Navigating the world starting in 3 years

Hello everyone!
Retirement for my wife and I begins in 3 years and we have decided to purchase a trawler to travel the world in. The wisdom and experience here is truly amazing from what I have read so far. We are seeking help and advice on the many subjects that are required to get there and we encourage all that read this introduction to follow the thread I create so I can tap in the ocean of knowledge and experience you have here.

I have a lot of small power boat experience and owned one sailboat. I am an electrical controls engineer so I know my way around electrical systems and plan on expanding my knowledge with ship systems. My wife shares the adventure spirit I have and is the perfect mate to endure long days and nights at sea between anchorages.

My first question is where is the best forum to post my adventure plans and to start with; discuss the three trawler brands we are looking at. I plan to name the thread Nordhavn vs Fleming vs Kady Krogen.

Thanks for this forum.
Cheers
John & Carol

Welcome aboard.

I think you are in the right place. Post your questions. These guys have been around and know their stuff.

Magneto, remember, opinions are like ........, everyone has one.

What minimum length are you considering?

Don't ignore custom built or conversions. If you are serious about cruising the world you may find the gem that you need in that area.

Or Seahorse Marine Diesel Duck. Could have a new one built in the time you have before retirement and pick it up in China and be halfway round the world all ready.

Terry

Welcome to the forum!

You don't know what you don't know.

It's an ambitious goal that should probably be approached in steps. I would suggest a few charters of boats in the size you're considering, maybe get some instruction from a qualified blue water cruiser. This doesn't necessarily mean changing your timetable. Hopefully it will give you the experience to ask the questions you currently aren't aware of.

Ted

The right trawler for us

Thank you all for your input on this Christmas eve.
I do plan on charter for various boats in many different waters as we get closer to our goal.
I feel three years out is a good beginning to get this started.
I have budget plans in excess of a million and being a Electrical Controls Engineer, I have the ability to plan according to the task at hand. I would like to detail all this in the General Forum because of the amount of uses watching and following. (I'm assuming this).
I will detail the specifications I am hard with and those that I'm soft with.

So I invite everyone to the General forum where I would love to discuss your opinions on the three trawlers: Nordhavn vs Fleming vs Kady Krogen.
(Give me a half hour to post)

Cheers
John & Carol
________________
If you wait until you can afford to do what you dream,
then you will never do what you dream.

hydraulic stabilizers a must IMO
Water maker, a must
SSB or Sat phone
Naturally aspirated engine(s). Fewer things go wrong that need diagnostic instruments.
Take a course on basic repair of the engine(s) and generator, the navigation system you will have.
Charter Captained boats ..... for maneuvering in confined areas.
Get your spouse involved in all aspects of the training.
Get some premium first aid training and equipment necessary. There are services that have a doctor on call 24 hours a day.
diving equipment and training, shallow water
That's a start.

John
Welcome aboard TF
You have an aggressive goal but it sounds like you are approaching it realistically. Your background should be a great start.
I will be interested in following your story as it unfolds.
My background is planning and managing technical projects and from my experience cruising good planning pays off with smooth(er) cruising experiences.
I also found that writing my plans down helped me organize and solidify my plans.... I wrote 3 articles for our local chapter of Americas Boating Club on our 2019 summer cruise and I think it helped me as much as it did others.
Happy to share if interested.

Magneto
Suggest you read the last decade of the SetSail website by Steve Dashew. Navigation, weather, storms and boating minutiae par excellence are addressed in his books. Plus he has built the penultimate sailing and power boats for those with a certain bent and budget.

Your perspective on blue water cruising will likely change a lot after spending a few weeks on his site.

Magneto said:

I have a lot of small power boat experience and owned one sailboat....My wife shares the adventure spirit I have and is the perfect mate to endure long days and nights at sea...

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This caught my eye. You sound a bit like me when I first bought our boat (except for the big $$ budget [emoji51]).

I THOUGHT my wife shared my same sense of adventure and would be ready to go wherever, but we didn’t have enough “big boat” experience to really know what we liked. Turns out my wife doesn’t like open water cruising very much (being out of sight of land makes her nervous), and she basically refuses to do overnight runs. It also turns out that I get kind of tired of living on our boat after about a month. You and your wife are probably different and more ready for the adventure than we were, but I’m just relaying my experience.

Cardude's experience mirrors my own. Twenty years ago my wife and I at the age of 42/53 quit our jobs and bought a very nice blue water capable sailboat- 43' and new. We sailed from Annapolis to LI Sound with the expectations of doing the Caribbean in a year or so but there she said no.

So we regrouped, downsized a bit to save a hundred k$ or so and started again, this time with no blue water illusions. We sailed from Tampa where we bought the next boat down to the keys, to the Abacos for three months then up the coast to Maine eventually. We had a great time. She wasn't always comfortable- hated overnights but tolerated them and hated beating to windward in 25 kts, but we didn't do that very often.

After a year or so of this we reentered the working life and finally became trawler owners. But the same story could be told starting with a Nordhavn and downsizing to a little smaller Mainship. BTW from my experience a 43' Nordhavn has about the same living space as a Mainship 40.

David

cardude01 said:

I THOUGHT my wife shared my same sense of adventure and would be ready to go wherever, but we didn’t have enough “big boat” experience to really know what we liked. Turns out my wife doesn’t like open water cruising very much (being out of sight of land makes her nervous), and she basically refuses to do overnight runs. It also turns out that I get kind of tired of living on our boat after about a month. You and your wife are probably different and more ready for the adventure than we were, but I’m just relaying my experience.

Click to expand...

I've met more than a few couples that didn't share the same sentiments when it came to boating, eventually leading to a boat sale at a financial loss.

I definitely do not see my wife and I living on a boat for any extended period of time. Both of us love getting out on the boat but being in close quarters ALL THE TIME would drive us both crazy.

There's a lot to be said for things like the Loop or ICW trips as a 'proving grounds' for actually living aboard full time. As in a known temporary excursion versus a "sell everything and go" commitment.

With 3 year plans such as yours, there will be changes to the plan as you progress. Keep options open and not stubbornly stick to the plan. After all, this is supposed to be a recreational endeavor and fun.

Be wary of advice from boat brokers, equipment manufacturers, dealers, friends, forums etc. It's you responsibility to wade through the information and recognize BS and bad advice. It seems like everyone that owns a boat becomes instant experts.

And if you decide after a few years that cruising/liveaboard is not for you, there is nothing wrong with reevaluating the options.

We certainly went from ambitious plans to semi ambitious to relaxed cruising.

When we first started big boat boating in the 80's, we had ambitious plans. Cruising from the PNW to Panama, Bahamas, loop etc. And maybe further. We retired in our 40's and almost sold our house in the early 90's to buy a new KK 42 and start the cruising/liveaboard lifestyle. We found that we were not ready to move aboard full time.

We lived on Sandpiper, a 40 foot PH trawler, for about 20 months when we were building our current home in the early 2000's - two winters. It was fun but we realized that we wanted more space and "stuff".

We spent summers cruising the inside passage annually for around 18 years and prior to that spent three weeks every year cruising San Juan's, Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound in our 34' Mainship for 13 years. We learned early that two months was enough time to be on the boat for us so we spent the summer in the Broughtons instead of further north. We also learned that we enjoyed being on the hook for 5 - 6 days in one spot, fishing, prawning, crabbing, sailing, kayaking etc. We've also came to a conclusion that we've done enough long underway days for the time being.

For the last three years, instead of making the trek to the Broughtons, we spent two months in the San Juan's and Gulf Islands alternating anchoring for 5 - 6 days and two days at a dock. We are finding that to be relaxing and more like a vacation. All of our friends that we cruised to the Broughtons with are getting old and no longer boat or cruise any major distance. We learned that we liked being by ourselves but not 100%.

That was our experience. Yours will be totally different. Just because people like myself and others never made the dream trip because of various reasons or excuses does not mean that you won't. Don't let us discourage you from your dream

So in conclusion, I hope you do fulfill your plan and cruise to far off places. But keep your mind and options open.

Boating is a fluid lifestyle.

While all advice goes somewhere...sometimes if your goal is ambitious, so then your plans might be too.

Local and near coastal cruising can be pretty low key.

Crossing oceans can be too, if any outcome is OK with you.

But if like some cruisers, becoming proficient in handling emergencies from damage control, mechanical breakdowns to medical energencies.....it can take years of preparation and training depending on current skill levels.

So depending on just how short or long a prep time you are willing to set aside may determine how aggressive your plans should be.

I would start a long running thread in "Voyagers and other boater on the go" forum (here on TF) and let it state your plans and collect input.

psneeld, Years? Could be but, let's untie and remember, if anything is going to happen, it will happen out there. LOL

Life is what happens while we are making plans.

Coyote65 said:

Or Seahorse Marine Diesel Duck. Could have a new one built in the time you have before retirement and pick it up in China and be halfway round the world all ready.

Terry

Click to expand...

Yes, a DD 382 or 462, steel-hulled, would be just the ticket.

OldDan1943 said:

psneeld, Years? Could be but, let's untie and remember, if anything is going to happen, it will happen out there. LOL

Life is what happens while we are making plans.

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And often life ends for those who didn't plan enough.


Crossing an ocean for an experienced crew on an experienced vessel is quite different than the average dreamer starting out with the idea...

psneeld said:

And often life ends for those who didn't plan enough.

Crossing an ocean for an experienced crew on an experienced vessel is quite different than the average dreamer starting out with the idea...

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The first time you drove across country, did you spend years, planning?
ROAD TRIP
Change of underwear and a map..... been there done that.
I never did learn how to fold the map properly.

OldDan1943 said:

The first time you drove across country, did you spend years, planning?
ROAD TRIP
Change of underwear and a map..... been there done that.
I never did learn how to fold the map properly.

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Dan, Dan, Dan - A road excursion [in any scale or intensity] is simply not in the same level of learning, planning or capability as compared to large scale [or even medium large scale] boating!

Art said:

Dan, Dan, Dan - A road excursion [in any scale or intensity] is simply not in the same level of learning, planning or capability as compared to large scale [or even medium large scale] boating!

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Naturally, I would highly recommend taking a few courses ie. boat handling especially in confined spaces and navigation, basic maintenance of the engines on board. After he buys the boat, a Captained cruise.... to pick his brain.

psneeld said:

And often life ends for those who didn't plan enough.


Crossing an ocean for an experienced crew on an experienced vessel is quite different than the average dreamer starting out with the idea...

Click to expand...

On an experienced vessel ??

bogranjac1 said:

On an experienced vessel ??

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Yep, and experienced cruisers know what I mean.

Before this gets too far off track...

All I am saying is that if you follow one school of thought in prepping for ocean crossings( the path often suggested at Safety at Sea national level seminars)...prep time fills and goes by quickly and isn't just a handful of short local shakedown cruises....it can be pretty intense.

John,
Sounds like my wife and I are on the exact same schedule! Retire in three years and go - maybe not around the world but certainly the entire east coast and islands. My budget is not quite the same but close. We have looked extensively at Kady's, Nordhavn and Fleming in addition to many others. We seem to have settled on the F55 and are just back from a sea trial in Stuart last week. To be fair you should take a close look at the Krogan Express which has the same hull and twin engine as the Fleming. I'd love for us to keep tabs on each other to see how each ends up. Cheers and welcome aboard!!

Cross oceans on a Krogen Express? [emoji15]