Boating with Stu and Pid.

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PierreR

Guru
Joined
Oct 7, 2022
Messages
582
Vessel Name
Mar Azul
Vessel Make
1977 Hatteras 42 LRC
You would think after 60 years of boating that I would leave those two characters ashore but that does not seem to be the case. Stu and Pid love my company. I purchased my boat cheap two years ago. I bought the right boat, at the right price and had the money, talent and time to make the boat like I wanted it or so I thought. I love to tinker and work on boats but there comes a time when one needs to use them.
What I forgot is that I am not 40. The first year I needed a total right shoulder rotator cuff rebuild, I through that and this year I find out I am bone on bone in the right knee. I take two steps forward and one back. Things are taking much longer to complete than I had imagined. A one year project is now stretching towards three. Three times the number of hours I figured and twice the money in parts. To be honest though I have used the boat for over 5,000 miles in the last two years.
Here is where Stu and Pid get involved. Last week Momma tells me that we lost more $ in one week than the whole boat completed project! My reactiion! "DON'T TELL THAT G# SHT! YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT CHEAP BSTD LIVING IN A SCARCITY MENTALITY" Did I really need to know that!
Okay that does it. She put a mirror in front of my face reminding me that the clock is ticking faster at 70 yo. My fantastic project looks a bit STU-PID. I have the talent and the desire for the project. I have hired nothing done and will have spent $50k in parts by the time I have it done. I figure I have another 400 hours at my current rate. At that point, every system will have been rebuilt in this boat. I am now torn between finishing it or writing a few checks and hiring some work done. My knee replacement is scheduled for April 2 and we plan on leaving with the boat around July 15 on a loop.
What would you do in the same situation? I don't trust and don't know how to hire the work done. I love the work but my body does not. We plan on putting only about 10k more miles on the boat in the next 3-4 years and then selling.
 
I can't tell you what you ought to do, but I'll keep a close eye on the thread. I'm currently working with the same two guys and looking forward to a partial knee replacement Jan 15th. Love the boat and enjoy the projects, but at 71, a long day is about 5 hours which kind of makes a mess of my time to completion estimates.
Best wishes for a good outcome.
 
In my situation, my ability to write checks is increasing as my ability and time to finish projects is decreasing. I'm writing more checks.
 
I was still rebuilding my boat after 10 years of living aboard and cruising over 20,000 miles snowbirding. As long as the engine ran, I cruised. Granted most things worked, but they were nursed along mile by mile an replace, rebuilt, upgraded as I went.

I felt cruising was more important than any given system.... some were critical and were fixed before casting off, but most weren't so off I went anyhow.
 
Sounds like you are doing just fine, got way more miles than me. I like to avoid paying for stuff that I can do myself also. But I also know when to spend so's I don't hurt myself.

Hospital time is way more expensive than boat labor - :)
 
In my situation, my ability to write checks is increasing as my ability and time to finish projects is decreasing. I'm writing more checks.

I do like that turn of phrase. I'll likely steal it and reuse it one day and forget attribution. Fair warning, and thanks. :)
 
My boat will not be done when I leave July 15th for a complete loop. Probably 6,500 miles. The biggest expense will be dockage by far. My wife is partially disabled, cannot use a dinghy and needs to get regular movement exercise to keep from becoming immobile. Marinas probably 5 days a week.
I will be working on it as we travel.
I talk about writing checks but getting someone to work on a boat sounds like the stuff nightmares are made of. Loopers sitting for weeks or even months waiting for parts and someone to fix their boat. No thanks, the longest that I sat was two days waiting for parts and fixed it immediately upon getting the parts. I cannot imagine feeling that dependent on someone else for my trip.
This summer I had over 600 pounds of tools and spares on board.
 
Just keep going. The knee should be a piece of cake in comparison to the shoulder. Be cautious and spend time planning to lessen surprises.. Tank anything home that you can work on as you rehab on the knee. Throw away your wife's mirror or tell her you will turn it around and shove it in her face the next time she pulls that crap.. your only as old as you feel.
The solution seems a no brainier to me..
1.- fix knee
2.- Go boating
Hollywood
 
Just keep going. The knee should be a piece of cake in comparison to the shoulder. Be cautious and spend time planning to lessen surprises.. Tank anything home that you can work on as you rehab on the knee. Throw away your wife's mirror or tell her you will turn it around and shove it in her face the next time she pulls that crap.. your only as old as you feel.
The solution seems a no brainier to me..
1.- fix knee
2.- Go boating
Hollywood
You make a point. I am more or less thinking that after April 2 and before mid June I will be useless. That may not be the case and there is plenty of stuff I can do at home in the shop and install on the boat in short order before leaving. There is a lot of dead space in the boat that can be turned into storage. Storage and safety items are the most labor intensive footage on any boat.
Right now I have the engine gear-driven air compressors at home for rebuilding, new governors and tachometer pulse modulators.
 
What would you do in the same situation? I don't trust and don't know how to hire the work done. I love the work but my body does not. We plan on putting only about 10k more miles on the boat in the next 3-4 years and then selling.
I would wait till I'm younger to take on any more serious boat projects.

My second observation is do you prefer to work on the boat or cruise them? I have my doubts, as you already have your exit plan marked on the calendar.

If you're still reading this, it's time to break out the check book and get some help. If you don't, the cruise won't happen in 2025, or likely ever, as noted in the second paragraph.

You're not going to be happy with the work as you could do it better, and it will cost too much. But, you will get to do the Loop. I know of 3 people so far (not including you) who bought boats to Loop with and waited too long.

Time isn't on your side. The game is almost over, you're at the 2 minute timeout, break out the check book, or sell the boat.

Ted
 
I’m thinking about what a couple of my older friends said recently. They said don’t wait to do your traveling. Do it now, while you still feel up to it. It’s hard enough to do now, and if you wait till you’re older it may become impossible.
I’m horrible at hiring things done. I’m way too critical and picky. But I’m learning to temper my expectations when hiring things out. As long as the work is done to industry standards, I can live with it.
Pick the things you might want to do yourself, and hire some things out to reduce the timeline. When the knee is ready, the boat will be too.
 
I spend my life in a Marina, around cruisers, in La Paz Mexico.

A couple of observations...

1. Cruisers age out of cruising earlier than they planned.
2. If you want to cruise your boat, and spending the money wont ruin your life, then write the checks and go cruising.
 
When the time comes sooner than I want and I write more checks and do less to maintain it I will sell the boat.
Doing my own work is part of the nostalgia of owing. Cruising is the reward.

Only once did I own two boats, mostly there was an in between. It was then that I considered chartering. Did it once and it was great. Two week cruise, return it and forget about it. That is still in the back of my mind. Other things kept me busy until next season I had to buy rather than charter.

I also find it weird that I enjoy changing the boat oil, but the car goes to jiffy lube. There has always been a satisfaction tinkering with my own boat. My last visit on board with nothing pressing to be repaired ended when the Webasto heater stopped working. I crawled into the space where little people cleverly installed it out of the way.
After a pregnant pause I retreated to debate with myself how it will be fixed...................... :oldman:
 
Write the checks! If you have a departure date in mind, don't let needed repairs get in the way of departing on schedule.
Ask on the forum who people recommend in your area for the type of work you need. Personal recommendations are priceless!
As to spares, carry as many as you have room for, but realistically, you're doing the loop, not cruising in obscure regions. We did the "Great U", from Seattle to Florida, through the Panama Canal, finishing up this last April. We carried . . . . well, a LOT of spares. Only ended up using a couple on OUR boat, but were able to help out quite a few other boaters with spares we had on hand.
We needed some refrigeration parts, and one hydraulic hose on the trip. Refrigeration parts were hard to come by, and very $$$$. We now have those spares on hand, as well as gauges and freon, which pretty much guarantees we will never need them again.
We also had WAY too much kittly litter . . . just finished using up the last of it last week, 8 months after we started our trip . . . . I've actually gotten to calling it "Ballast" instead of litter . . . . Still working on the last of the cat food we took on the trip as well.

Morale of the story, If you have have it, you may not need it, but if you need it, you'd better hope you HAVE it! But then again, you're going to be in areas where Amazon is just a few days away . . .

But time, yes, TIME . . . . . bite the bullet and pay for the repairs if you don't legitimately think you can get them done by, say 3 months before your departure date.

Best of luck in whatever you decide, and Enjoy the Loop!
 
My plans are to go whether the boat is done or not. The boat not being perfect, has not stopped the last 5,000 miles. Last summer I installed a complete autopilot system during the trip. I will concentrate on the things that are much more difficult to do while traveling.
 
Totally understand. When we headed North on our shakedown trip to Alaska from Port Orchard, WA, we had LOTS of projects to still complete. We had all the parts on hand, but finally decided if we had waited for everything to be done, we'd never leave. 4 days into the trip, the generator had a problem, so we found an anchorage, and completed the solar panel install. Lots of other stuff completed on the trip, but nothing that that prevented our leaving in the first place.
 
I was still rebuilding my boat after 10 years of living aboard and cruising over 20,000 miles snowbirding. As long as the engine ran, I cruised. Granted most things worked, but they were nursed along mile by mile an replace, rebuilt, upgraded as I went.

I felt cruising was more important than any given system.... some were critical and were fixed before casting off, but most weren't so off I went anyhow.
This is the difference between figuring out a way to cruise versus finding a reason to stay on the dock. Kudos.
 
This is the difference between figuring out a way to cruise versus finding a reason to stay on the dock. Kudos.
It never makes any sense. Life is usually lived versus planned. We do what we can do to plan and be prepared....but life finds a way of changing our plans. In some other thread I tried to get that across to a new member but was told I wasn't much help in giving that advice when searching for the right boat.

Interesting that I had far more problems with new boats (less than a year or two old, a couple straight from the factory) when doing deliveries for a dealership between NJ and Florida. All these boats had been run, tested, sea trialed, etc...etc.... and yet simple things turned from simple to annoying and even catastrophic leading to engine replacement or weeks long repairs by major engine firms.

I figured if I could just keep moving by MacGyver'ing myself along day by day...doing the right corrective actions on down times....I just might have a lot of fun and great experiences along the way.

I did. Many lifelong boating friends kept accusing me of "living the dream" while they mostly spent their free time at boat shows spending hard earned money. No convincing them because they never really learned the art of "good/safe enough" versus perfect.

I guess bottom line for me is happiness is directly proportional to life's simplicity. That's kinda why I got out of big boating cruising. Overall costs, trouble finding slips/insurance, and overwhelming maintenance on my older boat while I grew old enough to dread it caused the change in life. I downsized, got back into semi-serious fishing with a low maintenance/inexpensive to maintain boat and really don't miss the water. If I want a change of scenery, I trailer it there. I can rent a house with a boat slip for at least a week every month for the same price as dockage for my trawler. Just got back from a week in the keys and had fun cruising around and fishing. Good times still happen as long as you keep scratching that itch.
 
I'm 79. I like working on my boat but I like cruising more. I always have a list of jobs I want completed on her, usually in the twenty to thirty numbers. The list ebbs and flows but is never completed before each cruising season. Some jobs get done while others are added. Unless a job is critical towards the ability to safely cruise it can wait till after the cruising season, April to October, is over. Other than the break downs that may and at times do occur during the cruises - she is 38 years old. Up to the present I have always got by in my 60 years on the water.

Two engines gives me more latitude in this getting by but again to date only had to fall back on running on one engine once. Earlier, in my 30+ years commercial fishing, running single engine boats I as a commercial fisherman, I was only towed in for repairs once though some repairs done at sea or on the hook.

Some jobs I do myself if I have the skills to do them and can twist into the space to get it done. Others I hire out. I asked around plus use my experience in finding good skilled tradespeople. Expensive, yes, very expensive and climbing yearly. I guess when it comes the time I can't do the work or cover the cost of hiring it done it will be the time to sell her to someone that loves the cruising life as I do.

One thing I do know is life is short and it speeds up as I burn though it. No one gets out of this world alive so do what you love.
 
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I am 76. Sold my last big boat about 2 years ago. Now my cruising is done on kayaks, other people's boats, and cruise ships.

I love the lifestyle and still get a pang of joy when I think, "No more boat worries!"
 
You would think after 60 years of boating that I would leave those two characters ashore but that does not seem to be the case. Stu and Pid love my company. I purchased my boat cheap two years ago. I bought the right boat, at the right price and had the money, talent and time to make the boat like I wanted it or so I thought. I love to tinker and work on boats but there comes a time when one needs to use them.
What I forgot is that I am not 40. The first year I needed a total right shoulder rotator cuff rebuild, I through that and this year I find out I am bone on bone in the right knee. I take two steps forward and one back. Things are taking much longer to complete than I had imagined. A one year project is now stretching towards three. Three times the number of hours I figured and twice the money in parts. To be honest though I have used the boat for over 5,000 miles in the last two years.
Here is where Stu and Pid get involved. Last week Momma tells me that we lost more $ in one week than the whole boat completed project! My reactiion! "DON'T TELL THAT G# SHT! YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT CHEAP BSTD LIVING IN A SCARCITY MENTALITY" Did I really need to know that!
Okay that does it. She put a mirror in front of my face reminding me that the clock is ticking faster at 70 yo. My fantastic project looks a bit STU-PID. I have the talent and the desire for the project. I have hired nothing done and will have spent $50k in parts by the time I have it done. I figure I have another 400 hours at my current rate. At that point, every system will have been rebuilt in this boat. I am now torn between finishing it or writing a few checks and hiring some work done. My knee replacement is scheduled for April 2 and we plan on leaving with the boat around July 15 on a loop.
What would syou do in the same situation? I don't trust and don't know how to hire the work done. I love the work but my body does not. We plan on putting only about 10k more miles on the boat in the next 3-4 years and then selling.
Pierre, I see you have Hatteras 42 LRC. I own a 63 MY. I am 70 and used to doing my own work. I find most folks I could hire are way less experienced and competent than I. I have been competing projects that take more than my 70 year old body can by using college students. I find a fair number that have used mechanical or woodworking tools at home. I am always with them to supervise, instruct as needed, hand them tools, etc. I pay them well by student standards, so they keep coming back. They have strong backs and their joints bend quite well. It’s not as good as me being fifty, but it works. I like to think I am giving them something more than $.
 
I figured if I could just keep moving by MacGyver'ing myself along day by day...doing the right corrective actions on down times....I just might have a lot of fun and great experiences along the way.

I did. Many lifelong boating friends kept accusing me of "living the dream" while they mostly spent their free time at boat shows spending hard earned money. No convincing them because they never really learned the art of "good/safe enough" versus perfect.

That's been exactly my approach. I've always got a to-do list, and it doesn't get shorter. Seven years in I'm still moving, and having a blast.

Focus on essentials, and think through contingencies. Then just go. What's the worst that can happen?
 
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That's been exactly my approach. I've always got a to-do list, and it doesn't get shorter. Seven years in I'm still moving, and having a blast.

Focus on essentials, and think through contingencies. Then just go. What's the worst that can happen?
I am the wrong guy to make that statement to. :oops:

Lots of members here have the kind of experience to formulate risks and manage them and stay safe.... lots of boaters don't though, as many managed to keep me busy in may last 2 careers.
 
I am the wrong guy to make that statement to. :oops:

Lots of members here have the kind of experience to formulate risks and manage them and stay safe.... lots of boaters don't though, as many managed to keep me busy in may last 2 careers.
For sure. It was directed more at the OP, who seems to have the experience and wisdom to take it on.
 

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