Buying a boat-Part 1-The question of exactly what are my plans or goals for this boat?

This is the first article in a series where I will take a look at the various factors one needs to consider in making a major purchase like a boat.  As those who have gone through the process will tell you it isn’t as simple as going Rock- Paper-Scissors, I’ll take that one!

There have been a lot of questions of late on Social Media sailing and cruising sites from people new to sailing and cruising asking “What boat should I get for cruising”?  A tough question as one sailors dream boat is another sailor’s nightmare.  If you ask a dozen cruisers what is the right boat you will likely get a dozen answers.  More than likely they are all right which doesn’t make the decision any easier for the potential new owner.

The first question though when looking for a boat is exactly what is your goal in owning a boat?  Is it daysailing and weekend cruising, a couple of months cruising in summer relatively near home or is it long distance cruising with winters spent in the tropics.  Notice I have not mentioned circumnavigation as a goal here because for those who are just getting into sailing and cruising it is an unrealistic goal for the immediate future.

I say that because there are two dreams nearly all sailors have, one to sail off-shore out of sight of land and make a multiday passage, the other is to circumnavigate.  The reality unfortunately from both my experience and from another survey done many years ago is this.  For the off-shore part of the dream, out of 100 sailors who get to go off-shore only 10-25% will ever go again.  The reasons being everything from, “I did it once for the experience and that was enough”, bad weather, motion sickness, to realizing they just don’t care to be quite so dependent on their own skills for everything.  The Circumnavigation survey found that of 1000 sailors who dreamed of circumnavigating only 100 would ever start and only 1 would ever finish.  Again, for a multitude of reasons, many get started and then family, be they children or elderly parents get in the way, money, illness, accidents, age, generally not because they gave up on the dream, just life got in the way.  For the 100 that start a circumnavigation the reasons are equally varied, money, life, found their dream destination, I’ve known people to hit the Caribbean and never leave and for those who make it to New Zealand many decide to stop or stay there.

That said, spending the money up front to purchase a boat that is capable of circumnavigating is unwise.  In fact, I’ve experienced several times having crew thank me for a passage opportunity or a great week of instruction and then thank me for saving them a bundle of money as they discovered over the last few days or two weeks they really don’t care for sailing so they are not going to buy a boat or they didn’t care for being off-shore so their boat choice was going to be less expensive.  Smart people.  Like all adventure sports some aspects of sailing are not everyone’s cup of tea!
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So, thinking of buying a boat, sit down and take a good look at just what it is you plan to do with a boat.  It is a major purchase with associated expenses that are going to continue year after year!  Having a goal to go cruising is admirable, I will be the last one to discourage someone from owning a boat or going cruising but, I have also seen many a very disappointed owner both while running a boat yard and having to present repair estimates and bills and as a cruiser helping discouraged crews secure their boat so they can get away from their boat and the ocean as fast as a rental car will carry them!  Don’t make their mistake, set a reasonable beginning goal and then work your way up the ladder of experience and see just how high you want to climb.

In the next article on this subject I will take a look at some of the costs related to purchasing and owning a boat that need to be considered in making an estimate as to just how much you have to spend on the boat itself out of your projected project budget.

Part 2 Published Sept 3, 2017

Part 3 Published Sept 5, 2017

Part 4 Published Sept 6, 2017