Crew Available: Canadian, 43, Looking to Crew

[SS Little-Devil]

Right now I think about the best bet for me and the show (3-4 crew) to use for the trip, that might possibly fit into our budget and be a capable cruiser is a mid 80's Beneteau first in the 37' range. If I can raise extra cash for the production side, I'll try and buy one slightly bigger. Right now I have to be careful because if I spend too much on the boat, I won't have enough to fund the trip itself. If it was just me sailing on my own without filming, it would be much easier, but then again, if it was just me, I wouldn't want too big a boat that I couldn't eventually handle on my own. We'll see what we come up with in California. So in essence, I have to buy a boat to suit the show more than to suit my own personal needs.

[KStepman]

Irony is I have made commercial movies myself.
A word of advice, regardless of what the marine survey reports, and always use your own, not the seller's, there will be unexpected items on the boat you buy that you will realize will need to be repaired or replaced, neglected or unknown to the previous owner. So, make allowance for that in your purchase price. Example: I purchased a six year old boat. I discovered since that it had a chronic problem in the fuel line that only showed up on a day long run. The solution turned out to be a simple fix that eluded the prior owners and three mechanics I called. That cost. The same for an electrical charging problem, caused by a miswiring at the selector switch at the factory. I also discovered with $1,600, that the engine manufacturer put an undersized heat exchanger when they built my engine, had a recall, few knew about, that expired last January. You get the picture. I put about 10% of the original purchase price of my boat into making it reliable and seaworthy for this trip.
BTW I do underwater Hd videography:-)

[SS Little-Devil]

Originally Posted by KStepman

Irony is I have made commercial movies myself.
A word of advice, regardless of what the marine survey reports, and always use your own, not the seller's, there will be unexpected items on the boat you buy that you will realize will need to be repaired or replaced, neglected or unknown to the previous owner. So, make allowance for that in your purchase price. Example: I purchased a six year old boat. I discovered since that it had a chronic problem in the fuel line that only showed up on a day long run. The solution turned out to be a simple fix that eluded the prior owners and three mechanics I called. That cost. The same for an electrical charging problem, caused by a miswiring at the selector switch at the factory. I also discovered with $1,600, that the engine manufacturer put an undersized heat exchanger when they built my engine, had a recall, few knew about, that expired last January. You get the picture. I put about 10% of the original purchase price of my boat into making it reliable and seaworthy for this trip.
BTW I do underwater Hd videography:-)

Hi. Just noticed this post. Thanks for the advice. I will definitely make sure the survey is done right, particularly since we'll be making a show on that to help others. I want to make sure they have the right advice.

When you say commercial movies, I'm not sure what you mean. What have you worked on? Do you have an IMDB? I'd certainly like to hear more about that and in particular, your underwater photography. If you use skype, perhaps we could talk a bit about that. Right now I'm just planning on using GoPro Hero2 HD 3D brackets and rigging some underwater lighting, unless we have a better budget to use an enclosure for DSLR or the Red Scarlet we might have on board. Not sure we can afford high end enclosures but it's on the list with a RC helicopter rig and a Kessler Pocket Jib and Hollywood Microdolly.

[KStepman]

I did (produced and directed) two, 90 minute documentaries for PBS, WNET in NYC, and was a cinematographer on any number of other theatrical and documentary films.

I am using a Sony HD ProCam in an Ikelite underwater housing. On this trip, I did not bring my underwater lighting or my rebreather, and just brought some of my open circuit gear.

[SS Little-Devil]

Congrats on the docs.

I'll be on my own boat in a few weeks, so this thread can be closed and/or removed.