Sailing the world!

[TaylorR75]

Hello everyone!

What a tittle huh? Yes, I want to sail the world.
A bit about me. For starters I've never sailed before. Ive lived on moter yachts and worked on fishing ships but never sailed, on my on.
I'm currently a manager of a Walgreens in Seattle, but my background includes 4 years in the Marine Corps and a 9 month trip living in the Alaskan bush to see if i could.
I have been planning on a extended sailing trip now for years.

My plan is to buy a boat here in Seattle and spend about 2 years learning her and adding things such as solar and water systems. Then "retire" from my job and just leave it all behind. With no end date on my trip planned just see it all. I'm very big into photography and hope to get tons of shots a videos.

I need advice. On everything. Give me any tips you have.

I have around a $50,000 budget for the boat itself.
I like the idea of getting a fixer upper and doing the repairs myself as i think it would teach me alot about the vessel. But am interested on hearing what the community thinks.
Oh and i was thinking about a 36'-46' size range.

[travellerw]

Welcome to the forum... Notice the search feature up in the right hand corner. You should start there.

Posts like this one get asked about 1 a week. There are tons of previous threads that will answer %95 of your questions.

[TaylorR75]

Awesome thank you.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Taylor.

[KeelMe]

I was single handing offshore when I was 13. There were no forums back then to ask open ended questions. The only sailor I knew was my uncle.

His advice still holds true today.

You will feel it when you find the boat for you. Buy it. Make sure everything looks right; if it doesn't look right, fix it. If you can't figure it out, get rid of it, it's too complicated. Make sure you know your boat inside and out. When you do, set sail. You will figure out the rest as you go. If you don't she'll know and she'll swallow you whole.

I didn't know who she was...first time I saw a whale breach I thought that was her, closed my eyes, and thanked God for a wonderful 13 years. It wasn't her...I'm still here.

[Tillsbury]

Get a good structural survey done. Here in NZ it's pretty much mandatory when you buy a boat, and for good reason. Serious structural issues are tough and expensive to fix. The report will tell you if the boat is sound, and give you a starting list of things you'll need to get done. This is a very important thing to have when you're new to buying a boat. Buy one that passes structure with flying colours, but needs other things doing that you can fix up yourself as you learn about the boat. I agree that fixing electrics, plumbing, engine and so on will give you great experience and comfort knowing where everything is and what it does and how it's fitted.

For single-handing or with one or two crew you'll be fine with high 30's in length, and there are very many cheap well-built boats in that territory that will last forever if maintained. I'm thinking Island Packet 37, Rival Bowman 38, and dozens of others. Old-school boats that are fixable and will happily take you around the world.