Reality Check for Sailboat Process for Newbie

[zehnmm]

Hi everyone!

We have decided that after we sell our house, to ultimately get a sailboat for some coastal cruising and some passages here and there. As to just where all this is to occur, we are not sure. Maybe San Diego; perhaps Texas; perhaps Florida. Just not sure yet.

As a means to that end we are going to San Diego next week to scout it out and look at some boats. But, in reality this is really a peek at one of the latter steps in our process. Kind of like Stephen Covey's "Begin with the end in mind." part of his management training.

Check me out on my thinking on our process, knowing that the last time that we sailed was approximatly when the viking Harald Hardrade was ravaging the English Isles in the 11 century when Edward the Confessor was King.

Newbie proposed steps:
1. Ask questions on this forum
2. Read
3. Go on some captained, chartered cruises
4. Leech off of friends for some day sailing
5. Read
6. Ask questions on this forum
7. Go to ASA training programs; take as many courses as we can;
8. Read
9. Sail via friends and/or captained charters
10. Decide where we wish to be and candidate places to sail to
11. Determine budget, maximum affordable boat; plan for insurance
12. Prepare list of candidate boats
13. Ask questions on this forum
14. As much as possible visit boats, or perhaps hire a surveyor/expert to at least take a gander at one or two top candidates (not a survey, but an overview) that we cannot visit personally at the time
15. Make offer on top candidate with proviso of survey and clause where we can re-negotiate price or back out if survey shows deficiencies more than $xxxxxxxx.
16. Buy boat and get started learning about her, making changes, and sailing!
17. Continue to read and learn while sailing.

FYI, at this point, we lean to the "Perry-like" full keel or modified full keel boats with skeg. Some that catch our fancy include Island Packet, Tayana, Valiant, Pacific Seacraft, and others like Cape Dory, Cabo Rico, Hans Christian. All this stems from my coveting of Cape Dory's sometime back. Heavily leaning toward buying a used boat. Would not rule out a new one, though. Racing not important to us.

Thanks for any thoughts you have about what we should consider as we embark on our next adventures! See: this is what happens when your kids grow up and leave you unsupervised and up to heaven only knows what!

Steve

[ronbo1]

Steve,

Your list of considered boats should include Gozzard as well as Shannon.

Ronbo

[johnar]

Welcome Steve,

I may not be the best here to give advice but i will tell you first off read every day.

Dutch is my first and i have only had her 3 months now ( best choice i made in my life) a friend on here help me a lot in learning before i went out and spent money.

I knew from the start i wanted a full keel Heavey Displacement that is why i got the Morgan, after weeks of reading good and bad on a number of boats i did learn every brand of boat has trade off's.

Think about where you want to sail and will it be a live aboard?

If you go with a used boat it is best to get a survey done, the cost is low around $3.00 a foot, when it comes to Standing rigging it is very hard for the untrained person to tell if anything is bad. Myself i did not get a survey.

What i did in lue of a survey was to make a list of every part on a sail boat and set a grading system, each boat i looked at i used the same list. When it came time to make an offer i took the average price for Year make and modle and ajusted from there.

The more you read the more it will help you, i can not stress that.
i feel like i was very lucky when i found Dutch a number of things i marked as missing/not working i had fixed at little to no cost within a week. so if you are handy at fixing things that will help.

well i wish you the best

John

[sandy daugherty]

DO NOT sail on a catamaran. Don't even get on one. If one goes by, look the other way and sniff the air for secret exhaust fumes. Grab the closest varnished wooden object and hug a tree in your mind.
I'm telling you this as a lost soul. For I have been lured into the world of more-hulls-than-you-really-need, never to return. I can no longer buy A boat, I must pay for two and get half the sails in the bargain. I have to pay three times the price per pound, and I only got a couple of knots faster, or thirty miles further each day. Sob.

If Neptune really intended for people to sail on that many hulls, he would have made slips much wider.

Run while you still can.

[slomotion]

Welcome, Steve

Sounds like a plan. A lot better than ours - I had some sailing experience (mostly on other people’s boats). One day I got fed up and said to my wife: "Let’s buy a boat and go." One week later we bought the third boat we looked at and 3 months later we went.

If you can afford it, I recommend a captained charter in the BVIs - pretty much the charter boat capital of the world. You won’t find the kind of boats you are interested in there. But, it is the fastest easiest way to get a feel for what living on and cruising a modern production boat is like - and you will have a blast.

Fair Winds

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by sandy daugherty

DO NOT sail on a catamaran... I'm telling you this as a lost soul...

I have at least half a bookshelf dedicated to preventing this… My small library on multihulls is like getting an inoculation, because now my body knows what the accursed viruses look like I’ve been able to build up (some) antibodies, so that when my eyes stray, I no longer focus just on the receding wake, but can quickly identify at least one disqualifying feature (be it ever so small) on each multi as it disappears over the horizon…

[imagine2frolic]

I guess by now you have noticed. There is a twisted sense of humor floating around. My problem is I can never tell whose serious, and who isn't!!!!!!!!!!!! SAILING UPRIGHT in the mid teens just isn't true sailing.....LOLOLOLOL

[Tellie]

Come... join the 2Hulled Dark Side young zehnmm Skywalker.

[zehnmm]

Thanks to you folks sharing about the catamarans! I love your posts. We are, however, wedded to the monohull desire, alas and alack.

For others, I really appreciate that you have taken the time to share your thoughts about this.

Ronbo1: I have added Gozzard and Shannon to my list. Thanks for the tip.

Slomotion: We very much wish to get over to the BVIs and do just that!

Johnar: Great points! I like hearing about your list and grading. Since I am so uninformed, I might try that, but also will definitely hire survey(s).

-----------------------

Regards,

Steve

[wantokex]

Welcome and good luck!! sounds like your plan was much more thought out then ours also, We went the same sort of route as slomotion. I brought up the idea of sailing around the world slightly joking, jess said nothing for two weeks then out of the blue says "lets do it" so now after one boat buying mistake (much to much work to get it ready, bye-bye aft cabin) we now have a great boat and should be ready in a few months.

A sugestion, Books, books and more books. Beth Leonard's book The voyager's Handbook is an incredible resource along with Nigel calders boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual and his Cruisers handbook. I find myself re-reading all my books till it sort of all comes together.

The other thing I found really helpful was the boat shows, for boat systems. Being new to big boats I found out a lot at the shows about systems just by talking to all the reps.

-Wantokex

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Steve,
Great list of things to do! Well done. I'd skip number 3 because I'm cheap. Usually you'll find lots of sailors who need crew for a day at a time or just for a few hours. Many clubs have crew lists.
I was aboard a Westsail 32 that was factory finished and it was just beautiful. They make a larger version that I wouldn't rule out. Also the Ingrid 38 factory finished is a great boat.
Lots to choose from and money's the limit.
Kind regards,
JohnL

[Charlie]

Welcome Steve:

I think I might have noticed you had the word read in your post once or twice. I would add sail. Go sailing. Get a little dinghy to start with or get time on other peoples boats but sail as much as you can and with your wife as much as you can to see if you really wnat to do it. If you do sell the house to do this you may not be able to get back into a land based life. Think long and hard about it. Then do it.

[anotherT34C]

Originally Posted by zehnmm

FYI, at this point, we lean to the "Perry-like" full keel or modified full keel boats with skeg. Some that catch our fancy include Island Packet, Tayana, Valiant, Pacific Seacraft, and others like Cape Dory, Cabo Rico, Hans Christian. All this stems from my coveting of Cape Dory's sometime back. Heavily leaning toward buying a used boat. Would not rule out a new one, though. Racing not important to us.

Add to your "Perry-like" list, TaShing and Lord Nelson.

Best of luck!

[Curmudgeon]

Wow, impressive "to do" list. I'm a newbie too, but I could never get through that. Of course, I'm not planning to sell the house. Rent it out, maybe...

What I've found helpful is sailing. I've joined a club and sail as much as I can: Sonars, Solings, J-24s-- whatever they'll let me take.

As for buying a boat, I just went out and did it. Why spend 3-4 years with your nose pressed up against the candy store window?

I'll hire a professional to teach me if necessary. I don't know how to use any of the electronic gizmos, or the autopilot or the windvane. But I'm going to learn on my own boat, not on someone else's.

Incidentally, the folks here were extremely helpful, and there are a ton of useful threads here on just about everything.

[Brent Swain]

The older used boats are far better built and designed than most of the newer ones, at a fraction the price. You couldn't afford to build a boat that well at todays material and labour prices.