Spent way too much time

[amalthia]

looking at sailboats. My husband and I kind of have this idea that when we get ready to retire we may like to buy a sailboat (with a motor) and sail around the world and see all the places we'd like to visit. However, after going to one site after another it's hitting me that I know NOTHING about boats and it's going to take some work to learn about them and then I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to save up THAT kind of money for the really nice comfy boats. So anyway, now i'm feeling kind of discouraged. Most of these yacht websites don't even have prices listed. grrrrr

I really need to get better at internet searches.

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I can tell you a lot about this. My husband and I sold our house and everything in it and bought a boat and sailed for 3 years in the Bahamas and Caribbean. We still have the boat, actually, and spent winter 04-05 on it, and hope to spend this winter on it.

Short answer: the more comfortable you want to be, the more you need to spend. But lots of people cruise in small boats with few amenities. It's not all margaritas in the cockpit, though - it's seriously a lot of work to maintain a boat, and the lifestyle is frequently lonely and sometimes things get scary and difficult.

When we bought our boat, one could get into a 35-ft decent cruising boat for mininum maybe $40,000 - but that would mean used, older, not a lot of amenities. We bought a newer (though still used) boat and outfitted it with high-end stuff, but we spent a lot. If we were to sell our boat today we'd ask $200K.

I don't know if Soundings still has a website, but they have lots of classified ads which are good to look through.

If you want to ask specific questions, you can email me.

[amalthia]

that would be great. :) Right now I'm still doing research and trying to learn as much as possible. Right now we are looking at 10-15 years down the road but I figured it doesn't hurt to start looking now and getting an idea. is Soundings a boat maker????

I'm thinking we may go for a cruising boat instead of one of the ocean going ones, and just follow the coast lines....anway we still have time to look. This is just amazing that you've already done this. :)

For now I'm probably going to do some research on my own so I know what the right questions are to ask.