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Old 12-25-2019, 08:15 AM   #16
Magneto
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City: St Augustine
Vessel Name: MV Moondance
Vessel Model: Nordhavn 35#20
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 65
Thank you all for the good advise.

My first idea was to start with a smaller and older boat such as a 40 foot - 15 year old one. I see lots of these for under 500K. This was my thought a year ago but after seeing the videos of repair and maintenance typical of usage, It seems to me that the newer the boat, the less that needs replaced. I know even a brand new boat has defects but generally true?
A smaller and less expensive boat is most likely where we will start out in. It just seems that every time we search the market, we end up with something around 50 foot or more to give us the comfort of full time live aboard.
We have been living full time in our 35 foot motor home and traveling the country. We consider this our land yacht and even though its apples and oranges to a boat; their both fruit. We are acclimating ourselves to living in this confined space. We love it and have no problem with spending the next 3 years RVing full time seeing the land side of the USA. We've learned the size vs comfort lesson. A large bathroom, kitchen and bed are important to us. We have already sold everything including our house to do this and so far have no regrets.
We want to have enough room to accommodate a captain and two crew which we may hire for difficult passages. Also to accommodate friends and family from time to time. We want to be able to handled the boat by ourselves for when we want to be alone. One example we like to follow is the couple aboard Sea Venture. They are in my age group and seem to do very well. Another good point for a newer boat is the controls for positioning with bow and stern thrusters along with navigational software makes this even easier with today's electronics.
Don't get me wrong, we are not going from RV to a 60 foot new trawler in 3 years. We have already begun lining up charters with various boats for both pleasure and training both in the Caribbean for one season and in the Mediterranean for another. It seems you have to plan this a year or more ahead to reserve the best times so we're on it now.
Also to be clear, I have no experience with boats over 30 feet in salt or fresh water except for deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida from which I am from. But I'm a quick study and have owned small boats all my life and operated them in and off shore in FL. I've been caught is storms while in the Gulf stream in waves that seem like mountains dwarfing our 30 foot fishing boat. It's moments like that makes you wish you were in a 60 foot Nordhavn. A rogue wave nearly ended my life that day.
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