Where to retire and sail
- Thread starter Randall Schmidt
- Start date
Our plans to buy a 'winter boat' made us focus on this. Unlike a winter boat, an all-season location for a retirement boat must be usable/enjoyable all year round. Moving it seasonally burns too much cash. That rules out the Great Lakes for obvious reasons, and much of the SE and gulf for the same but opposite reason. Lakes hold little interest to me, and most that are warm enough in the winter (Canyon Lake TX) are blistering in the summer. So that really leaves SF and SD and choice spots in between on the left, or Charleston on the right.
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Indeed! I left the PNW off sort of by accident, and partially because Jodi has no interest in living there. But I love the area and have enjoyed it every time I've sailed there.
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Pensacola area would be nice, You have ICWW both to east and west to cruise and an Inlet there and At Perdido Key west and Destin east. Mobile bay is inch deep and mile wide, shoal waters, only good for swing keels or centerboards mostly in the up position.
Florida has no income tax.. another thing to consider.. I like Pensacola too.. nice spots on the GICW back there and fine sailing outside as well.. Mobile bay is OK.. ya have to watch where ya going, but lots of sailing there and on west in the sound out to the Chandelieur Islands off the Louisiana coast.
Do you know my friend Tom Scott there in Punta Gorda? If so, tell him Charlie said hi and I lost his phone number when my phone crashed while I was in hospital with surgery.
San Diego would be "out of reach" financially, probably, for most folks looking for a "retirement" sailing venue and home. Also, the bay is not that big so day-sailing would soon become too ordinary and routine. Most cruising destinations not of the bay are far (e.g., 60 to 70 n.mi.) requiring travel over "the ocean." An active racer would probably like it there, however, as it is a VERY active area for racing.
Long Beach in my view is overall your BEST "choice spot" in southern California to berth the boat for the casual sailor. Very under appreciated. "Many" cruising destinations within 30 to 40 n.mi. Others in either direction (SE or NW) to 90 n.mi. Protected waters inside Long Beach and LA harbors with typically very good wind during the summer and fall for the two-hour day sail, although local housing in preferred neighborhoods is now quite expensive. Go 20 to 30 miles inland and it's somewhat better. But then you'd probably have to drive the freeways
to get to the boat. There is (non-live aboard) slippage available for a range of boat lengths, best around 40 ft LOA. Next is Ventura for So. Cal. in my opinion. But there it's rugged sailing; not that easy for the casual weekender who does not like cool to cold wind and ocean swells. Santa Barbara while very nice is totally over the top unless your grandfather, literally, had a slip in the harbor that you might inherit.
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We have friends who live in Shaker Heights east of Cleveland who solved the question this way:
They have an 80’s Juneau 35 on Lake Erie for the summer, and a trailerable early MacGregor 26 for their cottage on a canal south of Tampa on the Florida Gulf Coast for the winter. The Mac is good for daysailing and overnighting in the shallow waters inside, and they just pull it out on its trailer for the summer.
They have an 80’s Juneau 35 on Lake Erie for the summer, and a trailerable early MacGregor 26 for their cottage on a canal south of Tampa on the Florida Gulf Coast for the winter. The Mac is good for daysailing and overnighting in the shallow waters inside, and they just pull it out on its trailer for the summer.
When we lived in St. Petersburg, FL I wished for a "summer boat" in the Pacific Northwest. Florida is brutally hot and humid from near the middle of May until the fall cold fronts start arriving in mid- to late October. The summer winds there are light unless you're near T-storms. If we did go sailing in Tampa Bay or to a destination in mid-summer I tried to be off the water under air conditioning, or in a pool, by 1100 to 1200 at the latest. However, I'd often come out in early evening to sail on the sea breeze, which was actually quite nice most of the time although there was usually still T-storm activity/threat around. The "Wet Wednesdays" depended on the sea breezes for fun racing near downtown St Pete.
I have more than once seriously researched and considered the two-boat "solution" to seasonal issues at the home port. I've never "pulled the trigger"--there are too many negatives to make up for the one great positive, the pleasure (or at least chance) of sailing in best conditions nearly year round. The most serious negative is the cost plus effort of berthing and maintaining two boats of the sizes you'd want, even if the purchase of the second boat itself does not put something like this out of reach. Also, one thinks s/he will do more sailing in the second boat than will actually occur over time; thus, making all that effort hard to sustain once in it. Rather like having a mountain cottage in some beautiful but remote place. It's empty most of the time but requires maintenance all of the time. Frequent travel across time zones is a disincentive and is inefficient. Keeping the travel within a time zone is a much better arrangement.
So the "BIG" equation for me has repeatedly boiled down to considering the "carefree" but somewhat expensive option--chartering at the second site rather than buying and keeping a boat there. It's painful to shell out those bucks for only two or three weeks a year. BUT--you go and come back and do not have to manage a two-boat plan in dispersed locations.
I have more than once seriously researched and considered the two-boat "solution" to seasonal issues at the home port. I've never "pulled the trigger"--there are too many negatives to make up for the one great positive, the pleasure (or at least chance) of sailing in best conditions nearly year round. The most serious negative is the cost plus effort of berthing and maintaining two boats of the sizes you'd want, even if the purchase of the second boat itself does not put something like this out of reach. Also, one thinks s/he will do more sailing in the second boat than will actually occur over time; thus, making all that effort hard to sustain once in it. Rather like having a mountain cottage in some beautiful but remote place. It's empty most of the time but requires maintenance all of the time. Frequent travel across time zones is a disincentive and is inefficient. Keeping the travel within a time zone is a much better arrangement.
So the "BIG" equation for me has repeatedly boiled down to considering the "carefree" but somewhat expensive option--chartering at the second site rather than buying and keeping a boat there. It's painful to shell out those bucks for only two or three weeks a year. BUT--you go and come back and do not have to manage a two-boat plan in dispersed locations.
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Two-boat plan means two houses, unless you plan to live on one of the boats which becomes much less appealing as one gets older. Two house plan is a colossal expense and headache (security breakin calls from the other house at 2 AM anybody?)
Check out the Azores every time you turn a corner it seems like a different place, Europe, the Caribbean, or even the South Pacific. It is a really interesting place.
I can't be very broad, only what I remember from a few days stay back in 1986. When we sailed into Horta, the marina was the cheapest stay from, USA (Rhode Island) to Bermuda to Crosshaven Ireland, to Villamora Portugal to Gibralter, that we stayed at. A restaurant meal for the four of us plus four guests, we met at the marina, cost less than $30 US. My wife and I rented a pair of horses and rode to the cauldera for something like $6 for the day (each). In conversation with others, property prices seem to be cheap. It was thought that $100,000 US would buy a good sized farm and still have grocery money for years.
Here's a price chart for Marina da Horta http://www.marinasazores.com/horta/Tarifário/tabid/530/Default.aspx
Current web search yields property prices at about 1/3 to 1/2 of Littleton NH prices for comparable house, only there's an ocean view.
Maybe not as cheap as some places in Mexico, but I think very close. Of course, it's a long sail to anywhere.
- Will (Dragonfly)