starting the process

After a 45 year career in banking it's time to begin a new phase of my life. My wife of 47 years and I are excited at the prospect of purchasing a trawler and spending many days, weeks or several months on the water. We're not new to boating (owned five so far) but have never really cruised nor lived aboard. I don't know if my expectations will match reality but I'm going to give the experience a try. Hope I can get some good information and feedback from more experienced captains and cruisers. Thanks for reading.

Welcome aboard!!!

Please share your dreams/plans!!!

Are you going to cross oceans, or cruise the great loop, or hang out and enjoy???

What kind of boat are you after???

Welcome to the forum! Enjoy the search for your next boat.


Ted

Welcome to the Forum! Having recently closed on our dream, we wish you luck!

Welcome aboard, and congratulations on the new direction.

Welcome aboard, pictures, pictures


Sergio "Alemao" Sztancsa

Sent from my iPhone using Trawler Forum

Welcome! Best of luck to you and your wife!

Everyone, thanks for the warm welcome.

wyoboater, how did you determine what was the most important features you wanted (needed) on your boat. There are so many options to choose from and it's a little overwhelming to figure what's really important.

First we had to decide what we wanted the boat for...sitting at the dock in condo like comfort, or cruising? Once my wife retires, we'll live aboard but be active long distance cruisers so we needed some of both. Do you want good usable outside deck space or a huge living room style salon? Remember, every large space requires minimizing another space. We had started looking in the 36 foot range but decided that no configuration of that length gave us enough living/boating space so we decided that we needed 40-45 feet. Since we decided on cruising, we now had to decide on power...We were looking for a single engine for economy, but they are few and far between so decided on relatively low power reliable, economical twins (perkins rather than Detroit diesel, Cat etc.) Next we had to decide on the galley size/position. That is galley up or down, and galley size. We'll be long distance so decided on a medium galley with full size equipment..3 burner stove, full size fridge. We elected a full size in a galley down configuration as that increases the salon size. Next was sleeping arrangements, what works for you? We wanted a centerline aft cabin for the master. Due to probably anchoring out rather than paying mooring fees every night, we decided a generator, and decent fresh water and holding tank capacities were important. Once those decisions were made...we set criterias in "Yachtworld and Denisons" personal boat shoppers and started looking at boats....This eventually created a short-list without spending $thousands traveling to boats that probably wouldn't fit our needs.

Hope this helps to at least get you started.

K & J

Charter. It's the cheapest way to get a feel for what makes YOU comfortable afloat. Once you've found out you'll be in a much better place to take the leap with a boat of your own. Some enjoy the Spartan, self-reliant life; others pretend to outfit their boats to satisfy the ADMIRAL. It's strictly personal. I've found that in boating the difference between dream and disaster is razor thin. Be prepared to take the very good with the very bad.

wyoboter, seems pretty logical when you write it down. Good information and I thank you.

Capitan K, never thought about chartering. May be a good way to avoid a mistake. I am a current owner of two boat so I understand the "bad" part. But the good times seem to always outweigh the bad. Thanks for the suggestion.

simpleinterest, I find difficult decisions are helped by writing down the pluses and minuses of the alternatives, in life, including boating. It is amazing how the focus clears when you do it, and if you still can`t decide, it often means either alternative is fine.

ksanders, I suspect we will confine our travels to intercostal waters up and down the eastern seaboard. Perhaps venture into the Gulf. Not sure what kind of boat I need but will work on that over the summer. I will likely look for a used boat, don't want to take the depreciation hit since my plans are to keep the boat only 2-3 years. Seems like a lot of decent boats on the market for approximately $100,000 or less but I guess you have to be careful in your choices. I do appreciate your feedback and comments.

Chartering is a great way to start out in the cruising "world." We tried it to see if we even liked the experience, and this convinced us that we did and also led us to the type of boat that would suit us best in this region. That was seventeen years ago and we've never regretted our decisions since.

And some people end up realizing that chartering is the smarter way to go for them than buying and owning. Boats are amazingly expensive investments of time, effort, and money. A lot of people would not recoup the value of the time, effort and money it takes to own a boat year round, year after year. For them, chartering is a much better value.

For using a boat for only a couple of years, it's possible to lease boats for that duration of time. I don't know how prevalent the practice is compared to chartering, but a co-worker leased a 36' sailboat for a year, all the maintenance and upkeep costs were taken care of by the company that owned the boat, he could use it as much as he wanted, and at the end of the year he was done. No re-selling hassle, nothing.

Simple interest, you're more than welcome. Good Luck...and feel free to private message if I can be of any further help.