Our Only Sailing Experience is Watching 'Captain Ron'

[gettinthere]

My suggestion to start with an old 28' boat has to do with the apparent inexperience of the OP. If you buy an old boat and make some mistakes with it, you'll hardly notice. You'll get some hands on experience with rigging, lines, sails, diesel engines, pumps, hoses; all the main stuff on most sailboats. This experience will be invaluable when it's time to buy that cruiser. You should be able to sell it for what you paid for it and will have learned much in the process. it also gets you on the docks, hopefully near other sailboats & sailors where you can exchange ideas.

[F.N Firefly]

Are there other courses besides a "Boat Safety" course that we should take? CPR is a given, I can sew and we will always have a bottle of Glenlevit on-board so "smaller" cuts are covered. Our military training covers the basics of shock, heat/cold, sucking chest wounds, breaks and bleeding. I am also a former lifeguard...a 250+ pound man tried to crawl on top of my head during a rescue once, but I was not an ocean lifeguard.

~Sherry

[zeehag]

sucking chest wounds--place vaseline gauze, lots of tape and airlift asap.....
power squadrons have courses in boater safety but i think the sukking chest wound stuff comes from working in intensive areas forever..lol..look for red cross for cpr and other classes unless you are health care worker, then need heart assoc. classes. more intensive than red cross and geared to the health care provider, rather than the lay person at home.

[Sunspot Baby]

Suckng chest wound, Saran Wrap works amazingly well until the real help is available. But I digress.

[zeehag]

saran wrap is good if ye has it--as good as vaseline gauze--whatever blocks the air from coming out until the chest tube is placed in trauma center.....

[rgscpat]

Cats -- all are individuals and may react differently to life on board. Many cats can be trained to use a piece of Astroturf doormat for their business; if it has grommets and a line it can then be dunked when you're at sea. Toerails and mesh on the rails might help, too.

Buying a boat abroad -- That's not an area I really know about, but from what's been said here and there one thing you'll have to deal with are taxes/import duties which typically haven't been paid yet to the USA -- unless maybe you plan on never bringing the boat back to the US. And you would want to have the boat documented somewhere, either in the USA or perhaps in a "flag of convenience" country -- they exist for pleasure yachts as well as for big ships. You may also have to do stuff such as transferring radio licenses into your name (SSB, maybe VHF as well).

Depending on just where the boat was built and upgraded, some of the fittings and systems might be a wee bit different from what you're used to or may be more expensive or take longer to find spare parts for when you get back in the USA--but that can be an issue with just about any boat that's not strictly run-of-the-mill.

Probably you'd want someone in the part of the world where the boat is to give you some good advice on insurance, health care abroad, etc.

[zeehag]

i didnt have a problem with kitty litter--one huge tub of it lasts a month even with a maine coon -litter stayed in the q berth-in my boat--he has the forepeak in my boat and the coachhouse roof.....and he owns the boat.

[rgscpat]

Some J/24s were built with vermiculite filler between the cabin sole and keel. Could the vermiculite be recycled for use as cat litter for sailing kitties?

[goboatingnow]

Just my opinions OP try and avoid the fixer uppers I go for a cheap newer boat like a beneteau or Bavaria etc rather then an old so called blue water boat. You'll spend all your money and time on fixer uppers and never get sailing and then youllspend all your cruising continously fixing your fixer upper.

As to finding put what you like let me say that sailing as crew on other boats will help you develop your skills ( too a point) but the opinions you form are more related to the expertise of the crew then the boat. I seen bad boats made to look good by excellant crew and vice versa. The only real way to find put what you like and dislike is to own and sail your own boat. However compromises mean that you'll never get closer to your ideal boat. Don't over analyse the boat requirement .

Dave

[F.N Firefly]

One of many things I love about my husband is that he can absorb technical documentation and then translate it into language a hands on learner with "ohhh shiney" impairment can grasp. Manuals are mean and bent on world domination...that's my story and I'm sticking to it. But I digress, does the boating world have a Chiltons equivalent?

I see our boat buying experience somewhat playing out like our house buying...there will be one that we fall in love with with lots of "character".

~Sherry

[goboatingnow]

there will be one that we fall in love with with lots of "character".

yeap there the ones to avoid, more like "character forming". Get something that sail today not tomorrow.

Dave

[newlazydays]

My best advice.....DON'T BUY A BOAT till you have done some sailing! Over the years I have run into numerous cases where the best laid plans (the dream) fell apart when reality set in. You MUST get out there and see if you really like it. There are numerous ways of doing this, but the main thing is to get out on the ocean in all sorts of weather and really experience what it is like. The other thing to be mindful of is.....don't over capitalize on the boat.....you probably will never get it back.
The following is a true story! Wealthy American bought a 73 foot ex charter boat for $400,00 and gave it to a yard for a refit. Cost 1.8 million dollars. Off they went "round the world" with a professional crew and managed to get as far as Trinidad by which time they decided that sailing was not for them. So they sent the boat back to the States where it languished unsold for three years. They employed me to get it up and running so they could get rid of it. It sold for $350,000 to a French couple!
More recently I ran into another couple who had invested heavily in a 53 foot sail boat, (electronics like an aircraft carrier, new masts, new sails, ss anchor..you get the picture) and off they went and got no further than the Bahamas where they got badly beaten up off the east end of the Berry Islands. End of adventure! The boat sold for a fraction of what they had put into it.
This year a friend emailed me to see if I would be interested in delivering their 40 foot sail boat back from the Caribbean which they had bought just a few months before in Texas. This was a modern plastic fantastic with many bells and whistles. When I asked why they wanted to get rid of the boat so soon the reply was...."My husband has banged his head so many times inside the boat, he is just sick of it!" So......living on a small boat with only so much internal space and headroom is not for everyone. However you have six years to go.....plenty of time to join other boats and find out what you like....or can't stand. Just get out there on the ocean and see if it is for you.