What kind of sailboat?

[Mike B]

CC check out www.yachtworld.com You can sort by boat brand, asking price, year, geographical region, etc. Try combining options such as price, age and length. I think you'll get an idea of what's available in your area. I'd also contact a couple of the brokers in your area. You may need to talk to a few before you find one that your comfortable with. Tell them what you have in mind, your budget, timing, must have's such as air conditioning, etc. They should be able to steer you in the right direction. Just remember if they show you a boat that's listed with them they generally represent the seller not you. Good luck with the search.
Mike

 

[ccrider]

ross the $40,000 budget is for the boat. what expenses can i expect annually? the crew will be my girlfriend, and a friend or 2. no slaves onboard. i would imagine the cooking and laundry would be done by someone but that will be worked out. i am not really concaerned with that more interested boat advice.

mike b i was looking for an unbiased opinion from people with lots of experience with sailing. i would tend to think a broker is going to try and sell me what he has and tell me it is exactly what i want

 

[Ross]

You can get a lot of boat for 40K. But the bigger the boat the larger the bills for everything. Only you can work out with others the comforts that you need. Everything wears out sometime and must be replaced. Sometimes the care and feeding of a boat exceeds the expectations of a new owner. IF your manual skills are comprehensive then you can do much of the maintenance work yourself but if you must hire it plan on at least 80 dollars per man hour, even if they are women doing the work. if you plan to anchor out each night it is free. but transient slip space can exceed 3.50 per foot in some marinas and is rarely less than 2 dollars per foot per night. For coastal cruising, all boats are good to very good and like a used car can be cherry or they can be abused.

 

[Hermit Scott]

There was a perfect boat for you on the San Antonio and Corpus Christi craigslist. It is a lancer 30' loaded up for $10,500 and the guy said he would finance half of it. I saw that boat and wanted to buy it 6 months ago but the guy wanted all cash at that time.
I bought a Catalina 30 for $3500. You can click on the myspace link at the bottom of this posting to see it. I rebuilt the engine, did/doing the bottom. With the parts for the engine, bottom paint and fiberglass and yard fees I have spent another $4000 or so over the last 6 months. I quit counting. For lower budget people like us, it is a little more difficult to break into the sailing scene. Beware of fixer uppers they can easily end up costing $10,000 more than you paid for it just to make it float and motor. A set of sails can be $3000. The ropes(sheets) and halyards can be $600 or so. To give you an idea of cost, the engine in my boat is a one cylinder diesel. It is the size of a large lawnmower engine. The parts and machining costs to rebuild it were about $1500. You can rebuild a 350 chevy for $500 to $1000 and it has 8 cylinders. The first time I went to a boat store and needed something I couldn't buy anywhere else, I felt like I was sexually assulted.
I love my boat, but there was a point after I bought it I wish that I hadn't. Now that everything is paid and I am about ready to put it in the water, it was all worth it.
I plan on living on my boat alot this summer.
I looked at a few differnet boats in the 26' to 30' range. I think I could live on a Catalina 27'. But the bigger the boat you can get your hands on the better in my opinion.
If you look though, boat up to 30' are in one price range and boats over 30' are in quite a different price range.

 

[dubh]

Sailing experience?
Sailing courses/Red Cross?
Budget: Purchase and annual?
Mechanical skills? (painter, carpenter, electrician, plumber, rigger, anchor boy?)
Time to do the maintenance?
Survey is essential ($500 and up for a registered good one)
How big can you handle? (the lives of your crew are your responsibility)



be honest about the above, write it down, and you'll know her when you see her...

 

[Nereussailor]

I met a guy that lived on a 23 ft sailboat year round. I guess the question would be how much room do you need? I could easily live on my 30 footer by myself.

Dave