Kentucky Lake - Tennessee River or Tampa - St Petersberg

[bobc99]

I'm looking at places to retire to, and the ones at the top of the list are Tennessee on Kentucky Lake or the Tampa/St Pete area, and lastly perhaps a Carib island like Barbados.

I've always had sailboats, usually faster ones like Hobie Cats, but sometimes monohulls like my Laser II and Siedelman 24, or the S2 8.0 I shared last yr on Lake Michigan. The largest I've ever sailed was a Watkins 33 I chartered in the Keys for a week.

My plan is to have a place either on the water with a dock or very near to it, and have a boat minimum 24ft, max 35ft that is easy to handle and quick for a sailboat. I am mostly a fair weather sailor, I'd say, after the harrowing experiences I've had anytime I went out and the weather turned sour.

I currently live near Lake Michigan, and whatever I buy should be capable of sailing there as well. Being retired, cost is obviously an issue. My guess I will get a sloop rigged boat and be looking for something with all lines leading to the cockpit, a quick reefing main, and a roller furling jib, autopilot, gps, vhf, min 4 berths, stove, sink, head, and likely of a mid 80's vintage and in the under $25k bracket, price wise. I probably can't afford anything with a wheel, and to be honest am not sure whether its that much of an advantage if I have an autopilot.

If I end up moving to Kentucky Lake, I see potential for trouble with keel depth when docking. What would be a "normal" depth I should expect a private dock to have on Kentucky Lake? The other issues on Kentucky lake I see are mast height limitations, and just the general size/width of the lake itself limiting sailing there. I believe the bridge at Oak Hill to be 55 ft off the water normally, so in order to be able to safely clear that, I figure a max of 52 ft bridge clearance for the boat should be ok.

Tampa/St Pete and the Carib have less problems with such things as mast height and boat size, but would still have potential troubles with deeper keels, I guess.

I will generally do mostly day sailing, but would like something that would be good for a weekend, anyway, and even though i don't race anymore, I hate having the slowest boat out there.

The models of boats I'm looking at are:
Hobie 33
Olson 30
J/35
J/34
Soverel 33
Beneteau First 305
Beneteau First 345
Corsair F-27

Given these are older boats, should I be worried about whether the boat has a balsa or foam core?

How much will it cost to insure for a) liability, and b) loss or damage? ie how difficult/expensive is insureance on an older boat?

Any comments or suggestions? or thoughts on how I should decide? Should I be waiting till I'm moved to where I think I'll end up before putting the money into a boat? Not so much the cost of the boat, there, but the cost of moving it twice, etc.

[MarioG]

Tampa/St Pete would b e where I start ..theres a greek restaurant on rt 19
sorry off subject... You would be able to find a boat in the Tampa area I'm sure. The inlet from Johns pass is all nice area. ( does it sound like I know where I would like to be?)

[bobc99]

Originally Posted by MarioG

Tampa/St Pete would b e where I start ..theres a greek restaurant on rt 19
sorry off subject... You would be able to find a boat in the Tampa area I'm sure. The inlet from Johns pass is all nice area. ( does it sound like I know where I would like to be?)

I was worried about the cost of living and insurance down there, but yes, one of the places I was looking at is a condo with a dock real close to St John's Pass. I doubt I could even buy insurance and if I could, it would be wildly expensive for both condo or house, cars, and boat there, as compared to Tennessee. The offset is that I'm sure there would be many more sailing days per year there if you could stand the summer heat, than up on Kentucky Lake.