maintenance and requires extra battery power and wiring)

Air conditioning (need I say anything??)

Pressurized water (not very high maintenance perhaps, but requires more battery power and charging systems)

RIB and outboard engine (A hard rowing dinghy -admittedly for purists- is rugged and gives almost zero maintenance and can be propelled by oars, saving the expense and headache of an outboard engine)

External teak (it is a labour of love and some people enjoy it)

Fridge (This is one item I'm prepared to keep and maintain, but if you can live without one, it does simplify everything, especially your charging system)

The hull, mast, rigging and bottom are a given for every boat and will involve some sporadic maintenance (hauling and painting, changing rigging periodically etc.). If you read cruising blogs I think you'll get a pretty good idea of the kinds of things that break down the most on boats (basically the things I mention above). If you have lots of money and are not sailing abroad, then a complex boat isn't much of a problem (when stuff breaks, replace it at the yard), but if you are thinking of cruising abroad (and far from West Marine) there is a lot to be said for keeping the boat as simple as possible and carrying all the spares you need. I cruise in Brazil where boat parts are probably 4 times the price of American chandleries and qualified labour is often very hard to find. I think once you leave the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand (and perhaps a few other places) you will find that parts are hard to find and specialized labour even harder (but perhaps you can fix it all yourself if you are the DIY type).

Anyhow, just a few things to think about when you buy and outfit the boat."
 
#27 ·
Our home is our boat. We want it to be as comfortable as possible.

I have a LOT of comments about that, but I will summize to say that I could not cruise like that. It is more like camping out in a tent. Some people do, and I do not mean to sound like it cannot or should not be done, but I do not agree with much of that above.

But again, your budget is different than mine and I have a differnt threshold for comfort. Just remember, as your kids get older, your threshold may change too.

Brian
 
#26 ·
I think we will tend to have a pragmatic approach to sailboat maintenance and attempt to do it ourselves. I really like the idea of keeping the systems on board as simple as possible.
Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach:Amazon:Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JBFAV0TCL.@@AMEPARAM@@41JBFAV0TCL

This thread should be a sticky as a cautionary tale. Kudos to Jim for sticking with it & keeping us posted:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gener.../98109-apparently-im-not-meant-have-boat.html

Another...informative...thread:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/boat-...1413-all-sellers-lying-moronic-douchbags.html
 
#31 ·
I was happily surprised to find that a block of ice lasts for about a week in our Pearson's icebox. This made short term cruising (one month) with no fridge quite comfortable. Our longest period between buying ice was 5 or 6 days. We started that period with 2 blocks, and they were both half there by the end of it.

I think the major downside of electric water pumps is that you go through water faster than if you are manually pumping it unless you are very careful. We carry a spare, but haven't used it yet. I have a hot water heater, but I'm about to remove it. It takes up a lot of space, leaks a little bit, and we never use it.

My solar setup cost about $250 and makes us energy neutral (in summer), but without a fridge we barely have any power consumption. I can leave all electronics on and my laptop charging overnight and watch the batteries fully recharge on solar by 2pm the next day on a sunny day. We're in the more comfortable PNW so air conditioning up here is unheard of in houses, let alone boats.

There are a lot of definitions of cruising being used in this thread. Most of us have jobs where getting away for more than a month is hard, so I think my definition of cruising for up to a month is likely to be a common one. Others like Brian are full time cruisers and may have different definitions of requirements. Where you live certainly matters too, I understand wanting AC and refrigeration in Texas or Florida, but don't see the need for it up here in Washington and BC.
 
#35 ·
Mike,
I'm sorry, you've probably told us before. I'm still trying to learn all the people here and their uses/families/etc. Do you live aboard full time? Do you have kids aboard?

I'm not trying to be petty. I think what you're describing is perfectly fine for two adults for a week. But the OP was talking about full-time live aboard, with two adults and two kids. In my (admittedly very inexperienced and overly self-important) opinion, when kids get involved things get more interesting. You have to keep them entertained and fed, for example. My wife and me? We'd eat fish we caught, or pasta, etc. My kids? One might be OK with that plan, but the other one is still on more of the "toddler diet" of mac and cheese, nuggets, eggs, yogurt, fruit, etc. He won't touch beef or pork (though that's starting to soften a little). When I think of what it would be like to try to provision for us for a 1 week sail under the configuration you've described, let alone permanently living aboard, at this point it would be a non-starter. I'd very quickly wind up with a set-up akin to Brian's.

Now I'm the first to admit that my kids are somewhat spoiled, and it's entirely possible that the OP's kids have already learned to eat anything that's put in front of them, that they love to read and color and do other stuff that's not battery-powered, they turn off all lights when they leave a room, they don't mind taking cold showers, etc. In that case, the boat configuration you've described (and the one she mentioned in her post) are probably fine. More importantly, if the entire family is onboard with the constraints she/you've described, then that's all that's really necessary. Personally, I'd prefer more "creature comforts," but then again, if that's what gets her and her family out on the water and otherwise living the life that they're dreaming of, that may well be a "sacrifice" they are willing to make.

Sorry if any of my posts have sounded judgmental or anything of that kind. I certainly don't mean them that way. As with most of my posts for these kinds of questions, my goal is just to help set expectations. If the OP is OK with those, then that's great, and as I've said before, part of me will certainly be envious of the places she'll go and the experiences she'll give her children.
 
#37 ·
Mike,
I'm sorry, you've probably told us before. I'm still trying to learn all the people here and their uses/families/etc. Do you live aboard full time? Do you have kids aboard?

I'm not trying to be petty. I think what you're describing is perfectly fine for two adults for a week. But the OP was talking about full-time live aboard, with two adults and two kids. ... Personally, I'd prefer more "creature comforts," but then again, if that's what gets her and her family out on the water and otherwise living the life that they're dreaming of, that may well be a "sacrifice" they are willing to make.
Hi Jim, no offense taken, or intended. I was simply challenging the idea that a boat needs to have a lot of complex systems to somehow be comfortable or safe. And that the opposite is true; that a "simple boat" (whatever that means) means you're living in a tent, or have to sacrifice. Not the case. In my experience a simpler boat is a more comfortable one. I guess it's a question of meeting your needs, not your wants. But my needs are certainly different than yours, Brian's or the OPs. And that's just fine :).

I do agree with your point about full-timers, and the challenge of kids, vs us part-timer couples with no kids. Kids definitely complicates the situation. I have no experience with them; have the greatest respect for those who do, but it ain't for me!

We cruise the Great Lakes (mostly Superior), and are usually out for 5-7 weeks at a time during the sailing season. When we're out we live on the hook, and never go to town. We enjoy wilderness. Next season we move on board full-time, so are preparing the boat to meet our needs.
 
#40 ·
Has anyone tried a gas-powered refrigerator? My aunt lived in grove country in the boonies of central Florida and had one that ran on kerosene. They're also available to run on propane.
 
#41 ·
The answer is easy. There is eveything from a major steal to an outright lemon with adds that are super accurate to adds that are outright fabrications. Simple answer but true. I was in the market for about 6 years before I finally bought a t30 for 9k. Owner was asking 11500 for it. But lots of stuff I would like to do. Its kind of like getting new carpet and repainting when you get a new house. Every new owner is going to want something new/different. So the term ready to cruise is subjective in alot of ways. Buying new, while impossible, is really the only way to get what you want.
 
#44 · (Edited)
Briefly, and with all due respect to all involved in this discussion, this gets back to my earlier point that a discussion like this tells more about the individuals offering advice (myself included) than it does about what Laura and her family needs to go cruising. Discussions of "what is the right boat for me?" is a frequent topic of conversation on sailing forums. And of course there is no one universally right, one-size fits all, answer to this.

What Laura has done to help focus, and add realism, to this discourse is to begin to define what her family's needs are. She has said that she is read about other people who have gone 'minimal' and at least in principle that seems to be an acceptable trade off if it means that her family can go cruising on a minimal budget.

Whether this is realistic or not depends on Laura's family and what they really are willing to live without. We who don't know Laura's family can't answer that question precisely and with all due respect to Laura and her family, they may not be able to answer accurately until they actually get out and give it a try. I'm not sure it's all that tragic if they did get it wrong.

After all, the process of learning about a venture like this provides a common goal, and shared set of activities for their family of a type that teaches a range of lessons, can build physical fitness, exposes them to some of the beauty of the world, paradoxically build self reliance and teamwork, and depending on their personalities is a pursuit that is likely to build a stronger bond (if it does not shatter their relationship altogether).

If it does not work out, and if they decide that a Spartan cruising life is not for them, and if they sell or give away the boat and if they then move on with their life, they still have the memories and lessons. That's not too bad. If they don't get hurt or bitter, they have lived an interesting period in their lives, and a life worth living is often stitched together with a series of small interesting periods, even when some of them ended differently than hoped or planned. In my mind, there is no tragedy to that.

I have told these stories here in more detail at various times but I think that these are relevant to this thread so I'll pass along the short versions. When I was restoring my Folkboat in Dinner Key, back in the early 1970's, I was friends with a number of the folks who anchored out in the 'Pirates'. Amongst the mix of swells, stoners, rummies, hermits, voyagers, panhandlers, hangers on and the normal folk, there were cruisers who came and went, each with their own stories. And while many fit a certain mold, a guy and a gal, legally joined or not, cruising a rugged old cruising boat, it was the exceptions, which perhaps apply to the point that I eventually hope to make.

Folkboat, Dinner Key 1973


Me,(on left) and Dad (on the right but you probably figured that out) , Dinner Key,1973

So for example, there was an Australian pensioner, who had sailed his home built, 25 or so foot plywood boat from to Miami and many, many, many places in between. The boat was a wreck by any standard. It was a masterpiece of the pieced together. The standing rigging seemed comprised of a wire clamps and wire scraps. There were no winches, but you could hardly walk for the strewn collection of tackles and home made blocks that made up its sails or hauled its anchor. Its keel was a cast concrete fin of sorts.

There were holes in the deck and topsides that resulted from misdeeds and misjudgment. He had ring nailed patches over them at first using scraps of plywood left from building the boat, and later from seemingly less disposable items like bunk flats, locker doors and the galley table.
The hull was painted roughly mustard color, which apparently is the color you get when a boat yard lets you mix together all the minute puddles of paint left in the bottom of cans that hide in the shadows of the paint locker and would never have seen the light of day if not discovered by this intrepid voyager or an archeologist a few millennia later.

That boat had no electrical system. He burned kerosene to cook or provide light. He had no electronic devices. Navigation was by sextant, by eye or by golly. But somehow he had gone way more than half way around the world, and although his head did not possess two teeth in alignment with each other, he was one of the happiest humans I have ever met.

There was a US Navy lifer who had met an English charmer while stationed on Gibralter, father a few tikes, bought one of the most beautiful 1930's era, Nicholson Cutter and had taken his discharge 'find your way home' cash and had sailed the Med, cross the Atlantic, and down through the Caribbean and arrived for the duration in Miami when momma said it was time for the kids to get 'a proper education'.

For that day this was a fine yacht in most ways. The book-matched oak panelings come to mind when I think of how beautifully things could be done in times past. And yet by any standard, this was a pretty Spartan way to live. For although, their floating magic carpet was probably a 42 footer, she sailed on maybe a 25 foot waterline, and had all the room of a modern 32 footer. There was a rudimentary electrical system, that provided lighting, powered an ancient RDF, and cranked the petrol engine. Water came strictly via hand pump in fresh and salt varieties. Hot water was not available on the menu, but could just be gotten on the stovetop.

It was clearly camping in a big wooden box, and yet this was as close a knit family as you could meet. They'd sit about on an evening and entertain strangers with wholesome food, and the parents and kids taking turns telling their pieces and parts of great stories of the things they'd seen and done. It seemed as well choreographed as a vaudeville, "Take it, Joe", but yet it was all very low key, unself-conscious, matter of fact, warm, and honest rather than the kind of puffed up and self-aggrandizing descriptions that come from a video gaming, social media generation. They had no electronics but they had a life well lived.

And the last family that I mentioned, was a family of four who had sailed around the world in a conventionally rigged replica of William Albert Robinson's 'Svaap'. (Google it to get an idea of what that 32 footer looked like.)

The point being, for some folks it did not take much to go cruising. While times have changed, people's physical needs have not changed much. Which is not to say that expections have stayed the same. They haven't. I know that these were simpler times; a time when even "all the conveniences of home" were not all that convenient or comfortable. (I grew up in a house without air conditioning and can't recall ever being hot as a kid.)

I suspect that the success or failure of this venture will lie with the participants and what they are physically willing to do and live with and what they define as success or failure. I know that the lessons of the world are hardly the lessons that are required to get 'a good job when you grow up'. But I also have to think that what Laura and her family propose to do, should be doable and desirable for some families, while I also understand it would not appeal to most families who chose to go voyaging under sail.

By the same token, it does seem to me that given their limited financial resources, it does make sense that they try to find 'the right boat at the right price' and not just what shows up. The right boat will be less expensive to own, and reduce the cost of cruising by the options it offers, and improves safety, and is more comfortable for all on board.

And after all these words, (even I know there are an absurd number of them) I realize that I never did discuss the subject of this tread. Yes, you can find cruise ready boats, but only a very small percent of the boats that are called 'cruise ready' are really ready to do what you want to do. Boats, which have gone cruising are often warn out hulks loaded with gobs of warn out and outdated gear. Many are idiosyncratic reflections of their even more idiosyncratic skippers. We all learn to live with the oddities of our vessels and over time we get so used to them that these oddnesses become the norm and invisible to our consciousness.

(Its kind of like walking through the heeled over cabin of a boat you have owned for a long time. I no longer think that I always walk the same path, putting my right foot against the side of the galley and grab the turned wood deck brace with my right hand then step with my left against the aft settee while grabbing the sea rail on port with my left hand as I step and brace my right foot against the bolted base of the table leg, and then step my left foot against the other settee as my right hand grabs the mast to deck brace, and I duck below the lower head of the forward stateroom doorway while stepping over the raised sill, and ducking my head having run out of standing headroom, while my left hand reaches for the handhold at the lockers. I say I no longer an aware of this, but that is no longer true. When we pulled the mast out, and the mast to deck brace was off, I went to walk forward, and not finding the brace, I failed to duck and failed to step over the sill banging my head and stubbing my toe, and finding myself drapped over the edge of the vee-berth, a very banged up, perplexed and embarrassed curmudgeon, but that's another story for another time isn't it?)

But back on topic, in rare cases with rare individuals, these become so deeply embedded that they come to believe that there are advantages to these abnormalities and that all the world would want them if they were not brain washed by any one of a long list of conspirators. Unfortunately, most who sell so called 'ready to cruise' boats, fall in that category. Boats like that might save some money, but probably won't.

But within the world of possibilities, there are boats which have been lovingly put right, by folks who have not beat these boats to death, And in those rare cases (to quote L. Francis Herreshoff) "If her design is only slightly changed, the whole balance may be thrown out. If you equip her with deadeyes or fill her virgin bilge with ballast, the birds will no longer carol over her, nor will the odors arising from the cabin make poetry, and your soul will no longer be fortified against a world of politicians and fakers." If you see what I mean....

(Did I really say 'briefly'? Did you really believe me? )

Jeff
 
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