[North253]

I have been looking for a good first sailboat that i can use as a cruiser for me and my girlfriend, however due to budgetary constraints we would have to liveaboard, Since I go to school and can only work part time i cant afford rent and moorage both, I found some decently priced liveaboard moorage in my area that would actually save me money on my rent. My girlfriend being wonderfully efficient with our money has managed to save about 5000 and she just inheirited another 7000 from her grandmother, giving us about 12000 to work with, i would like to save 2-3000 for repairs upgrades, or unforseen boat issues. Im not trying to sail around the world in it(maybe when im better prepared, a long way off.), just around puget sound and maybe up and down the coast next year,
I have several years of sailing experience ( my parents owned a sailing school in the area when i was younger) so i have been around sailboats my entire life, but never really considered owning one until recentley, my girlfriend just started sailing as of last summer. So something that is relativley simple for her to use would be ideal.
I was simply wondering what peoples opinions of a good first boat for us would be, or still being pretty young at a very green 21 am i being completley unrealistic. also if there is anything i have not taken into or need to consider that advice would be very well recieved

 

[AdamLein]

I think it's pretty realistic as long as you are realistic about the sort of lifestyle you are willing to handle. My wife and are I low-budget folks as well, don't own a lot of stuff, and live in a pretty small studio apartment, but even we have to admit that we couldn't liveaboard our current boat, though we've been toying with the idea since before we purchased her. We're also not much than you. I'll talk about our biggest reasons for choosing not to move onto Essorant, and maybe when I'll have more time I'll talk about specific boats that I would consider moving onto.

Make a realistic assessment about how much space you'll need. Sure, you're crazy about each other now, but once in a while you'll want some privacy. You can't get that on a 27' boat. Heck, you can barely walk past one another.

Another big deal for us is hygienic stuff that we take for granted on land. Essorant has a tiny head with no sink and certainly no shower. Imagine winters in the PNW, hiking up the dock to the marina's shower facilities.

Similarly, try to figure out where you're going to keep your stuff. You can only minimalize your lifestyle so much. You need two sets of clothes each -- one for summer, one for winter. In principle I can see us storing all the clothes we need in one of the quarter berths -- if we had some place to put the sails that are in there now -- but even then, it would be such a PITA to get at them. Finally imagine how you'd have to rearrange everything in your home every time you wanted to go sailing. It would probably keep you on shore.

Also, what happens when you have to haul the boat out?

So yeah, space to live, space for stuff, and showering in the winter.

Now, at the boat show last weekend I saw a big improvement in the jump to, say, 35'. Builtin showers and walk-in quarter berths with double beds. Convert a quarter berth and the v-berth into storage, and you've got yourself a liveaboard. Maybe you could get that from a 32' boat as well.

One things we're currently thinking of doing is moving into an even smaller (i.e. cheaper) apartment mostly as a place to keep our stuff and have a shower, and maybe spend half our time on the boat. In the summer we could spend most of your nights on the boat and still know that we've got a dry home to go back to. In the winter we would live in the apartment.

The biggest different between our scenarios was that I didn't have any sailing experience when I bought the boat, so my plan was: learn now, liveaboard later. You're maybe already past that stage. Still, if you have a sailing bug that you want to satisfy -- and your girlfriend has caught it -- consider spending that $5000 on a boat that you don't plan to live on, until you can afford something that you could see you cramming your life into comfortably. Take the $7000 and put it in the bank and don't touch it. That's more or less what we did just over a year ago, and I'm happy with the decision and now looking to upgrade to a liveaboard cruiser, maybe two years from now.

Regarding being too young -- use it while you've got it Just be rational about it and you'll thank yourself later.

 

[North253]

just out of curiosity how much do you recommend your catalina 27 as simply a sailing boat, liveaboard etc aside.

PS i noticed you had an eventful trip to the sanjuans this past weekend, The last time i sailed up there (about 4-5 years ago i think) was when i really fell in love with sailing

 

[AdamLein]

Frankly she was an easy boat to buy. I had looked at several of the same model -- because there are so many -- and picked this one because it was well-equipped and I had a good feeling about the previous owner, and the price was certainly right. 6000 of these boats were produced so everybody knows about them, it's easy to get parts and service, etc. I've been quite happy so far with the boat in terms of sailing qualities (not that I have much to compare to), and she has kept us safe through some pretty rough conditions. She's taught me a lot and put up with a lot of my s***. If you're looking for a budget inshore cruiser or racer, it's an ideal boat, but I'm starting to see limitations (long-term or bluewater cruising capabilities, some design issues). I can go into greater depth but I don't want to derail this thread.

 

[sailingdog]

You might be able to find an alberg 30 for that price. It'd probably need a bit of work, but it might be doable. A more modern design, like a Catalina/Hunter/Bendytoy in the 27-28' size range might provide a bit more space though.

Adam's points about showering facilities, privacy and what you'll do in the case the boat needs to be worked on are all excellent.

Moving up to a boat larger than 30' LOA is probably going be unrealistic, given your relatively meager budget.

Two pieces of advice... First, boats that are in decent shape are usually far less expensive than buying the same boat in bad shape and refurbishing it... Second, I'd recommend you read the Boat Inspection Trip Tips thread I started.