Hello from NYC

[Kaiju]

Hello cruisers!

I am a 23 year old software engineer looking to liveaboard and do some coastal cruising in the US by the end of 2015. Warning: "dream talk" incoming.

I grew up in Florida and always had a love of the ocean. I messed about on my grandparent's and friend's powerboats growing up but didn't get any exposure to sailing until I did a sailing trip in the Keys with my Scout troop. It was only a week but it was an absolutely amazing experience. Unfortunately I buried this experience in the depths of my mind as college was coming up and I was preoccupied with all sorts of other "responsible" nonsense.

One day it popped in my head that I enjoyed that trip infinitely more than my day job, and that I should learn how to sail myself. So I took a keelboat course (ASA 101) at a local sailing club. As soon as I was out on the boat something clicked. I knew I wanted to follow this as far as possible. I immediately joined the sailing club and have been going out as often as I possibly can. It's become an obsession.

I plan to finance my nomadic dreams by saving everything I can while I still am working 40 a week, and then taking freelance software development jobs as needed.

I quickly reached debt-free status after graduating...and since I don't have any obligations (and live a relatively minimalistic lifestyle) I've been amassing some modest savings. Hopefully will have a 25k seed to start with by the time my lease is up, 20k at worst. Precursory research shows that should be enough for a start.

I'm totally open to suggestions for a first boat! Been doing a lot of looking in the 25-30 foot range. Still don't really know what to look for, but I'm getting somewhat of an idea through lurking these forums.

Hoping to call myself a boat owner by the end of next year, but who knows where life will take me. So long as I'm working towards the dream!

Thanks for reading my spiel and I hope to learn lots from y'alls collective years of experience!

[biker6977]

Welcome aboard and happy dreaming! I have been reading and window boat shopping for a while- so many out there- here's what I've narrowed down to so far- under 30' for $$ reasons- bigger is more $$ not just in purchase price but all other things- marina fees, mooring etc. draft under 5' for ICW and Florida. There are lots of boats out there that fit that criterea under $20,000 so you then can choose what else is important to you.

[marlinmike]

May I suggest a 32+ sailboat, diesel inboard and good sails which you should be able to get into for $20k and stay debt free, take a look in Craigslist, many on the north shore of Long Island or Conn. Keep it simple to start.

[Waterway Guide]

Welcome aboard, and good luck with your quest!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
My advice is to determine what type of sailing you want to do first and then buy a boat suited for that type of sailing. Think only a few years ahead. Say to yourself, "I want to do coastal cruising for the next few years until I really learn enough to do ocean passages." You can find lots of boats that will fit those needs and some higher end trailerables like a Seward would do. It would save you slip and moorage fees and all those things associated with keeping a boat in the water (maintenance).
Good luck.

[Kaiju]

Thanks for the advice and greetings y'all.

I want to do ocean passages, eventually. Sooner than later, would be nice. To be totally honest, I want to do a circumnavigation...but I'm not in a hurry to start that particular trip, just to start collecting the experience for it.

I've been getting wrapped up looking at classic small bluewater boats like the Vega, Alberg 30's, Triton, etc etc. The thought of being able to make that jump to bluewater a wee bit easier when the time comes is appealing. The thought of waiting around to sell a boat doesn't sit right with me.

I wanted to sail the west coast but after reading more about it it seems like that's NOT a good place to start. Maybe I'll just cut my teeth on the ICW instead.

I've still got a decent amount of time. For now have been getting good practice of basics at my local sailing club, tooling around on J24s on the Hudson river. Will be doing longer sails on bigger boats this winter.

We'll see what conclusions I come to in the coming months, regarding getting a bluewater capable boat out of the gate or not. It's been a blast reading about all of this.

Oh, and unrelated but I've started work on a new boat listings website, because in my experience of boat browsing, the current tools are so poor!