Practice makes Progress

During our colder months here in Colorado it’s a bit tough to do any more than dream about living on our future boat. Every few days we check yacht trader to see if there is anything new in our search criteria. Even still that changes a little every time we look as we are still learning more about boats, manufacturers and layouts. For the longest time we were in love with the idea of an older boat. something we could get as a fixer upper. Document through YouTube and end up sailing around the world. Sailing around the world is thing that has remained our constant so as our vision of the future changes so does our future home.

Starting off the big dream we were looking at Ketchs. The idea of a heavy keel and a second mainmast sounded like robust redundancy and having a full keel is what all the cool blue water sailors do right? After noticing that finding an affordable ketch was easy, so we looked as to the why. They were old, slow and all of them were in need of some pretty heavy work. The sort you can do if you have the time and can pay to have done if you are swimming in cash. The more we finish projects around the house and on vehicles I believe we could accomplish the tasks but who wants to spend more time maintaining than enjoying? The ketch idea has been shelved.

Up next we focused in on new boats. If we are going to do this full time, might as well get something factory new right? No. while the idea of a shiny new boat built to spec is more than enticing, we found that the starting price covers little more than the fiberglass itself. You want it painted with sails and walls inside? You can look to that original number doubling and then there will be the new boat issues. Anything being produced right now is not without factory defects. At one of my fire departments we paid $750,000. For a new engine from one of the best manufactures in the business. It’s had to go in for warranty work more times than a truck costing that price should. Even after the quality control and final inspection it was delivered with the valves labeled backwards… but enough of that rant. We spoke to new boat owners and they all loved their new boats but advised us not to go far from the factory or a service port for the first year as they keep finding issues that should have been found before delivery and now special trips must be made for the fix. All in all the progress has pointed to newer but not new boats.

So how old is old and how new is out of our price range? What are the year marks, hour marks, sail life and overall boat life that makes a liveaboard sailboat possible and affordable? We are still figuring this one out. With the progress we have made so far we know that we want to keep with a monohull. After looking at all the shiny new boats we fell in love with the clean lines, open space and size of Beneteau. After spending time with friends and picking their brains we are finding that around the 10 year mark a boat will need to have some major work done. New lines, windows radio equipment and nav upgrades. At the 20 year mark assume you need to replace most everything, do a major engine overhaul plus a repeat of the 10 year maintenance. So unless this heavy lifting and overhaul is done assume you need to do it all. That’s what makes a survey so important.

Where are we now? Now we are enjoying the sun actually being warm and the lakes thawing out. I’m pretty sure Hannah is swimsuit and sundress shopping while I type this all out. As for boats we are continuing to dream big, looking at Beneteau (and similar builds) 49s, 50s, 55s and 57s built after 2005 knowing full well that its going to be a lot of work no matter the size, year or how pretty it looks in pictures. one step closer I suppose.