New and looking at boats!

[cupofjoe]

Hi everyone, my name is Joe! Right now, I'm living in the Netherlands, but I'm a Floridian at heart. I've got some experience with sailing and I'm currently working on getting my RYA Coastal Skipper certification; but I haven't tried cruising yet!

My plan is to crew on as many boats as I can over the next year or so before I take the plunge and buy my own. I've been researching cruising for a while but haven't made an account here until now, so that's my introduction!

[deltaten]

Hiya Joe! Welcome aboard.
AFA crewing/bumming rides and RYA certs....all good

AFA securing a boat.....

"Go small, go now". Find the smallest boat you'd be willing to live with. Costs for operations, repairs and additional equipment go UP exponentially for every foot in length.

Cash is King. Budget accordingly. ..1/3 for initial purchase, 1/3 for immediate repair/upgrades necessary to get the boat safely moving. 1/3 for (at least) first year's expenses....insurance, mooring/docking fees, consumables, off-season storage.
Good rigging and a sound engine are more important than $10k in electronics or a spendy paint job.

A well found boat with good basics will get ya started right. Improvements can be added later.

HTH

[Adelie]

Welcome to CruisersForum!

I would suggest updating your profile with your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.