Bluewater cruiser suggestions for newbies

[stnick]

I think its a dream to spend only 30k now if you had 50K and 30 on a boat and 20 and thats low on fix up you might could do it !
Dont plan around the world till you know this is what your willing to go thru.
The ocean can swallow you ! You need to be ready.
Life rafts ,AIS ,Chart plotters etc

[jimp1234]

I think you've got lots of good advice re: boats but unless I missed something, you didn't mention anything about your sail training or experience, so I assume you're a novice sailor? If that's the case I'd recommend spending some or all of that $30K kitty on training and chartering for you and your partner. I can recommend some excellent schools here in the SF bay area, and I've taken many classes where students fly in for training. I'm sure there are also many excellent schools on the east coast, and in the Caribbean as well. Get your BBC, or ASA 104(?) and your international certificate of competence, and you can charter boats anywhere in the world. Then you and your partner can charter a 30 -35 ft monohull for a week or two in a beautiful location and really get a feel for what it's like to spend time on a small sailboat. You said you wanted a boat where "safety, ease of use, good in rough seas would be first thoughts". Well that should kinda describe the skipper and crew as well, shouldn't it? Good luck.

[ZULU40]

Originally Posted by stnick

I think its a dream to spend only 30k now if you had 50K and 30 on a boat and 20 and thats low on fix up you might could do it !
Dont plan around the world till you know this is what your willing to go thru.
The ocean can swallow you ! You need to be ready.
Life rafts ,AIS ,Chart plotters etc

The legacy of Everett Pearson, 'Hold Fast'
the secret is to begin


https://vimeo.com/15351476

[Six]

Cape Dory 31

1984 Cape Dory Cutter sailboat for sale in Virginia


Liberty 28 which looks to be in pristine condition in the photos.

1975 LIBERTY YACHTS LIBERTY 28 sailboat for sale in Florida


If you could increase your cash a bit you could probably find a nice
Decent Tayana or Baba from the right seller.

[liquidice]

Originally Posted by Scaramanga F25

Go sailing this summer first. Can you not join a Club on lake Superior and

both try a crossing. Or, try crewing for a racer.

Really great idea.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by crankysailor

Suggestion from a recent ex newbie myself on the way to his second boat: buy something in the best shape you can for an amount of money you can afford to lose without much pain. It is only your first boat and there will be others. First boat is just to learn if sailing and boat ownership is for you and what you like. For the second boat you will then be able to answer this question yourself. Have fun !

The is a very good idea and pretty much what I did with my first monohull (but it was maybe my 12th boat)

Buy something for maybe $8,000 - $15,000 and do repairs as needed. Start sailing as soon as possible close to your location

I'm still on my first monohull which I bought in 2011. I got it for $2,000 but the price should have been about $6,000-$7,000 as it was totally loaded with equipment and had just returned from a 2 year cruise to Florida before it sat on the hard for 5 years unattended. (estate sale)

I've just done the needed repairs and paid cash for everything. Plus my boat is suitable for offshore sailing if properly prepared

If you aren't an expert there's a few lists that will help as has been posted.

Mahina Offshore, Bluewater Boats.org, and Atomvoyages.com (for Bluewater Boats less than 32')

Here's a great piece of advice from the atomvoyages.com site:

A final word of advice to the novice sailor - resist the temptation to undertake a major refit and extensive modifications on your new old boat right at the start. It's best to make only the obvious repairs needed and go out and sail locally and on some coastal vacation passages to learn exactly what is and what is not needed for you. Otherwise you may end up spending years and many thousands of dollars more than expected modifying your boat and then find out on your first ocean crossing that the boat is not right for you or those great ideas you had during the refurbishment did not work out that well at sea.

[gjordan]

Somewhere in this thread there was mention of a pilot berth as a good feature. I would advise you to think long and hard about the thought of sleeping that high off of the sole and how far you have to fall if a weather cloth fails. They require stronger (more time to get out of) weather cloths and take up valuable storage area and on narrower (older,less costly) boats sometimes make the settee below it less comfortable. I have slept in a pilot berth at anchor and it was nice to be out of the way of other crew members but I would not have used it at sea. Pilot berths were put into Pilot Boats, so they could stack 6 smelly captains into a small boat and go out and heave-to waiting for a ship to arrive. The need for them is not really there in a boat that will seldom have more than 2 people on board. In very bad weather, the cabin sole is the safest, most comfortable place to sleep, but makes it difficult for other crew members. As all things on CF, this is an opinion, but I have enough offshore miles to know that I want a secure feeling bunk that isnt 5 feet above hard objects when the boat is heeled. ____Just my 2 cents worth. ____Grant.

[Scaramanga F25]

I have owned for many years 2 boats with pilot berths.
They were great for storage. They were never slept in.

In racing I prefered quaters berths offshore if the boat I crewed on had them
otherwise salon berths with lee-cloths.

[Jim Cate]

FWIW:

While we did sleep in the pilot berths on our previous boat, once we set out cruising they were converted from pilot berths to pile-it berths. With appropriate knockdown netting, they became out easy access storage areas.

Jim

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by stnick

I think its a dream to spend only 30k now if you had 50K and 30 on a boat and 20 and thats low on fix up you might could do it !
Dont plan around the world till you know this is what your willing to go thru.
The ocean can swallow you ! You need to be ready.
Life rafts ,AIS ,Chart plotters etc

These guys had $10,000. They spent $3000 on the boat and the rest on repairs. Then they sailed all over the Caribbean for a year...and still going strong. Like other comments have said...the hard part is to begin.

Sailing Uma: https://youtu.be/pD1dbX4wGtQ

https://youtu.be/lAye0mf2A8g

...and yes, I love these guys! They inspire me to have my own sailing adventure one day!!!

[hamburking]

Originally Posted by gjordan

Somewhere in this thread there was mention of a pilot berth as a good feature. I would advise you to think long and hard about the thought of sleeping that high off of the sole and how far you have to fall if a weather cloth fails.

Whats so wrong about having a good sturdy/strong lee cloth? Shouldn't every lee cloth be strong?

OK...I don't disagree with you. But more often than not, guests come when you are someplace nice, while you anchor or dock every night. And everyone likes to have their own bunk. A pilot berth gives a private bunk without sleeping on the dinner table. And anyone with kids knows that kids LOVE pilot berths...leaving the good bunks for the adults!!!

At worst they are great storage space in what is usually wasted space. I favour a roll up dinghy with inflatable floor, and a pilot berth is a great home for it when deflated...properly secured of course.

So I'll agree that maybe they aren't the best sleeping berths while on a passage, but I still think they are a great feature on any boat!!!!

[JPA Cate]

We sometimes sleep on our settee--closest berth to amidships. It has a lee cloth, and I trust it to keep me in the bunk, even in a knockdown to leeward. Just make sure when you put in the lee cloth that it is well secured to the bottom, as well as overhead. Ours is screwed in via a batten, screws on 4" centers, the length of the settee. Overhead, it ties to pad eyes in the deck beams, but we used to secure to hand rails.

Ann