Newbie Questions ??

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Marin said:
Trekker--- Something you might want to consider before getting all wrapped around the axle on trying to decide what kind of boat, how big of a boat, blah, blah, blah ad infinitum, is charter one somewhere for a week or two. Particularly if you are unfamiliar with this kind of boating but have a good friend who is and who will split the charter with you.

While chartering isn't cheap, it's damn near free compared to the purchase price of even an older used cruiser and worse, the annual ownership costs of these kinds of boats that never stop as long as you own the boat.

Chartering gives you the opportunity to see if you like this kind of boating and this kind of boat with no risk to you and no obligation other than paying the charter fee.

On the advice of a good friend and long-time boater that's what we did when, inspired by countless trips flying a floatplane up and down the Inside Passage, my wife and I began thinking it might be fun and a whole new kind of adventure to explore the same area by boat.

Chartering convinced us that we liked being out on the water in this way and that a cruising boat was what we wanted. So we bought one and 14 years later here we are sitting on it in a beautiful tiny bay all by ourselves this weekend out in the San Juan Islands; we still enjoy the hell out of using it year round just as much today as we did the first year we had it.

Chartering in my opinion is the best way for a "newbie" to discover for him/her self if this kind of boating and boat is right for them.
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I second Marin's suggestion about chartering with a BIG thumbs up. Worked for us perfectly.

And yes, you will be having work done to your boat forever, how much only depends on your pride of ownership level, seaworthiness and safety concerns. Believe it or not, based on what we ended up buying, we fully support the "Don't buy the biggest boat you can afford, buy the smallest boat YOU can be comfortable in" dictum from Skipper Bob. It is a very personal decision, as is the definition of "comfortable". Only by spending extended time on the water cruising in different boats will tell you this with certainty.

If you only really boat a total of a month or so every year, renting/chartering is by far the cheapest way to go. You can get a captained charter the first few times, and learn a lot, especially if you take care to hire someone who is a professional teacher of new boaters.
 
bobsyiruncle said:
Trekker
If you are a bit of a gambler this one will probably go for 25 to 30 . It needs someone local to look at it for basics but if you have a flunkie to redo the teak and can put up with a single engine this is a huge amount of boat for the dollar. Shop around you will start to see more than I do - real buyers are a scarce and valuable commodity

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/list...access=Public&listing_id=77020&url=&imc=pg-fs
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With all due respect, the pictures on this boat tell a different story.

Good hull, engine barely broken in (if hour meter is correct) but the house and cabin top are full of rot and will probably need to be re-cored. Given the rot in the house, the balsa decks are no doubt soggy and need replacement also.

The tanks are probably rusted from deck leaks and needing replacement. Savable, but it needs a lot more than the exterior teak varnished....
 
SeaMoose said:
Hello Trekker
I am just to the West of you at Anchor Pointe Marina. The boat market in our area couldn't be better for a buyer. The majority of the boats for sale are "go-fasts" with large gas guzzling engines (A 40' "Express Cruiser" consumes up to 40, 50 gallons of fuel per hour). If you're going to use the boat as a floating condo and take occasional trips these represent great value for the money.

The selection of trawlers for sale is very small but they are out there.

Next door to me at Mienke Marina East is a 34' Marine Trader that the couple bought, spent a lot of money on to do the Great Loop, and for reasons unknown to me never went. It's been on the hard about six years now under shrink wrap. It is on Yachtworld with a single tiny picture. I suspect they would entertain just about any offer.

Anchor Pointe has a good Marine Mechanic (Ask for Rich and tell him Alan told you to call you). Bob Jenson, who has a phenomenal woodworking shop near the Marina does fantastic work on boat systems. Anyone at the Marina can find Bob for you. These guys could help you get it going if the price is right.

You'll have a hard time finding a surveyor in our area that knows anything about trawlers. The one I hired absolutely sucked, and cost me $500 for nothing.

If you decided to look at it, I'd be happy to offer advice as I know these boats inside and out, having spent nine years restoring mine. Until June I can be found most Saturdays in Building #2 at Anchor Pointe, finishing the Fall/Spring projects I have going, after that I am at dock I-35.

Good Luck, perhaps we will meet at Kelley's, or Put in Bay, or Middle Bass :)

Alan Robbins
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Thanks a lot for the heads up. Searched Y World, and was unable to locate the boat. Would like to check it out for sure.
 
trekker said:
Thanks a lot for the heads up. Searched Y World, and was unable to locate the boat. Would like to check it out for sure.
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Drive over to Anchor Pointe (Off Corduroy road just East of Route 2), there's a long row of boats stored at Meinke, it's in the front row. Can't miss it.

I don't know the owner but have heard the story of the boat from a few people.

The folks at Mienke can probably fill you in.

It being a long Winter I haven't been down there yet, hope to be there on Saturday.
 
good point from Sea Moose. When we bought our boat it had been listed for a month. :)
 
Sea moose says 70 and I agree but would add "don't come up"
It is only a single and a Perkinss and high hours, none of which are that bad but not so common or popular. Inside is just a tad tight because of the quasi cockpit

You might want to get on board a few to get a better feel before offering on any

Best wishes Bob
 
SeaMoose said:
If the boat has been on the market for any length of time I'd start at 70
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Yep, totally agree. The boat market is illiquid, a boat is worth exactly what someone will pay.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle
 
Here in Florida we had a broker pass by and his claim was the TOP of the market has returned and is hot!
 
FF said:
Here in Florida we had a broker pass by and his claim was the TOP of the market has returned and is hot!
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The sad thing is that there are probably a few folks who actually believe him.
 
We looked at two. :) Bought the second one and haven't looked back. We did look at tons online and this is our fifth boat so we knew what we wanted. :). Happy hunting.
 
We looked at a lot of boats but when I saw this one it talked to me. It was priced right so made a full price offer. No regrets.
 
The boat we bought last fall had been for sale for three years. Marina staff told us a guy showed up a couple weeks ago and let out a few choice words when he saw the FOR SALE sign gone. Apparently he planned to let the owners sweat it out for a forth winter without selling it, then sweep in for the kill. Sucks to be him :D

Aim to be like Craig...no regrets.
 
Bottom feeders!!!!!!!!!! We had a guy last month offer 750 on a home we had for sale. We basically told him to take a hike. He called back in a couple of weeks, and said he wanted to talk some more. We said we have a contract on the unit. He said what if I bring my offer up to 950, We said that is exactly what the contract amount is.

Sometimes when you snooze you lose.
 
Are there any books I should be reading to educate myself on some of the things I would need to know to operate a boat in the 30-40 range. Also, what kind of safe boating, or navigational classes would You folks advise Me to invest in.

Thanks.
 
trekker said:
Are there any books I should be reading to educate myself on some of the things I would need to know to operate a boat in the 30-40 range. Also, what kind of safe boating, or navigational classes would You folks advise Me to invest in.

Thanks.
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Your local Coast Guard Auxiliary gives a good basic course that everyone should take - in some states it's required. I read a lot of boating books in the beginning, they taught me a lot but I learned the most simply talking to other boaters. We're a friendly bunch, for the most part.

Most important skill in my opinion? Being able to navigate using Dead Reckoning, and most important staying in practice. Even when I go places I have been a dozen times, I still keep a DR log and determine my position without electronic help - I check my skills against the chart plotter. There's nothing worse than being lost on the water, and electronics do break.

Next, learn the boat well enough that if something does break, you might be able to fix it.
 
Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship is a very good well rounded and up to date book. There are others. Can be bought at West Marine and many boating or book stores.
 
trekker said:
Are there any books I should be reading to educate myself on some of the things I would need to know to operate a boat in the 30-40 range. .
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There are a zillion books. While I don't personally have much use for it a good place for a total newbie to start might be Chapmans. A lot of really basic stuff in there which, if one is totally unfamiliar with the boating world, can be useful. But if you've had any boating experience at all, I think Chapmans immediately takes on a "See Spot Run" aspect and is far too basic and generic to be of any real value anymore. Like a lot of "everything in it" research books, Chapmans has a habit of telling you everything except what you actually want to know.

There a lot of books on navigation. Nigel Calder's "How to Read a Nautical Chart" is a good one to start with.

"The Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring" by Earl Hinz is the best book out there on this particular subject.

"The Radar Book" by Kevin Monohan is a good book on the art of using and interpreting a radar system.

There are a number of books on GPS navigation. We don't have any since we already knew how to do it when we got the GB but others may suggest some for you.

Nigel Calder's "Marine Diesel Maintenance, Troublshooting, and Repair" is an excellent book on diesels and a good one to give you a basic understanding of these kinds of powerplants.

And there may be good books about the area(s) you plan to boat in. For example there are two excellent cruising guides for this area (and a lot of not-so-excellent ones) and these can be great sources of information about what you will encounter when you start boating as well as whet your appetite for places you would like to see and things you'd like to do.

And don't overlook books about the history of the area(s) you plan to boat in. Up here, the BC coast, aka "BC raincoast," has fascinated me ever since I first saw it from the deck of a ship in 1977 going down the Inside Passage. The region has a fascinating and well-documented history, and reading about it simply makes us that much more eager to go out and explore it by boat. For example reading a great book about the Union Steamship Company which served the raincoast communities from the late 1800s into the mid-1900s has given us the dream of someday retracing every one of their lower BC and Inside Passage routes. Who knows if we'll ever do it but it's a cool goal to have. Things like this have a way of keeping one's enthusiasm for boating at its maximum for a long, long time.

As to classes, my wife and I took the USCG Auxilliary boating class when we got our first boat back in 1987. Excellent, multi-week class with guest speakers from NOAA, the University of Washington Schoool of Medicine, and the USCG on weather, hypothermia, navigation, and other topics. I have been told--- but have not had the direct experience to confirm or deny this--- that the USCG Aux class is considerably superior to the Power Squadron class, but this may vary greatly from region to region.
 
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And speaking of Trekker, if you (Trekker) happen to end up with a boat with a bunch of exterior teak trim on it an excellent book on the art of maintaining it is "Brightwork: The Art of Finishing Wood" by Rebecca Wittman. I believe it is out of print and the prices being charged by used bookstores can be pretty staggering for some mysterious reason. But if you search around you might be able to get it for something approaching its original cover price, which I recall from our copy was some $25 or $30 or thereabouts.
 
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Thanks Marin,
I just ordered 4 books from Amazon, didn't find the "radar" author you suggested but found something as good I think, "Adlard Coles Book Of Radar".

That will give me plenty of material to study while I'm looking for a boat.

Cheers
Robbie
 
robbie said:
Thanks Marin,
I just ordered 4 books from Amazon, didn't find the "radar" author you suggested....
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That's probably because I led you astray with the spelling. The author is Kevin Monahan, not Monohan as I first posted. Sorry about that. I just looked and his book is listed on Amazon.

Let us know what you think of Cole's book on radar. I have not heard of that one before.

Enjoy your reading and your boat search.
 
No Problem, I'll let you know once I've had a browse.
 
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