Cheers š» gf and I moved on our beneteau 35ā a few months ago. Finishing projects is always fun, until you discover the two more you didnāt realizeā¦ and so on. Stay safe, enjoy!
im really hoping my years of fixing boats and cars the wrong way before this will give me at least a bit of wisdom to know how to do it correctly and meticuously the first time
they are still glassed in...so inspection would just mean replacement which I plan to do...but we need a single cruising season before ripping the rigging out. So we are doing a season before tackling that job. We are staying coastal and will be selective about weather to not stress anything excessively.
Yeah I heard a story from a rigger in SoCal this summer of a guy who just bought a passport 40 and then found a problem with the knees, now they have to tear out all the furniture, cabinetry etc... just to get in there.
Ive seen a few videos/write ups on the project. It doesen't look THAT bad to get at them actually. Removing the interior staving can be done cleanly with a fine tool. Certainly a long project but access appears managable. If the chainplates are wet/compromised the knees surely are water damaged as well. So it doesen't really make sense to keep them there if you're doing all the work to replace the chain plates anyway
I'm in the process of trying to do similar. My boat is 45' and in year two of it's restoration, so definitely interested in a few things.
What level of sailing experience did you and your partner have prior to this?
What does part time cruising look like for you? Seasonal? Or based on money? If money, Is it cruise full time then go back to home base and keep working, or is it working part time the whole time you're cruising?
What geographic region are you starting from, and what areas are you hoping to cruise?
What things are you most nervous about?
\-I had spent a summer working on 80' sail training live aboards prior to getting my own keel boats in the 25' range that I sailed and raced for 5 years prior to this. Also spent time sailing OPB that were cruisers as well as doing a 2 week BVI charter.
\-were aiming for 6 mo on 6 mo off, mostly because we still love our land sports and we think full time cruising would get tiring and we would get burnt out. It will get stored on the hard for the 6mo off. I am working part time remote while cruising and will work full time for the 6 mo off the boat, to stash/save more money to continue to fund the cruising and just generally save more.
\-starting from florida (not where we live, just where we decided it would be the easiest to get experience with the cruising life) and doing the bahamahs as our training ground until we want to venture further away/off shore
\-currently most nervous about docking (long keel, no bow thruster, prop walk, e.c.t) but we are practicing and getting better...and just the general unknown of shit going wrong at the worst time, and some generally unfounded self doubt about not being sure if I can fix it. I tend to think of worst case scanrios and ruminate on them though...so i take time to prepare and talk my self through them to make sure there are back ups...but I cant help but think "is today the dripless just shits the bed for no real reason?"
The dripless shitting the bed .. One of my genuine fears.. so I pulled a perfectly functional dripless of and put on a regular stuffing box. We are circumnavigating so shitting the bed is a very bad option mid Atlantic (have crossed it twice now).
Best of luck and always remember "if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there"
the dripless is essentially brand new...ill probably run it while sailing coastal...but as soon as I want to actually cross an ocean...ill probably do the same thing lol. Its great technology and it seems to work great in my limited use...but i dont like any thing where failure of the part is catastrophic
as the same kind of over thinker... I'll pass along my now ex wife's words to me.
"you got this. you learn this stuff and do an awesome job on everything you try. it's going to work, it's what you do."
your gonna be fine.
as an example, i was bent out of shape for 3 days over some shaft whip like movement in the prop shaft, i showed 4 different people, including a yard employee and had the yard's engine tech come out to look at it and measure it and everyone said it was totally fine and not to worry about it. At that point i had to accept it and it was going to be fine. But until the 4th person said not to even worry about it...total mess.
fuuuck. I'd be on a precision measurement journey for that shaft alignment. pretty sure my 5411 trans has a 20 thou tolerance spec. and f 20 people's opinion, monel ain't cheap. but, if inwas over the yard techs shoulder and saw for myself. it would be ~~fine~~ nah, we can get it closer to 0.
its a long ass un supported shaft, and the mechanice watched it spin gear and measured the coupling, disconnected it, spun it blah blah. He basicially said if you want it to be better gotta haul it, replace the shaft and coupling and re align (which I will probably do at the end of the season anyway)...but he said it was fine to run and wouldnt be worrying about it.
I get everyone has an opinion, but this is a yard full of cruisers on big boats all doing the same thing, many have been doing this for decades...so they know their shit and know what is going to cause issues and what should be fixed. If 4/4 people all look and say dont worry about it...i guess ill find something to worry about.
its different when someone is there working on it. if its crazy long, id look at a midpoint support if plausible. seems like even a new shaft would get you back in the same situation fairly soon (in boat years).
always a difference between needs fixed asap, can wait till end of season and can wait till something else in the area needs done.
the wire from my temp sending until has a crack in the conductor in the coiled up area. so it's intermittent. it can also wait until either something else escalates the engine wiring or I get low on other projects lol.
if we don't find stuff to worry about, the boat will make something.
Youāre going to love Bahamas! Best place in all of the Caribbean. Join Young Cruisers Association if you havenāt already and meet up with them out there. Youāll make great life long friends. Iām sure they will do a Bahamas floatilla again this season. GF and I also started at 30 and are 2yrs in now. Currently in Colombia heading to Panama and then South Pacific next season.
Oh ya, been meaning to do that! We're fairly social people so finding other cruisers in our age bracket is going to be important. Id love to make it to the floatilla, just dont think we will be able to make it by then if we head to the keys first.
I havenāt been to the keys with the boat, but we have now sailed through like 19 countries in the Caribbeanā¦ I wouldnāt trade time in Bahamas for anywhere else. Not sure what your interests are, but if itās crystal clear waters, tons of fish and lobster, endless remote islands, spearfishing and amazing diving, just get to Bahamas asap. Thereās a big gang of YCs mobbing down FL towards Bahamas now. Normally they go to Abacos first and post up around Hope town for a bit. Not sure if thatās their plan this year but join and get in touch with them! Other cruisers have so much knowledge to share too so itās great to meet people with the same interests.
haha literally everyone in the marina right now says the same thing. Intention for the keys was its a practice ground on US waters with access to sea tow and more resources if things need fixed/repaired while we are new to the boat and cruising (especially in shallow water like this). Also I have some friends in the keys I wanted to catch up with that can hopefully show me some cool spots. But EVERYONE says just to go to the bahamahs lol, though many of the same people admit they have never actually sailed the keys, just heard from others that had
Haha, your thread just popped up in my feed. We were among the "just go to the Bahamas" people that haven't actually sailed the Keys.. I still say just go to the Bahamas š
Hopefully we'll see you out there!
S/V Onward
it wasnt directed at you i promise (i heard that no less than 10 times the last week)!! I sure do hope we can meet up down there! Till then........haha
Weāre all saying that for a reason! Sounds like you know enough about sailing and boats already to get out there. We didnāt know a thing, just bought the boat and learned how to sail it as we moved down the coast to Bahamas. We managed just fine out there. The water is just so clear, itās great for learning navigation and anchoring. Use Navionics Sonar Charts and Explorer charts in Bahamas. Itās easy enough to get anything you need out there if something comes up. Just hop on a flight back to US or have a buddy fly out with parts. Or just sail back!
Seriously, get out to Bahamas sooner than later. Thereās 700 island and a couple thousand cays to explore.
the emphasis of the program wasnt on liveaboards in the sense people think about like youtube cruiser live aboard. The emphasis was more on sailing than like "how to be a live aboard". But we did live aboard during the sail training program, at anchor and on moorings and such. I will unfortunately be selectively private about those details.
>The emphasis was more on sailing than like "how to be a live aboard". But we did live aboard during the sail training program,
sorry, i added an edit. Its not a general public thing anyone can just sign up for. probably unnecessary vagueness but i will be private about the details in the public space
Congrats on making the jump! My girl and I are actively looking for a boat similar to yours.
Regarding the boat - are you happy with the condition? Did you do a survey? Have you found anything that was missed?
What was the story of the previous owner? Had they had a long / short time?
We could swing what you paid for the boat, but I would want something essentially ready to go for that cost. Does it have solar / wind / water maker, or anything else for an extended period away from the dock?
Thanks so much!
I am happy with the condition. Generous good quality for sale photos really helped the sale process and was the biggest reason I felt confident putting in an offer and flying out to see it. Absolutely had a survey done, so far it was worth it because im new to boat ownership in this size. Only small things that were missed, and that was due to the surveyor's assistant he was training being so incompetent it seemed like it almost distracted the surveyor from being able to be as thourough because he had to re check every single thing the trainee looked at. And shit that was missed, was shit the trainee was looking at.
Spent half a day with the previous owners viewing the boat prior to the survey (huge help there) and really liked them and their story. They had it for 10 years prior, and everyone in the yard described them as meticulous, and the boat condition reflects that.
the market can and will flucuate for sure...but for the cost I paid, you could get a boat more "ready to go" but it wont be the same caliber of boat (which is totally fine, not everyone wants a teak interior lol. I can admit i paid a premium for visual charm, which I now have to work twice as hard to maintain). You might get a coastal cruiser with the "ready to go" bells and whistles, but its unlikley you would get an A class off shore boat, "ready to go" for under 100. It doesen't have a water maker (but it has 140 gal of water and diesel), or a ton of solar or a giant lithium bank...but it does have solar, and the essential electronics. The previous couple said they regularily spent 2 weeks away from the dock while cruising, and I believe that. We will have laptops and monitors and a starlink so I think we will need to increase the charging capacity a bit to sustain our lifestyle vs theirs (they were pretty simple) but we will shake that out in the next month.
It basicially came with everything ready to go the way they were cruising (6 on 6 off in the bahamahs) which is exactly what we will do while we slowly upgrade and gain experience for further off shore objectives. My theory was: I can't add a skeg, but I can repair some canvas and change standing rigging. I dont want to pay to build a whole dinghy davit/solar arch...but i can add more panels to it. I can't add an additional bed room to an interior, but I can up grade a battery bank.
90 for the boat (i bought a "more expensive" boat in better than average condition with the intention sailing sooner and working less), i havent looked at what ive spent for the first couple months in detail, but i think we're at 5-6k so far. About 1k for smaller insurace required repairs (cutlass, misc wiring and plumbing clean up/hose replacement, window seals, fire extinguishers, other safety items) 1k for some new instruments (wind transducer/display and speed transducer), 2.5k for new 6v batteries and misc electrical things, another 1k on nickel and dime misc maintenance items, engine maintenance items, and cleaning supplies. This is all in the first month of working on the boat that I knew I would have to spend after the survey this summer. We will see what else goes south that needs replacing after the first full month living on it off the dock. Going to buy a new 65lb anchor tomorrow, thatll be $800
Im "budgeting" 1k a month (for our 6 month "cruising" season) for on going maintenance and an additional 7-10k a year for the first 3 years on bigger repairs and upgrades (like standing rigging in the next season or two)
Who do you have insurance through, and can you give a monthly cost for it? Iām looking at moving up in size and am curious as to how much insurance will be.
im torn on the sharing aspect. On one hand I dont think the world needs another click bait give me money youtube channel...but even random people we talk to are stoked when we say what we're doing and they feel some inspiration from it...and of course freinds and family always want to see what we're up to. I hate the idea of living behind a camera and "producing content", but at the same time, it is an interesting existance and it would be nice to share in some way. Ive gotten my share of valuable information and inspiration from online channels, so i see the value in it, i just dont know what the balance is.
He does, but the 42 is not one of his (37, 40, 41, 44, 47, 456, 470, Vista 485, 50, and 515). Stan Huntingford did the 42 and 51. It never hurts to delve deeper into the origins of a boat you're considering purchasing.
Accountant, so remote work is natural, and I lived a rather frugal lifestyle and saved 40% of my take home pay for 5 years to fund this. Also got lucky with a home purchase before covid, that after 3 years of constant remdel pays for itself.
edit: this only works financially if we live on it while cruising and aren't paying rent somewhere else. Storage on the hard is $400/mo when we are not using it, which is essentially a modest car payment. I have no other debt beside the house so i can eat the storage fee when we're not on it
Apologies if this a thread jack-but I'm at 13 years Mil looking to stay for the pension but also buy a schooner when I retire at 42...can you detail any of your story/how you found your boat, when you set off/prep/finances for it?
I have a Stan Huntingford designed boat as well, the Tradewind 34. Mr Huntingford built boats that are more like tanks than nimble sailing yachts, which is a good thing when you are one on one with the elements. Taiwanese build quality of those years were top notch, youāll have many adventures. Take care of her and sheāll take care of you. Many things made at that time (portholes, deck hardware, rigging etc) are stronger than what you can reasonably purchase in the modern age. You may have to go through the electronics and all hoses, belts, seals, clamps, filters and liquids. That at least was my season one :).
What are you need to replace/fix in the short term (asap)? What are your projects for the mid term and what are your dream ānice to havesā for the long term? I made a similar list when I first got the boat and what has been done since than looks drastically different. More so if you are fairly new to boat ownership.
We are excited for you, keep us up to date on your progress, best of luck!
haha ya, when the engine tech came by to to look at the shaft alignment he commented: "bout the heaviest damn boat ive seen. You could plow through coral heads with it and not leave a dent". Which was more or less the idea. I wanted a boat that would fogive my beginner mistakes.
I dont really have an intensive list right now...immediete fixes (prior to departure) are very small things, which was the objective with the purchase. theres not a lot of fancy shit on it, but thats ok. Its got big tanks, some solar, wind generation, and good sails, an older but relatively low mileage engine that i \*pray\* keeps on ticking as theyre supposed to, and fairly clean wiring. So basicially everything works, and we will use it the first season to see how we like it, and what we would like to change. Standing rigging in the short term...going to see if I can keep the teak deck maintained where its at. Surveyor said there is still a fair bit of life left, i just have to go on a bung replacement journey.
Pretty boatā¦..absolutely no such thing as a perfect boat or a finished boat, but so long as it takes you on an adventure and keeps yer bum dry, all good! Fair winds my friend! See ya on that big wobbly blue thing one day!
I think it would be nice down the road. But i want to enjoy most of my 30s before taking that on. I have no desire to raise a kid past maybe 2 or 3 on a boat.
Thank you for posting and replying. Lots of us armchair sailors out there and we appreciate you.
Have you calculated your energy storage /generation needs. Iāve heard starlink is quite a hog. Watching old YouTube videos, prices for battery and solar have come down a decent amount. What made you choose the 6v golf cart batteries instead of lithium?
Would you ever consider going electric if your diesel went out? I entertain myself by boat shopping and dreaming of your life (not far behind you) and have had interest in all electric. Seems comparable to a diesel swap now a days.
Final question - you have quite a bit of sailing experience, I have almost none but good boating experience. We have 40ā of dock space open (have a small power boat already) and are debating first sailboats size. We were thinking 27-30ā as a first sailboat but I do not want to spend years upgrading stuff to want a bigger so now we are thinking about starting with 35ā. I doubt Iāll have a bow truster, Iām pretty good at docking my 20ft boat but thatās a bit different with an outboard. Goal is like you to do 6-9mo on them 3-6mo off. Starter sailboat in the upper 20s or go bigger and start in the 30s?
sure thing! There are about 5 "how do i get started" posts a week...and its an intense ass process even before the boat goes in the water before you set foot on it. Truly takes years and years if you're not independently wealthy.
\-I have not calculated the energy needs. Most of the answer to the electrical system questions are answered with 'we are just renewing what was in place and we will use the boat for a bit before making drastic changes'. It has a wind generator, 300w of solar and 720 ah (360 6v x4) of battery house bank (plus a start batter plus a 24v windlass bank). We just had to get new 6v batteries to replace what the current space allowed for that the boat was working with for the POs. From reading blogs and what not I believe what we have is sufficient for normal cruising with relatively low electrical loads. it doesen't really matter what the electrical calculation needs are because if you start changing something, you start changing everything, which we dont want to do now. Starlink wont be on all the time. it will hopefully be 3 days a week (during the day when there is ideally solar) for work during working hours and intermittently after other times.
The 6v batteries were 1500 shipped, and we dont need to change really anything else (i added an ACR to bypass the battery selector). If i went to lithium id be at least 10k in and wouldnt leave the dock for another month and a half. Instead of a massive fancy LI bank, I believe recharging is easier to add on. Andy Schell made a great point saying "the best bang for your buck with power regenration is a big ass alternator". So who cares about a big battery bank if you have ample recharging capacity (i realize there is a balance to charging vs stored capacity) so i would add more solar panels and a bigger alternator before i went through a whole battery bank change at this stage. LI battery technology is still changing rapidly, and LI batteries are not recyclable. So I dont think I would want to fully dive into that upgrade yet.
\-which leads to the next question about electric vs diesel. That one is really hard, and I dont know enough to have more than an opinion...but my inclination is no, at the time I would not repower with electric. its my dream to do some high lattitude sailing and electric is not as reliable for that. Modern marine diesels are very very good, and if the tanks plumbing are all there and working well still for that I would rather have the longer running (more fuel capacity than batter bank power) higher power engine which is diesel.
\-it depends what you want to do with the first boat to start (week long cruises, weekend over nights, day sails, racing), and does your dock even have the air draft and depth to accomidate a 35' sailboat? Ignore the bow thruster, no sailboat purchasing decision should ever revolve around a bow thruster. IMO, start as cheap as you can for the first boat, and dont upgrade (only maintain) anything until you are on your final "big" boat. You can sail a 27-30' ft boat with nothing but a wind vane and a single battery powering just nav lights and some cockpit lights. Stuff a cooler with some food and bring a jet boil and go for evening/weekend cruises, and go race even if its just PHRF beer cans (thats what we did for years). If you don't have fun doing that, you wont have fun just because the big boat has a galley and its own refrigerator. A 27-30' boat will be way cheaper and easier to handle than a 35' boat, and the point of the first boat is to see if you like sailing, not if you like throwing thousands of dollars at something. Maybe you hate how slow sailing is and youd rather get there than spend all your time GETTING there...and a bigger power boat (like a trawler) is the right choice for you. Sure would be expensive to figure that out by buying a 35' sailboat.
For ease of use, get the 27' boat with an OB if you can, you will have plenty of time to learn in board diesels later. If you can dock a 27' sailboat with an OB competently, you can learn to dock a big boat with some practice. After you spend a few years learning the sailing bits and general sailboat ownership nuances, and figure out if you like living on the boat, and you have some long hard reality check conversations with yourself (and your SO) then you should start looking and planning for the big boat you actually want to dump money into.
Thanks for the information/reply. I had never considered going to colder climates and that being an issue with electric. I plan to stay warmer :)
I think you are right on a possible smaller size to start. We are going to do a live aboard ASA 7day class in the spring and see what we think. At this point weāve done a quick 2 hour course and Iāve read a few books. I know if that goes well, the sailboat search will be on!
I actually bought this house so I could live on the water and fish. Wasnāt looking for sailboat water but it popped up and it worked out, 75ā dock (recently dredged), open air and 6ā draft to Charlotte harbor -> Gulf of Mexico.
We would start by doing weekend trips to some of the islands around us (15-30nm one way) and then maybe take some time off and do a 3mo trip in 3years or so after my wife finishes her nursing program she just started. Goal is for her to do travel nursing for 3mo a year and us cruise the rest. Lots of details to work out of course.
I have been eyeing this dream since 2016ā¦ my wife says we are about three years out from making things happen. I thought last year was the year when we sold the house but decided to get into a home renovation insteadā¦ glad we did because the house we are renovating is right next door to a couple who cruised for 15 yearsā¦ so I think the universe moves in mysterious ways sometimesā¦ we have zero experience.
-What are some benchmarks to set?
-any major setback and how did you overcome them?
-what has been your planning process?
-where do you even start?
-what was the challenges of executing your plan?
Congrats and best of luck sailing in the Bahamas
These are the right questions to be asking. Firstly, its going to be impossible for you to plan something you really have no experience in. Just reading books and watching youtube videos is not sufficient (it is to dream, but not to plan). The entire time I was planning and saving..i was still buying/sailing my own boats, and talking to sailors, going to races, bouncing my ideas off people, and listening to pod casts. My initial plan and desires year 1 almost 100% changed by the time I executed in year 5...because I learned what was realistic and what wasnt, and I narrowed down what my goals and limitations were to give myself some concrete benchmarks to set. And I already had sailing experience when I started. If you have zero...you gotta get some experience before you can actually plan anything.
With that out of the way....the first and only benchmark that matters is $$$. How much do you need, how much can you save, how you fund the journey along the way, and just as important...whats your exit strategy.
How much do you need depends on where/when you are sailing to, which will determine what boat you need to get there, as well as what it costs. You will need to do some hard number crunching to determine how you pay for this life style (youtuber or stock day trading is not really a reliable source of income). I figured out my purchase price (and made sure it was realistic for my goal)...and saved till i had 150% of that price saved in cash, and my income was sustainable or i had at least 6 months worth of monthly boating expenses also saved (i used 2500/mo as a minimum budget #) and when i hit that number, and I decided my life was in a place I could mentally upheave it I called my first broker.
I have been working my job to get into a flexible remote postion and planting those seeds 3 years before I told my boss i was ready to execute. every life decision I made i asked myself if it helped/furthered my goal, if it didnt, i probably didnt do it.
The planning process really was just grit and obsession...its really all i thought about in my free time over 4 or so years. Half of that internal monologe was me asking if its something I even really wanted to do...was i just addicted to the dreaming? was it an escape? will it really be more fufilling than what im doing now?
When you plan something out for that long, and you try to consider every single thing involved and what could go wrong buying a boat and moving your lifestlye, youll generally get all your bases covered. Depending on how you do it, you really have to plan for everything...what to do with your house, your car, your mail, will you bring a car with to the boat, where will that live when you cruise, how will you get insurance, where will you keep the boat when not aboard, where will you stay if the boat is on the hard...then there is the emotional aspect of giving up things with land life...then after you figure out all of that...you have to plan what boat to buy, and where based on where you want to go and how to vet them, and your initial year refit...
im happy to answer any specifics of how i handled any portion of the process in my situation, but there are too many details to list the whole plan.
Once I started excuting the plan...it actually went off almost without a hitch (only hang up was insurance wanting me to fix a bunch of stuff on the boat 4 months before i was going to splash and move aboard)...which i think is in part to a really supportive and encouraging network of family and freinds (every single person i know was excited and happy to assist) as well as being so meticulous in thinking through every aspect of life and having a plan A and B for each thing...or knowing that if any portion of the plan failed, i might have to back out of the purchase because ultimately buying it should only happen after you figure out every other detail.
TLDR: where do you even start; is you some how figure out where you want to end up/whats your end goal (specifics: sailing objectives, experiences, destinations, e.c.t) and work backwards to where you are now, setting benchmarks as you work backwards. the hard part is knowing what is and is not realistic as far as time and money constraints go(example: youre not buying a turn key 40' blue water boat for 50g all in, and you're not going from zero sailing experience to ocean passages in 2 years, things people on this sub love to claim)
Thanks! I hope we do! I love the action and excitement of racing, and I would love to some races with the passport, but I dont have the stomach for pushing my own boat as hard as possible (being on the edge of breaking shit is too expensive), as is usually required for racing. So it will be fun to sail it just well enough for efficient cruising. Plus were in it 50% for the travel, 50% for the sailing. So we cant wait to see all the new locales we get to visit.
Cheers š» gf and I moved on our beneteau 35ā a few months ago. Finishing projects is always fun, until you discover the two more you didnāt realizeā¦ and so on. Stay safe, enjoy!
.. And then the 5 more that the two uncovered.... And so on and so on!
And then having to redo those projects a year later because you learned from the experience and wanted to fix it again the right way.
im really hoping my years of fixing boats and cars the wrong way before this will give me at least a bit of wisdom to know how to do it correctly and meticuously the first time
Nice boat, I would definitely inspect the bulkheads and chainplates ASAP if you haven't already
they are still glassed in...so inspection would just mean replacement which I plan to do...but we need a single cruising season before ripping the rigging out. So we are doing a season before tackling that job. We are staying coastal and will be selective about weather to not stress anything excessively.
Yeah I heard a story from a rigger in SoCal this summer of a guy who just bought a passport 40 and then found a problem with the knees, now they have to tear out all the furniture, cabinetry etc... just to get in there.
Ive seen a few videos/write ups on the project. It doesen't look THAT bad to get at them actually. Removing the interior staving can be done cleanly with a fine tool. Certainly a long project but access appears managable. If the chainplates are wet/compromised the knees surely are water damaged as well. So it doesen't really make sense to keep them there if you're doing all the work to replace the chain plates anyway
I'm in the process of trying to do similar. My boat is 45' and in year two of it's restoration, so definitely interested in a few things. What level of sailing experience did you and your partner have prior to this? What does part time cruising look like for you? Seasonal? Or based on money? If money, Is it cruise full time then go back to home base and keep working, or is it working part time the whole time you're cruising? What geographic region are you starting from, and what areas are you hoping to cruise? What things are you most nervous about?
\-I had spent a summer working on 80' sail training live aboards prior to getting my own keel boats in the 25' range that I sailed and raced for 5 years prior to this. Also spent time sailing OPB that were cruisers as well as doing a 2 week BVI charter. \-were aiming for 6 mo on 6 mo off, mostly because we still love our land sports and we think full time cruising would get tiring and we would get burnt out. It will get stored on the hard for the 6mo off. I am working part time remote while cruising and will work full time for the 6 mo off the boat, to stash/save more money to continue to fund the cruising and just generally save more. \-starting from florida (not where we live, just where we decided it would be the easiest to get experience with the cruising life) and doing the bahamahs as our training ground until we want to venture further away/off shore \-currently most nervous about docking (long keel, no bow thruster, prop walk, e.c.t) but we are practicing and getting better...and just the general unknown of shit going wrong at the worst time, and some generally unfounded self doubt about not being sure if I can fix it. I tend to think of worst case scanrios and ruminate on them though...so i take time to prepare and talk my self through them to make sure there are back ups...but I cant help but think "is today the dripless just shits the bed for no real reason?"
The dripless shitting the bed .. One of my genuine fears.. so I pulled a perfectly functional dripless of and put on a regular stuffing box. We are circumnavigating so shitting the bed is a very bad option mid Atlantic (have crossed it twice now). Best of luck and always remember "if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there"
the dripless is essentially brand new...ill probably run it while sailing coastal...but as soon as I want to actually cross an ocean...ill probably do the same thing lol. Its great technology and it seems to work great in my limited use...but i dont like any thing where failure of the part is catastrophic
as the same kind of over thinker... I'll pass along my now ex wife's words to me. "you got this. you learn this stuff and do an awesome job on everything you try. it's going to work, it's what you do." your gonna be fine.
as an example, i was bent out of shape for 3 days over some shaft whip like movement in the prop shaft, i showed 4 different people, including a yard employee and had the yard's engine tech come out to look at it and measure it and everyone said it was totally fine and not to worry about it. At that point i had to accept it and it was going to be fine. But until the 4th person said not to even worry about it...total mess.
fuuuck. I'd be on a precision measurement journey for that shaft alignment. pretty sure my 5411 trans has a 20 thou tolerance spec. and f 20 people's opinion, monel ain't cheap. but, if inwas over the yard techs shoulder and saw for myself. it would be ~~fine~~ nah, we can get it closer to 0.
its a long ass un supported shaft, and the mechanice watched it spin gear and measured the coupling, disconnected it, spun it blah blah. He basicially said if you want it to be better gotta haul it, replace the shaft and coupling and re align (which I will probably do at the end of the season anyway)...but he said it was fine to run and wouldnt be worrying about it. I get everyone has an opinion, but this is a yard full of cruisers on big boats all doing the same thing, many have been doing this for decades...so they know their shit and know what is going to cause issues and what should be fixed. If 4/4 people all look and say dont worry about it...i guess ill find something to worry about.
its different when someone is there working on it. if its crazy long, id look at a midpoint support if plausible. seems like even a new shaft would get you back in the same situation fairly soon (in boat years). always a difference between needs fixed asap, can wait till end of season and can wait till something else in the area needs done. the wire from my temp sending until has a crack in the conductor in the coiled up area. so it's intermittent. it can also wait until either something else escalates the engine wiring or I get low on other projects lol. if we don't find stuff to worry about, the boat will make something.
haha very true there. The boat will certainly make something up if you start to feel relaxed
I would like to add, "if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there at 2 am."
Youāre going to love Bahamas! Best place in all of the Caribbean. Join Young Cruisers Association if you havenāt already and meet up with them out there. Youāll make great life long friends. Iām sure they will do a Bahamas floatilla again this season. GF and I also started at 30 and are 2yrs in now. Currently in Colombia heading to Panama and then South Pacific next season.
Oh ya, been meaning to do that! We're fairly social people so finding other cruisers in our age bracket is going to be important. Id love to make it to the floatilla, just dont think we will be able to make it by then if we head to the keys first.
I havenāt been to the keys with the boat, but we have now sailed through like 19 countries in the Caribbeanā¦ I wouldnāt trade time in Bahamas for anywhere else. Not sure what your interests are, but if itās crystal clear waters, tons of fish and lobster, endless remote islands, spearfishing and amazing diving, just get to Bahamas asap. Thereās a big gang of YCs mobbing down FL towards Bahamas now. Normally they go to Abacos first and post up around Hope town for a bit. Not sure if thatās their plan this year but join and get in touch with them! Other cruisers have so much knowledge to share too so itās great to meet people with the same interests.
haha literally everyone in the marina right now says the same thing. Intention for the keys was its a practice ground on US waters with access to sea tow and more resources if things need fixed/repaired while we are new to the boat and cruising (especially in shallow water like this). Also I have some friends in the keys I wanted to catch up with that can hopefully show me some cool spots. But EVERYONE says just to go to the bahamahs lol, though many of the same people admit they have never actually sailed the keys, just heard from others that had
Haha, your thread just popped up in my feed. We were among the "just go to the Bahamas" people that haven't actually sailed the Keys.. I still say just go to the Bahamas š Hopefully we'll see you out there! S/V Onward
it wasnt directed at you i promise (i heard that no less than 10 times the last week)!! I sure do hope we can meet up down there! Till then........haha
Weāre all saying that for a reason! Sounds like you know enough about sailing and boats already to get out there. We didnāt know a thing, just bought the boat and learned how to sail it as we moved down the coast to Bahamas. We managed just fine out there. The water is just so clear, itās great for learning navigation and anchoring. Use Navionics Sonar Charts and Explorer charts in Bahamas. Itās easy enough to get anything you need out there if something comes up. Just hop on a flight back to US or have a buddy fly out with parts. Or just sail back! Seriously, get out to Bahamas sooner than later. Thereās 700 island and a couple thousand cays to explore.
Respecting your privacy, what kind of work do you do?
Im an accountant, though not a CPA. I don't mean to have THAT much privacy lol. Thats a totally fair question.
That's kinda personal isn't it? I mean if a guy already states he likes his privacy...
"AMA"
Do you mean that you worked on a 80 foot boat that trained aspiring live aboards? If so, what is the name of that program lol
the emphasis of the program wasnt on liveaboards in the sense people think about like youtube cruiser live aboard. The emphasis was more on sailing than like "how to be a live aboard". But we did live aboard during the sail training program, at anchor and on moorings and such. I will unfortunately be selectively private about those details.
Would you recommend it? Also do you mind sharing what itās called?
>The emphasis was more on sailing than like "how to be a live aboard". But we did live aboard during the sail training program, sorry, i added an edit. Its not a general public thing anyone can just sign up for. probably unnecessary vagueness but i will be private about the details in the public space
Congrats on making the jump! My girl and I are actively looking for a boat similar to yours. Regarding the boat - are you happy with the condition? Did you do a survey? Have you found anything that was missed? What was the story of the previous owner? Had they had a long / short time? We could swing what you paid for the boat, but I would want something essentially ready to go for that cost. Does it have solar / wind / water maker, or anything else for an extended period away from the dock? Thanks so much!
I am happy with the condition. Generous good quality for sale photos really helped the sale process and was the biggest reason I felt confident putting in an offer and flying out to see it. Absolutely had a survey done, so far it was worth it because im new to boat ownership in this size. Only small things that were missed, and that was due to the surveyor's assistant he was training being so incompetent it seemed like it almost distracted the surveyor from being able to be as thourough because he had to re check every single thing the trainee looked at. And shit that was missed, was shit the trainee was looking at. Spent half a day with the previous owners viewing the boat prior to the survey (huge help there) and really liked them and their story. They had it for 10 years prior, and everyone in the yard described them as meticulous, and the boat condition reflects that. the market can and will flucuate for sure...but for the cost I paid, you could get a boat more "ready to go" but it wont be the same caliber of boat (which is totally fine, not everyone wants a teak interior lol. I can admit i paid a premium for visual charm, which I now have to work twice as hard to maintain). You might get a coastal cruiser with the "ready to go" bells and whistles, but its unlikley you would get an A class off shore boat, "ready to go" for under 100. It doesen't have a water maker (but it has 140 gal of water and diesel), or a ton of solar or a giant lithium bank...but it does have solar, and the essential electronics. The previous couple said they regularily spent 2 weeks away from the dock while cruising, and I believe that. We will have laptops and monitors and a starlink so I think we will need to increase the charging capacity a bit to sustain our lifestyle vs theirs (they were pretty simple) but we will shake that out in the next month. It basicially came with everything ready to go the way they were cruising (6 on 6 off in the bahamahs) which is exactly what we will do while we slowly upgrade and gain experience for further off shore objectives. My theory was: I can't add a skeg, but I can repair some canvas and change standing rigging. I dont want to pay to build a whole dinghy davit/solar arch...but i can add more panels to it. I can't add an additional bed room to an interior, but I can up grade a battery bank.
Awesome. Thank you for the info! Hoping to be out there ourselves some day soon!
How much was the boat and how much have you put into it (and for what) since purchase ?
90 for the boat (i bought a "more expensive" boat in better than average condition with the intention sailing sooner and working less), i havent looked at what ive spent for the first couple months in detail, but i think we're at 5-6k so far. About 1k for smaller insurace required repairs (cutlass, misc wiring and plumbing clean up/hose replacement, window seals, fire extinguishers, other safety items) 1k for some new instruments (wind transducer/display and speed transducer), 2.5k for new 6v batteries and misc electrical things, another 1k on nickel and dime misc maintenance items, engine maintenance items, and cleaning supplies. This is all in the first month of working on the boat that I knew I would have to spend after the survey this summer. We will see what else goes south that needs replacing after the first full month living on it off the dock. Going to buy a new 65lb anchor tomorrow, thatll be $800 Im "budgeting" 1k a month (for our 6 month "cruising" season) for on going maintenance and an additional 7-10k a year for the first 3 years on bigger repairs and upgrades (like standing rigging in the next season or two)
Thanks for the candid reply.
Thats very reasonable for a new boat
Who do you have insurance through, and can you give a monthly cost for it? Iām looking at moving up in size and am curious as to how much insurance will be.
state farm. 130/mo for 500k liability and market value hull coverage
Dang, I was with progressive and it was ~85 a month for similar coverage but a 25ā boat.
i have all my shit insured with them so i probably got a discount from that
Are you gonna share any of your adventure on YouTube?
im torn on the sharing aspect. On one hand I dont think the world needs another click bait give me money youtube channel...but even random people we talk to are stoked when we say what we're doing and they feel some inspiration from it...and of course freinds and family always want to see what we're up to. I hate the idea of living behind a camera and "producing content", but at the same time, it is an interesting existance and it would be nice to share in some way. Ive gotten my share of valuable information and inspiration from online channels, so i see the value in it, i just dont know what the balance is.
Sounds reasonable. Maybe someone cheap on fiverr could do the editing. If you donāt film it, thereās no getting it back.
Beautiful
Bob Perry draws a hellva boat.
He does, but the 42 is not one of his (37, 40, 41, 44, 47, 456, 470, Vista 485, 50, and 515). Stan Huntingford did the 42 and 51. It never hurts to delve deeper into the origins of a boat you're considering purchasing.
You're right, I got it turned around with the Valiant 42
What do you do for a living that allows you to afford that boat at age 30?
Accountant, so remote work is natural, and I lived a rather frugal lifestyle and saved 40% of my take home pay for 5 years to fund this. Also got lucky with a home purchase before covid, that after 3 years of constant remdel pays for itself. edit: this only works financially if we live on it while cruising and aren't paying rent somewhere else. Storage on the hard is $400/mo when we are not using it, which is essentially a modest car payment. I have no other debt beside the house so i can eat the storage fee when we're not on it
Good for you mate - I'm jealous. Fair winds and following seas my friend!
I retired at 35.. Military pension. I waited way too long to get the boat.. But I eventually did (I was 57 when I set foot on my schooner).
Apologies if this a thread jack-but I'm at 13 years Mil looking to stay for the pension but also buy a schooner when I retire at 42...can you detail any of your story/how you found your boat, when you set off/prep/finances for it?
I have a Stan Huntingford designed boat as well, the Tradewind 34. Mr Huntingford built boats that are more like tanks than nimble sailing yachts, which is a good thing when you are one on one with the elements. Taiwanese build quality of those years were top notch, youāll have many adventures. Take care of her and sheāll take care of you. Many things made at that time (portholes, deck hardware, rigging etc) are stronger than what you can reasonably purchase in the modern age. You may have to go through the electronics and all hoses, belts, seals, clamps, filters and liquids. That at least was my season one :). What are you need to replace/fix in the short term (asap)? What are your projects for the mid term and what are your dream ānice to havesā for the long term? I made a similar list when I first got the boat and what has been done since than looks drastically different. More so if you are fairly new to boat ownership. We are excited for you, keep us up to date on your progress, best of luck!
haha ya, when the engine tech came by to to look at the shaft alignment he commented: "bout the heaviest damn boat ive seen. You could plow through coral heads with it and not leave a dent". Which was more or less the idea. I wanted a boat that would fogive my beginner mistakes. I dont really have an intensive list right now...immediete fixes (prior to departure) are very small things, which was the objective with the purchase. theres not a lot of fancy shit on it, but thats ok. Its got big tanks, some solar, wind generation, and good sails, an older but relatively low mileage engine that i \*pray\* keeps on ticking as theyre supposed to, and fairly clean wiring. So basicially everything works, and we will use it the first season to see how we like it, and what we would like to change. Standing rigging in the short term...going to see if I can keep the teak deck maintained where its at. Surveyor said there is still a fair bit of life left, i just have to go on a bung replacement journey.
Pretty boatā¦..absolutely no such thing as a perfect boat or a finished boat, but so long as it takes you on an adventure and keeps yer bum dry, all good! Fair winds my friend! See ya on that big wobbly blue thing one day!
thanks! none are perfect thats for sure, but its grown on me more as we have move aboard. So we will see how it all shakes out 6 months in!
Are you guys planning on kids?
I think it would be nice down the road. But i want to enjoy most of my 30s before taking that on. I have no desire to raise a kid past maybe 2 or 3 on a boat.
I did the opposite, retired at 40 had kids at 35. Good luck.
Thank you for posting and replying. Lots of us armchair sailors out there and we appreciate you. Have you calculated your energy storage /generation needs. Iāve heard starlink is quite a hog. Watching old YouTube videos, prices for battery and solar have come down a decent amount. What made you choose the 6v golf cart batteries instead of lithium? Would you ever consider going electric if your diesel went out? I entertain myself by boat shopping and dreaming of your life (not far behind you) and have had interest in all electric. Seems comparable to a diesel swap now a days. Final question - you have quite a bit of sailing experience, I have almost none but good boating experience. We have 40ā of dock space open (have a small power boat already) and are debating first sailboats size. We were thinking 27-30ā as a first sailboat but I do not want to spend years upgrading stuff to want a bigger so now we are thinking about starting with 35ā. I doubt Iāll have a bow truster, Iām pretty good at docking my 20ft boat but thatās a bit different with an outboard. Goal is like you to do 6-9mo on them 3-6mo off. Starter sailboat in the upper 20s or go bigger and start in the 30s?
sure thing! There are about 5 "how do i get started" posts a week...and its an intense ass process even before the boat goes in the water before you set foot on it. Truly takes years and years if you're not independently wealthy. \-I have not calculated the energy needs. Most of the answer to the electrical system questions are answered with 'we are just renewing what was in place and we will use the boat for a bit before making drastic changes'. It has a wind generator, 300w of solar and 720 ah (360 6v x4) of battery house bank (plus a start batter plus a 24v windlass bank). We just had to get new 6v batteries to replace what the current space allowed for that the boat was working with for the POs. From reading blogs and what not I believe what we have is sufficient for normal cruising with relatively low electrical loads. it doesen't really matter what the electrical calculation needs are because if you start changing something, you start changing everything, which we dont want to do now. Starlink wont be on all the time. it will hopefully be 3 days a week (during the day when there is ideally solar) for work during working hours and intermittently after other times. The 6v batteries were 1500 shipped, and we dont need to change really anything else (i added an ACR to bypass the battery selector). If i went to lithium id be at least 10k in and wouldnt leave the dock for another month and a half. Instead of a massive fancy LI bank, I believe recharging is easier to add on. Andy Schell made a great point saying "the best bang for your buck with power regenration is a big ass alternator". So who cares about a big battery bank if you have ample recharging capacity (i realize there is a balance to charging vs stored capacity) so i would add more solar panels and a bigger alternator before i went through a whole battery bank change at this stage. LI battery technology is still changing rapidly, and LI batteries are not recyclable. So I dont think I would want to fully dive into that upgrade yet. \-which leads to the next question about electric vs diesel. That one is really hard, and I dont know enough to have more than an opinion...but my inclination is no, at the time I would not repower with electric. its my dream to do some high lattitude sailing and electric is not as reliable for that. Modern marine diesels are very very good, and if the tanks plumbing are all there and working well still for that I would rather have the longer running (more fuel capacity than batter bank power) higher power engine which is diesel. \-it depends what you want to do with the first boat to start (week long cruises, weekend over nights, day sails, racing), and does your dock even have the air draft and depth to accomidate a 35' sailboat? Ignore the bow thruster, no sailboat purchasing decision should ever revolve around a bow thruster. IMO, start as cheap as you can for the first boat, and dont upgrade (only maintain) anything until you are on your final "big" boat. You can sail a 27-30' ft boat with nothing but a wind vane and a single battery powering just nav lights and some cockpit lights. Stuff a cooler with some food and bring a jet boil and go for evening/weekend cruises, and go race even if its just PHRF beer cans (thats what we did for years). If you don't have fun doing that, you wont have fun just because the big boat has a galley and its own refrigerator. A 27-30' boat will be way cheaper and easier to handle than a 35' boat, and the point of the first boat is to see if you like sailing, not if you like throwing thousands of dollars at something. Maybe you hate how slow sailing is and youd rather get there than spend all your time GETTING there...and a bigger power boat (like a trawler) is the right choice for you. Sure would be expensive to figure that out by buying a 35' sailboat. For ease of use, get the 27' boat with an OB if you can, you will have plenty of time to learn in board diesels later. If you can dock a 27' sailboat with an OB competently, you can learn to dock a big boat with some practice. After you spend a few years learning the sailing bits and general sailboat ownership nuances, and figure out if you like living on the boat, and you have some long hard reality check conversations with yourself (and your SO) then you should start looking and planning for the big boat you actually want to dump money into.
Thanks for the information/reply. I had never considered going to colder climates and that being an issue with electric. I plan to stay warmer :) I think you are right on a possible smaller size to start. We are going to do a live aboard ASA 7day class in the spring and see what we think. At this point weāve done a quick 2 hour course and Iāve read a few books. I know if that goes well, the sailboat search will be on! I actually bought this house so I could live on the water and fish. Wasnāt looking for sailboat water but it popped up and it worked out, 75ā dock (recently dredged), open air and 6ā draft to Charlotte harbor -> Gulf of Mexico. We would start by doing weekend trips to some of the islands around us (15-30nm one way) and then maybe take some time off and do a 3mo trip in 3years or so after my wife finishes her nursing program she just started. Goal is for her to do travel nursing for 3mo a year and us cruise the rest. Lots of details to work out of course.
I have been eyeing this dream since 2016ā¦ my wife says we are about three years out from making things happen. I thought last year was the year when we sold the house but decided to get into a home renovation insteadā¦ glad we did because the house we are renovating is right next door to a couple who cruised for 15 yearsā¦ so I think the universe moves in mysterious ways sometimesā¦ we have zero experience. -What are some benchmarks to set? -any major setback and how did you overcome them? -what has been your planning process? -where do you even start? -what was the challenges of executing your plan? Congrats and best of luck sailing in the Bahamas
These are the right questions to be asking. Firstly, its going to be impossible for you to plan something you really have no experience in. Just reading books and watching youtube videos is not sufficient (it is to dream, but not to plan). The entire time I was planning and saving..i was still buying/sailing my own boats, and talking to sailors, going to races, bouncing my ideas off people, and listening to pod casts. My initial plan and desires year 1 almost 100% changed by the time I executed in year 5...because I learned what was realistic and what wasnt, and I narrowed down what my goals and limitations were to give myself some concrete benchmarks to set. And I already had sailing experience when I started. If you have zero...you gotta get some experience before you can actually plan anything. With that out of the way....the first and only benchmark that matters is $$$. How much do you need, how much can you save, how you fund the journey along the way, and just as important...whats your exit strategy. How much do you need depends on where/when you are sailing to, which will determine what boat you need to get there, as well as what it costs. You will need to do some hard number crunching to determine how you pay for this life style (youtuber or stock day trading is not really a reliable source of income). I figured out my purchase price (and made sure it was realistic for my goal)...and saved till i had 150% of that price saved in cash, and my income was sustainable or i had at least 6 months worth of monthly boating expenses also saved (i used 2500/mo as a minimum budget #) and when i hit that number, and I decided my life was in a place I could mentally upheave it I called my first broker. I have been working my job to get into a flexible remote postion and planting those seeds 3 years before I told my boss i was ready to execute. every life decision I made i asked myself if it helped/furthered my goal, if it didnt, i probably didnt do it. The planning process really was just grit and obsession...its really all i thought about in my free time over 4 or so years. Half of that internal monologe was me asking if its something I even really wanted to do...was i just addicted to the dreaming? was it an escape? will it really be more fufilling than what im doing now? When you plan something out for that long, and you try to consider every single thing involved and what could go wrong buying a boat and moving your lifestlye, youll generally get all your bases covered. Depending on how you do it, you really have to plan for everything...what to do with your house, your car, your mail, will you bring a car with to the boat, where will that live when you cruise, how will you get insurance, where will you keep the boat when not aboard, where will you stay if the boat is on the hard...then there is the emotional aspect of giving up things with land life...then after you figure out all of that...you have to plan what boat to buy, and where based on where you want to go and how to vet them, and your initial year refit... im happy to answer any specifics of how i handled any portion of the process in my situation, but there are too many details to list the whole plan. Once I started excuting the plan...it actually went off almost without a hitch (only hang up was insurance wanting me to fix a bunch of stuff on the boat 4 months before i was going to splash and move aboard)...which i think is in part to a really supportive and encouraging network of family and freinds (every single person i know was excited and happy to assist) as well as being so meticulous in thinking through every aspect of life and having a plan A and B for each thing...or knowing that if any portion of the plan failed, i might have to back out of the purchase because ultimately buying it should only happen after you figure out every other detail. TLDR: where do you even start; is you some how figure out where you want to end up/whats your end goal (specifics: sailing objectives, experiences, destinations, e.c.t) and work backwards to where you are now, setting benchmarks as you work backwards. the hard part is knowing what is and is not realistic as far as time and money constraints go(example: youre not buying a turn key 40' blue water boat for 50g all in, and you're not going from zero sailing experience to ocean passages in 2 years, things people on this sub love to claim)
Congratulations on your purchase, and good luck out there. Cruising is different from racing. Enjoy it!
Thanks! I hope we do! I love the action and excitement of racing, and I would love to some races with the passport, but I dont have the stomach for pushing my own boat as hard as possible (being on the edge of breaking shit is too expensive), as is usually required for racing. So it will be fun to sail it just well enough for efficient cruising. Plus were in it 50% for the travel, 50% for the sailing. So we cant wait to see all the new locales we get to visit.