'We sold everything to do this and lost it in 20 minutes'

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CaptRonn

CaptRonn

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Couple sailboat rescued lose everything boat sinks | Daily Mail Online

You might say this couple sold themselves down the river.

Tanner Broadwell, 26, and Nikki Walsh, 24, sold everything they owned in Colorado to buy a sailboat and live their best lives on the open sea, but that dream life was short-lived when their houseboat sank off the coast of Florida on Wednesday.

The couple was only two days into the adventure of a lifetime, when they're dream boat hit something in the water, and capsized, leaving everything but the dog, a little cash and their social security cards to float away, at their fingertips.

'I sold everything I had to do this,' Broadwell told the Tampa Bay Times, 'and I lost everything in a matter of 20 minutes.'
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Wow! There is SO much wrong with this! Ok... first... they have been watching WAY too much YouTube. Second, a $5000 boat? Enough said. Third, ZERO boating experience and navigating at 9pm. Fourth, no insurance? WTF? Fifth, no savings and now have $90 to their name. SMH.

You know, I want to pigeon-hole them as typical millennials, but that a little unfair. Still... if the shoe fits. I hope they learn from this and try to get their life together before trying to live a dream like this. I do lay a lot of the blame on the YouTubers that post highly edited videos that make sailing the Caribbean look like a walk in the park. Never over estimate the intelligence of the general public.
 
Tom.B said:
Wow! There is SO much wrong with this! Ok... first... they have been watching WAY too much YouTube. Second, a $5000 boat? Enough said. Third, ZERO boating experience and navigating at 9pm. Fourth, no insurance? WTF? Fifth, no savings and now have $90 to their name. SMH.

You know, I want to pigeon-hole them as typical millennials, but that a little unfair. Still... if the shoe fits. I hope they learn from this and try to get their life together before trying to live a dream like this. I do lay a lot of the blame on the YouTubers that post highly edited videos that make sailing the Caribbean look like a walk in the park. Never over estimate the intelligence of the general public.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I think you’re right though.
 
Tom.B said:
I do lay a lot of the blame on the YouTubers that post highly edited videos that make sailing the Caribbean look like a walk in the park.
Click to expand...

I watch some of those videos for just that reason. With a a good bit of experience (not expertise, by any stretch), it's obvious to me when some of the stuff they "present" in the videos are really sort of staged, or otherwise would not have happened as they show. Or that their latest "mechanical breakdown" would have obviously been imminent/preventable to someone who was prudent with preventive inspections and maintenance.

Armchair quarterbacking, you know....:D
 
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It was later reported that the couple was seen hanging about endlessly, seemingly waiting for something. When approached, their apparent confusion was explained, “Don’t we still get our participation trophy?”
 
Sadly Facebook posts are even more critical but likely deserved. Now just wait for the "Go Fund Me" account to be set up to dig them out. I feel bad for them, but............
 
I am trying to be sensitive and sympathetic, especially since they are so young and inexperienced---but---I wish that all my losses in life could be as small as 20 thousand dollars in total. If a fortune teller told me that the worst thing that would ever happen to me for the rest of my life was that I would lose 20K I would be a very happy man!
 
Like basing your life plans on "reality TV" shows.

Really we should allow the Darwin effect much greater opportunity to thin the herd.

Bet they thought they could fund their lifestyle taking their houseboat between Columbia and the Keys.
 
virtual world meets real world?

There are some sailors on the U tube with horror stories, sinking at anchor, vomit, redeck jobs in the rain, condensation and mold all winter, etc. We all need to see those too; keeps the wide eyed expectations in balance.
 
I’m hung up on the $90 part. Unless they were stocked with provisions and floating endlessly, how where they going to clear in anywhere? Bahamas and Mexico both cost more than that.

And they are not allowed to legally work in alot of the countries w/o work permits, which are rarely granted. We have seen this alot. A few Facebook posts about a cruiser earning money and trouble is had. How where they going to pay for anything.

When I was there age, I too probably would have rather gone sailing then preparing for the future....

Hopefully some will learn from their mistakes.
 
Tom.B said:
a $5000 boat? Enough said.
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what should it have been? higher or lower:lol:

My very first boat was a BW16 at $1600 with trailer. No insurance. In todays $ that would have been over $10,000. Course, I was not about to live on it.:flowers:
 
moron millennial's

Not to mention that was a SAILBOAT not a houseboat, I wonder how much of the other info was bad.
HOLLYWOOD
 
we took the boat around to the town dock to get something eat and pump it out . we where standing on the dock and a young man rowed up in a small dingy looking for work he said he was anchored in the harbor . I pointed at a trawler being unloaded and said ask them I'm new here. I hope the boat and the ground tackle looked a lot better than that dingy. it was a week before that 0 deg weather we had too.
 
Lots of perfectly good under $5k sailboats available.

Pretty hard to imagine hitting something at the speed that boat could go, and tear the keel off.

They're at an appropriate age to do really silly things, not plan, learn, suffer setbacks and pick themselves up.
 
Tom.B said:
You know, I want to pigeon-hole them as typical millennials, but that a little unfair. Still... if the shoe fits. I hope they learn from this and try to get their life together before trying to live a dream like this. I do lay a lot of the blame on the YouTubers that post highly edited videos that make sailing the Caribbean look like a walk in the park. Never over estimate the intelligence of the general public.
Click to expand...

Please don't use the phrase "typical millennials." There are many smart, hard-working young people in this world. Spacex is almost exclusively a company made up of millennials and look at what they did this week. Let alone almost every member of the military, every professional athlete, every Olympian, and probably the people that designed and built the hardware and software you're using right now.

"Lazy, coddled millennials" is a meme that needs to die right now.
 
"They do know one thing: this isn't the last of their adventures at sea "

Really.
 
VicTrawler said:
Please don't use the phrase "typical millennials." There are many smart, hard-working young people in this world. Spacex is almost exclusively a company made up of millennials and look at what they did this week. Let alone almost every member of the military, every professional athlete, every Olympian, and probably the people that designed and built the hardware and software you're using right now.

"Lazy, coddled millennials" is a meme that needs to die right now.
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I think that "meme" is here for a reason there is a high percentage of them around. but as you stated not all of them.
 
Millennials? Anybody that didn’t do spectacularly stupid stuff when you were young and adventurous raise your hand. Definitely not a series of choices anyone with life experience would make but invoking Darwin is a little harsh. If they don’t learn from this and try it again, then, yeah . . . Darwin.

I do think planning like this is where a lot of derelict boats come from. Fortunately these folks will get to tell their grandkids “what we’re we thinking!??!”
 
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Maybe the money they get from the inevitable Go-Fund Me account will let them get a better boat, which will allow them to sink even more spectacularly, perhaps getting even more coverage allowing a new funding plea. In a year or two their boat will be better than yours......
 
I agree that they were foolish and maybe naive. But considering/remembering some of the stunts my friends and I pulled, and now look back at and thank our lucky stars we are still here through no skill of our own, give them a break.

They were saved, got the dog, and are young enough they will learn and go on.
 
Greetings,
While a foolish and ill planned "adventure", some of you have mentioned youthful "high jinks" AND no lives were lost. This, I think, is the crux of the matter.
It's quite easy to criticize, poo-poo and condemn but what a life's experience. Not necessarily a good one but...
 
At that age, I bought an old wooden snapper boat for $9k, cruised all over, lived on it and took a lot of stupid chances. No insurance. If it sunk or burned, I would have eaten the loss. No big deal. Sold the boat four years later for $4k. Best money I've ever spent.

Those two will get jobs, work for a year or two and try again. Don't see a dang thing wrong with that.
 
I hope my wife doesn't see this .I'll never get her to let me sell the house so we can live on the boat. she has already said "what if the boat sinks". I'll probably have to work 15 more years anyway.
 
lol I think she was thinking of without us on it. the whole not having a home to come back to thing. I told her we could buy another boat with the insurance money .so far I am loosing the argument . I hope to convince her in the next ten years .
 
angus99 said:
Millennials? Anybody that didn’t do spectacularly stupid stuff when you were young and adventurous raise your hand. Definitely not a series of choices anyone with life experience would make but invoking Darwin is a little harsh. If they don’t learn from this and try it again, then, yeah . . . Darwin.

I do think planning like this is where a lot of derelict boats come from. Fortunately these folks will get to tell their grandkids “what we’re we thinking!??!”
Click to expand...

yep....

as I got older and more and more scared as a senior rescue helo pilot..... :)

every time the phone woke me up to scramble at 0200, I often thought about invoking the Darwin system of rescue...but of course I didnt and who knows who is here because of that or someone some TFer knows.
 
Ski in NC said:
Those two will get jobs, work for a year or two and try again. Don't see a dang thing wrong with that.
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As long as we don't have to pay for their lack of preparedness and insurance and their actions don't affect our safety have at it.

Unfortunately in many cases there is a cost to the rest of us.
Rescues,cleanup etc don't come cheap.
 
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