Owning and keeping 2 boats at different location

[Bay Breeze]

We have a powerboat that we’ve cruised up the Atlantic ICW to and to Maine summers 2018 and 2019.

We cruise a shoalsailer sailboat to the Florida Keys for a few months each spring.

This year we’re trying something different - pulling the sailboat for hurricane season and moving the powerboat to a summer slip and winter storage in Maine.

It’s double expense to have two boats. We will see how this works out. If it doesn’t then they are both back to our own dock or the tiara express will get a new owner.

[captmikem]

I live on the Columbia River, but have a 38' motor sailor in Port Angeles, and a 50' sailboat in LA.
I will bring them both to the Columbia this summer as it is just too much travel time to get to them and maintenance suffers. I hope to take one to Alaska this year, and possibly the other to the Baja next year.

IMHO two boats is too much work.

M

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by jim King

I have a smaller boat (a Hunter 34) on the Columbia River near my home in Portland Oregon and another (a Leopard 45) in the BVI in the Caribbean. I sail the Hunter from May to October and put it in mothballs for the winter. The Leopard is in charter and is cared for year round by Sunsail. It's a win win situation that allows me to use any boat in their fleet around the world for up to 12 weeks a year. I may take it out of charter in another three years and do some long time cruising. Until then it pays for itself and is kept up by the charter company. It would be way too costly to try to keep up two boats in such far off locations. Chartering one of them gives me use of the boat when I want it and money from the rental of the boat. The charter company takes care of all the day to day expenses (moorage fees, insurance, maintenance). Wear and tear from those who use my boat? Well, that's another question.
cheers,
Jim

Sounds like a good plan, but I assume it has to be new/newer boat only in the charter program.


I am thinking of 2 older boats, say 30 and 27 feet at 2 different country.
It wasn't a size to trailer, but I have a similar plan spending time on different season for each.

[Cabo Jim]

We had a 2007 Cabo Rico 42 located in Georgia and would fly down in late Nov and work on her for 3-4 weeks and then sail down the coast of Florida and over to the Bahamas for a few months. In April we would sail back to Georgia and spend 2 weeks putting her to bed for the summer. Always had someone looking after her and had a dehumidifier running. Our second boat here in BC Canada was a 1970s something Bayliner Buckaneer 24. Very bare bones with only a porta potty and an outboard engine. We had a lot of fun with her on the lake. You've seen bumper stickers that say "My other car is a Porch or Ferrari etc." I thought about getting one for the Buckaneer that said "My other boat is a Cabo Rico 42". We eventually upgraded the lake boat to a 1989 Catalina 30. The Cabo Rico 42 just got to be too expensive and the Canadian dollar was low. We just sold the Cabo Rico. Eventually we will move the Catalina 30 to the Pacific North West or maybe we just might buy another boat.

[warren5421]

I have a condo in Florida with slip and a small horse farm in Indiana. I have a 40' ketch in Florida that is in a climate controlled building the 3 months I'm north. My son is in Florida once a month so he checks the boat and has it launched if he is there 2 weeks. The one in Indiana is on a trailer and used on weekends in Lake Michigan or Lake Erie. it is keep in a heated and air conditioned shop where I played at making furature for a lot of years. I have only lived in Florida for two years and it works for me right now. Have not had a hurricane come through yet, just the outer back lash.

[Scorpius]

There's a couple here in the yard (Jack's Boat Yard, Lund, BC) that now have two big steel boats sitting side-by-side on the hard. One is a classic Colvin Gazelle junk rigged schooner. The other a larger (about 55' overall I would guess) steel also junk rigged schooner (I'm not sure of the design).

For years they kept the Gazelle here - and sailed it summers on the BC coast - and kept the larger one in Mexico - and sailed it there over our winter. It was idyllic - until Covid came along. After Mexico shut down they couldn't even get the big one hauled in Guymas and so decided to sail her back here; NON STOP. Apparently it was quite a trip - especially after the rudder fell off.

They are now talking of selling one - but I've not seen a "For Sale" sign yet.

[PLeffe]

I have two Swans. A 37 in California and a 43 now in French Polynesia. I keep both in the water. I live on one or the other depending on the season. I have both in Marinas and people who keep an eye on each.

It all works out fine. I don’t own a house right now so this is my life. It depends on what you want to accomplish. Last year I thought about selling the California boat but COVID stopped me in FP so I had reason to return to CA. Also, I have adult children there and friends I like to see.

Good Luck
Peter
S/V Flying Tiger & S/V Dreamtime

[ArlyB]

I have a Catalina 22 that I keep rigged and stored on its trailer at a lake an hour from where I live. All I have to do is drop it in and go sailing for a day or a few days. The boat requires little maintenance as it is not in the water when not in use. This allows us to go sailing on the spur of the moment without much preparation.

I keep a larger Catalina 30 in a slip in California six hours from my home in AZ. We can run out to our floating vacation home for 2-4 weeks of sailing and doing the little things (maintenance) that always need doing, but I have a local mechanic do routine service and bottom cleaning. We can run out to the boat for a trip to Catalina Island, exploring the SoCal coast or just a quiet sail in the harbor. Having someone check on the boat in the water is crucial to sleeping well at night when you are at home

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Wckoek

How do they deal with antifouling out of the water?

There is no growth out of the water!🤣

Typically ablative paint doesn’t suffer when dried.

Some hard paints need a light sanding to re-activate them.

All in all, no biggie.

[basssears]

I second the inventory suggestion. We are 11 hours from our boat, so it's crucial that we know what we do and do not have all the way from foodstuffs to maintenance and repair parts and tools.

Keep in mind, insurance can be a challenge... well it can be a challenge anyway these days... but it can be a challenge when you're remote from the boat. Our last lap through getting insurance required us to give significant details on who would keep an eye on the boat when we weren't around how often and what they would check. We have good friends who live in the town we keep our boat, so we were good there, but if you didn't know anyone you would probably have to hire someone. And I had one insurance company that rejected me even though I had someone keeping an eye on the boat because he was not a professional we were paying... even though he's owned and maintained bigger boats for about three times as long as I have.

-- Bass

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

There is no growth out of the water!🤣

Typically ablative paint doesn’t suffer when dried.

Some hard paints need a light sanding to re-activate them.

All in all, no biggie.

I imagine the NE boat is in the hard, our water/weather is similar to the Caribbean and hard to imagine without soft/ablative ones.
I think it only last 2-3 months dry or I'll have to repaint them again.

[Scaramanga F25]

I have kept a boat in the water at my dock behind my South Florida condo for ten years.
I have also kept a second boat at SYC or Nepean SC in Ontario at the same time.
Never a problem, even through 2 hurricanes.

[sanibel sailor]

I had a 43 alloy C&C at the same time as my Bristol 35.5, both at private docks about a 5 minute detour from my commute from home to office. These were both older boats and the C&C verging on a "Project boat" classification. It about killed me. Doubled the work, quadrupled the stress and cut my sailing time by 80%.



I swore off ever owning 2 big boats at once, which has been good as it keeps me faithful to my Bristol, rather than looking at other women.


I now have the Bristol and a 14' Peep Hen microcruiser which is very easy to trailer and quick to launch and rig, in addition to another couple of trailerable daysailers- a tri and a planing dinghy. They all live indoors and have no pressing demands.

[crashley]

Hi we have a 40ft timber cruiser in the Gippsland lakes Australia and a 36 ft cat in Hervey Bay
Gippsland lakes for summer and Hervey Bay for winter

[hpeer]

Our 44’ cutter is our primary home. Covid aside we live on here Nov to May in the Caribbean.

Our 33’ cutter is in Newfoundland where we also have a cabin.

This year we sailed the 44 back to the states and have been doing much work in prep to go South again. Lord only knows if I will ever see our 33 again.