Family of 9 Wanting to Cruise

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Tkeeth

the voice of experience there...

Not yet, I'm in the Wanna be crowd, we leave next month though

[Deirdraf]

Here is a family w 7 kids that did it: Mormon family raises children on boat in the Caribbean | Deseret News

[Barbar0ssa]

Originally Posted by Tkeeth

Seems you have it all figured out. Let us know how it goes.

This is what I was afraid would happen. I am not trying to be cocky and not trying to be foolhardy. I appreciate that you all know much more than I do regarding boats.

But if the problem is money, then the answer is time (or perhaps income). Something like: "You are assuming X but you need 4X because of this reason." So if I learn that reason, I can adapt. I threw my numbers up there explicitly to have holes poked through them, not because I have it all figured out. It may very well be that the answer is, "You can have this great adventure when you have $300K in the bank."

If the problem is kids on a boat, then I really appreciate the replies about sailing a smaller boat for day sails or chartering and making sure that it will be an enjoyable family adventure. I think proving that it is something everyone will enjoy is a very worthwhile and necessary experiment.

If you can't imagine this number of children on a boat, I'm sure many of you can't imagine this number of children anywhere!

I am really grateful for all the great feedback!

[Barbar0ssa]

Originally Posted by Tkeeth

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1790459...ama&s=yQIAe2Zh

cut a deal on something like this!

That is great! I see my family's future boat!

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Barbar0ssa

That is great! I see my family's future boat!

And I see a Turkish gullet, most likely the biggest money pit made of cheap pine on planet Earth. Teach your kids woodworking, because they're each going to be doing it 50 hours per week, and you won't be leaving the dock to go anywhere.

[ScarletO]

I can see that many children in a house or a hotel or even an RV.

If you have a week of terrible weather that requires both adult hands on deck how are you going to manage the kids down below who might be having a really tough time not being able to get outside.

Imagine being in a studio apartment with all seven kids for a week and you and your spouse are standing on the balcony and they can't come out and you can't go in for at least half an hour at a time while they cry. Add in some of them are seasick and has thrown up on their bed and the couch and someone has fallen over and bumped their head and there is very little floor space to play or run about to use up energy.

If you had a grandparent or two or a nanny for an extra set of adult hands it might be doable.

[Barbar0ssa]

Originally Posted by akprb

I'm passionate about this topic as I've met you in Guatemala, Mexico, Key West and Tonga. The Mexico and Tonga cases the worst.

Those sound like some interesting stories!

There was one case like this that was a success story who we met in the Society Islands. Family of six, bought a 60' steel monster, took a few lessons in Canada until the instructor left the boat with the parting words "you will all die".

Wow! That is not going to be us! If an instructor who knows us tells us we are going to die, we will not be going!

Teach those kids to sail locally, to race, to get "the bug". Raise them to live your dream but don't let them suffer through it now.

Shared in kindness.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply! You are very eloquent.

[ScarletO]

...and I'm not saying that sailing with seven kids is bad, I'm just saying that perhaps when they are older might be fraught.

[Tkeeth]

Originally Posted by Deirdraf

Here is a family w 7 kids that did it: Mormon family raises children on boat in the Caribbean | Deseret News

They chartered, studied, sold all their belongings and over a decade prepared, then lived on a boat and worked in a marina..

I believe the general consensus we tried to relay was slow down, research, and more money. Also safety as stated. I have a new puppy, at a few weeks old my wife and I went out and got in an unforseen storm. After a couple of rough hours we go below to find al things that flew around the boat, the poor puppy scared with pee and poo everywhere. My wife had worried about the puppy during the whole time, but knew that it could not be the priority at that time. I can't imagine that situation with a small child, much less several.

[ScarletO]

less fraught sorry.

[akprb]

A bit below of those few sad stories. For now read "ultra budget" on our blog. Not quite your challenge but close. sailingohana

One of those boats (only two kids) eventually lost the kids to grandparents for awhile, the girls would eat with us most nights and foraged for food behind restaurants et al. They stuck to us for a long time. Tough.

The other the father became a raging alcoholic, the wife catatonic and the kids (4 or 5) basically took care of him and themselves while essentially stranded in isla mujeres. The boat was a basket case like some of the ones you'll find in that size and price range. All these stories this was a common denominator.

Third was in Tonga where we met up with a girl our daughters went to school with in NZ. Only 2 kids on a derilect 50 some odd footer. I went over and heard every horror story of their trip up. Water tanks even failed and had to flag down a tanker for provisions. Took 3 weeks for a seven day passage. I heard a few days ago the wife just died.

All tragic and unnecessary.

6 months is how long it will take to get seaworthy with daily focus and resources (read money). And as money goes just the basics will ring up to 10k (in my case I can triple that easily) quickly then escalate from there.

I'm really more focused on kids, I get wanting to share this with them. I do. That being said consider a Catalina 30 type and taking 2 at a time for a week at a time. You can focus on them, build relationship and learn together. Continue saving for the boat you'll buy in 16 years and the kids who love it will gravitate to it.

[Kenomac]

Akprb,

Your blog is an excellent read. I share your views, but expressing those same views here on this forum hasn't gained me many fans over the past five years, in fact just the opposite.

Most only want to hear and read the reaching for one's dreams on 50 cents per day down in good ol' Mexico type stories. 'Throwing caution and common sense to the wind kinda stuff.

Ken

[akprb]

Love your posts as well and I get it, as far as losing the popularity contest :-)

I'm noodling on an entry entitled "your turn". About the first boat, the lessons and the idea that we all go through it at one point in our cruising lives.

I have to thank my father as he brought me up in it and had me hanging around marinas at a tender age. He never did do the kind of cruising we did BUT he lived it through us. He's gone now but left a WALL of sailing books that I still enjoy going through and imagining the dreams he had. (He called that wall my inheritance, was a good one)

I get what the OP desires, who wouldn't. It's just knowing the shear volume of work and capital required to achieve it.

I get a little attitude when I meet those who took off under those parameters and they are constantly looking for something, can give cruisers a bad name in certain ports and put other lives in jeopardy including their own.

The first two couples I mentioned in "ultra budget" were not like that. True libertarians who were truly self sufficient. Hats off to them.

The three familes mentioned in my horror stories not so much.

Oh well, the sea moves on!

[TrentePieds]

BarbarOssa:


Kenomac said (among other things): “Akprb, Your blog is an excellent read. I share your views, but expressing those same views here on this forum hasn't gained me many fans over the past five years, in fact just the opposite.”


Go listen to those people! Let's cut to the quick: I have no reason to doubt that you have the financial acumen to put something together that looks viable. We all know that the tough part is making the first million. After that you can't help making money. So go make that first million if you haven't already. You'll need it :-)


I have, forgive me for being so blunt, misgivings about whether you have the skippering skills to pull your dream out of a hat. Those misgivings are based on the tenor of the questions you have asked. Please accept that I, and all the others, have the welfare of you and your family in mind when we issue these cautions. Far too many people seem to think that buying a boat and going deep sea is much the same as buying a motor home and tearing off down Route 66. IT AIN'T!!!


Never forget, or if you don't already know it, then know now, that when you are out there with your family as crew YOU ARE ALONE! Never forget that in a boat the size that you are contemplating, and the size you need to accommodate the family, the forces generated by the rig are more than four times as great as the forces generated by TrentePied's rig PLUS an increment to allow for the fact that TP's Sail Area/Displacement Ratio is only 70% of what a competent “go anywhere boat” ought to have. Never forget that a wind blowing 30 knots, common enuff on passage, generates EIGHT times the power generated by a 15 knot wind, a wind forceful enuff to make many a sailing student sit in a puddle that ain't seawater! Are you physically strong enuff to handle such forces ALONE? So in a boat the size you need, you are talking about handling forces that are THIRTY times as great as any I need to deal with in TP!



So there you are. At night. In 30 knots of wind and you've left shortening sail too late because you haven't a lot of experience and didn't see it coming. You are the skipper. It's not your job to be the deckhand that has to go forward to take a reef. Your job, as skipper, is to keep the crew safe by keeping the ship safe. That is your ONLY job! Are you man enuff to send you children's mother forward to do the job? Is she able – strong enuff, and courageous enuff – to do it? Will she obey you? Or if she is the skipper, will YOU obey her? In this sort of situation we are not talking requests or suggestions. We are talking ORDERS! Would she be willing to leave her newborn swaying in a hammock in the fore-peak while she risks her life to do a job that is only necessary because YOU didn't tell off your crew betimes to do an essential, safety related job? Or will you have a mutiny on you hands and have to do a nasty job yourself while tempers are running so high that NOBODY aboard, including you, is entirely compos mentis? Would you ever be forgiven for precipitating such an incident?


You get the picture. And I'm not talking through my hat. Many years ago I sailed a mast overboard. In quite moderate weather. In a piddling little 30-footer. The danger of the mast in the water holing the boat, with a certain sinking being the consequence of that, was acute. Two students were totally useless being absolutely petrified with fear. Another student in the boat was a man of about 280 pounds. Had I dropped him overboard I would NOT have been able to get him back aboard. That man's wife, all 100 lbs of her, soaking wet as she was, spent three hours on deck with me, in the dark, in the wind and the rain, getting the rigging back aboard and lashed down securely. A truly gutsy woman. Not fearless, but gutsy. And obdient :-)!


So, BarbarOssa, having unloaded myself of that, I hope you will not be offended. I am not the shellback that many here are. You would do well to heed them :-) And know also that we are very happy to help you get started. If you want us to do that, you must ask questions. And not dismiss any answers that don't match any preconceptions you may have. Nor must you be afraid to ask “stupid” questions or feel slighted when in response to a question you get a blunt-spoken answer. We see it time and again: Anyone with a handsome bank account or a handsome credit rating can buy a boat. That's the easy part. Becoming a decent skipper, capable of handling boat and crew in all circumstances takes a lifetime.


So hang around. Ask away. You'll learn a lot :-)!


All the best


TP

[CaptsWife]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

OP,

You're going to end up with people on this forum recommending you "go for it," but you need to be realistic. Most of them just want to see the train wreck at the end of the movie.

When my wife and I were in our mid 20's with one newborn, we went boat shopping and almost purchased a brand new Baba 30. But then reality hit us regarding the expenses, responsibilities of having a small kid with another one on the way. Ultimately, we postponed everything... with no regrets.

Really.... think this through logistically.

This. Yes. Really. Why are you in such a hurry?