On Apr 16, 11:13*am, "Don White" wrote:
"nom=de=plume" wrote in message

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"Frogwatch" wrote in message
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I once met a couple who had bought a boat on Lake Michigan, sailed
down the Miss. R and then across the gulf and then all over th
Bahamas. *They were on their way back aqnd had stopped in
Apalachicola, FL and I asked how they had liked it. *She had hated
it. *He had liked it but her dislike was enough.
Another couple I know spent years re-building a boat to get ready to
go cruising and then finally after 10 years of planning, set off. *For
some reason I still do not know, it din't work out and hey came back
within 4 months.
Another couple I know is working on their boat talking constantly
about how they will take off as soon as they retire. *What if it
dosn't work out for them and they do not like it? *That's a lot of
wasted effort and years.
Doesn't it make more sense to have a smaller boat you can afford with
far fewer things to go wrong so you can afford to go NOW? *A smaller
boat you can afford allows you to arrange your work to allow more time
for shorter coat hopping trips until you finally get some real time.
I see too many big boats that sit at the dock rarely being sailed and
we all know the saying that the amount of use a sailboat gets is
inversely proportional to its size.

I wonder how many stories there are of people who actually enjoyed it.
There must be a few.

I think you're right. It does make sense to have a boat you can afford.
We're not looking at a megayacht, which I suppose if we went into hock, we
could "afford" (the very broadest sense of the word). As I said, two of us
are not really too concerned about "jobs" at this point. The other two
are, and we're trying to accomodate everyone.

I think it would be quite reasonable to expect the boat would mostly sit
at the dock for a year, since we're not planning on leaving before that..
Even if we sailed every weeked (which is highly unrealistic - more like
twice a month over the course of the year), that would still have it
mostly sitting. The other three live down that way, so they'd be much more
likely than I to go. In fact, assuming all goes as planned, I would likely
be sailing on school boats, since I'm learning.

--
Nom=de=Plume

How many miles would the sailboat be moored from your residence?

Even if you love sailing, the harsh reality is that you'll get more
use from a power boat. Unless you are cruising full time, the cost of
fuel is small in relation to the cost of your "lost" hours in moving
the boat to a new cruising place.
Once I realized this, I took the old 6.5 hp diesel out of my boat that
only pushed her at 4.5 kts and replaced it with a 13 hp one that
pushed her at over 6.3 kts. It doesn't sound like a big diff but it
makes a huge difference in getting places.