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From: christina (no email)
Date: Mon Nov 03 2003 - 10:34:42 EST
do you have the right boat for the cruising you have in mind?
Is your cruising kitty sufficient?
Does your cruising budget include maintenance and repairs?
Do you have the skills needed to maintain your boat and all the
equipment?
Do you and your crew/partner/family really want to go sailing?
Are you prepared to live away from the comforts and conveniences of
shore
side living?
Three different stories about cruising, we can perhaps learn something
from
their experience.
all true, but names have been changed.
*************************************
Tom and sue wanted to sail around the world. Both are good sailors,
plenty of coastal experience, a few forays on longer passages, love to
race and sail fast. The boat they chose- 43' bruce farr racing sloop
with all the bells and whistles and high-tech gear and hardware.
Theybought it used, and worked hard on it to make it their dream boat.
By the time they were done, their boat represented a quarter million
dollar investment, not to
mention time, sweat and blood. They had a nice amount of cash set
aside for expenses, but the equity of the boat was the majority of
their fortune. So they left florida and sailed to jamaica, where i met
them. When talking to
them about where they were going in the pacific, they told me they were
going to hurry through the islands and get to new zealand before their
insurance ran out. Also, have to hurry to beat hurricane season in the
pacific. They were already 4 months past the ideal time to transit the
panama canal. No, they were not going to spend a lot of time in the
pacific
islands. I thought to myself, what a shame, to miss such a beautiful
part
of the planet because they had a deadline. Just over a year later, i
met
them again in colombia, heading back to florida. They turned back
before
reaching new zealand. Why did you turn around? I asked. Several
reasons,
but mostly because they ran out of money. In one year they spent the
entire
cruising kitty that was to last them the entire trip. The culprits:
1- additional insurance payments, over $15,000
2- communication costs, over $10,000 for satellite phone calls and
weather
reports. Sue really liked to talk to her mother
3- six months in Tahiti and spending like they were on vacation
4- major boat revisions - shortening the boom and mainsail, replacing
blown
out head sails, and replacing most of the rigging
5-and of course, the massive amounts of money needed to maintain a
quarter
million dollar boat and keep it in bristol condition. (Several sailors
have
told me a rule of thumb, maintenance of a boat is 10% per year of total
boat cost.)
Aside from running out of money, they were not happy with the boats
performance. She was an exhausting boat to sail, the self steering wind
vane could not steer the boat properly, downwind she slipped and
swerved
too much, and flying the spinnaker with only two people was impossible.
They were convinced they had the wrong kind of boat for the kind of
sailing
they were doing. They decided to return to florida to sell her, and buy
a
boat that didnt represent their entire fortune. Also, return to go back
to
work and refill the cruising kitty.
********************************
Kathy lived a simple life in the virgin islands aboard a boat that
would
fall apart if it left the mooring. When she inherited a bundle of
money,
she decided to sell the old wooden boat that had been her home for many
years, and buy a boat that would sail her to her dreams. She flew to
florida, and returned a year later to the virgins with a 42' lagoon
catamaran. I was happy for her, that she was able to get the boat of
her
dreams, and i wished her fair winds as i departed for places south. We
kept
in touch, and last year when passing through bonaire, we met up again.
By
this time she had the boat for three years. She was not a happy sailor.
The
boat of her dreams turned into 42 feet of stuff that didnt work. The
bank
of 10 batteries was fried. The 110 wiring was an electricians
nightmare.
She had wires twisted and taped and dangling everywhere. The compressor
(to
fill dive tanks) had a leak. The starboard engine didnt work, and she
just
recently got the port one running again. The generator didnt work. The
air
conditioning didnt work. She had three fridges, none of them worked.
The
pressure water system didnt work, and the starboard rudder had fallen
off
twice. The 4-stroke outboard ran poorly and was difficult to start,
the
headliner was peeling off the bulkheads and the overhead, the starboard
toilet was out of commission, and the boat was just a mess in general.
This
comfortable cruising catamaran with all its amenities had simply become
too
much for her to maintain alone, and it was falling apart around her.
After
sailing twice from the virgins to bonaire and back again, she decided
she
had had enough. She had the boat hauled and put in dry storage, and
flew
back to the states to get away from the frustration. She believes a
more
uncomplicated boat is what was needed, but she bought the lagoon on the
advice of her brother who wanted the best for her. Neither of them
realized
the intense levels of maintenance such a boat requires.
*******************************************
pat and mike met through a personal ad. She was looking for a sailor,
he
was looking for someone to share in his dreams. They fell in love, and
were
married. Then they bought a brand new custom 40' sloop for half a
million
dollars, and sailed south to the caribbean. When i met them, i thought,
wow, what a great couple, they found each other, and together they are
living their dreams. Well, all was not so wonderful, as i soon found
out
after talking to them for a while. Pat had done some extensive sailing,
crewed on tall ships, many sea miles under her keel. Mike was more of a
coastal sailor, but wanted to do some serious world cruising. When they
bought the boat, the plan was to sail the world, live the dream, seek
out
adventure and fun. But pat decided what she really wanted was to just
relax
in a nice house in suburbia with a Jacuzzi on the back porch. She told
me
so. She thought the boat was just too small, she was tired of all the
sailing, she really didnt want to be cruising anymore. It was just too
uncomfortable, and too much work. But mike, he discovered that he loved
the
boat, loved the sailing, loved the whole cruising lifestyle. He was a
natural, a gifted sailor and navigator, and he had no problems fixing
and
maintaining all the fancy systems aboard. He didnt want to go back to
his
old way of life, and she didnt want to continue with the new one. What
started out as the perfect match had become a relationship of
discontent
and hostility.
****************************************
these are just a few stories about the cruising that didnt go so well,
but
i have countless tales of happy and smooth sailing, people who's
cruising
experience is a delight. I hope that all the above stories have a happy
ending. I expect that tom and sue will get their next boat and give the
world another try. Kathy has found a significant other while back in
the
states, and perhaps together they can get the lagoon ship-shape again.
Pat
and mike will sort out their differences and hopefully find a happy
compromise.
i asked myself the questions at the top of the page, and here are the
answers i have come up with;
for world cruising, naga has one obvious limitation. being a high
performance multihull, we cant carry a lot of weight, so that limits
the
food and water storage, spares, etc. other than that, she seems ideal
for
the sailing we are doing. jack has had her for 22 years, crossed
oceans,
won races, been through hurricanes and lived aboard through it all.
she's
easy to handle, responds well to most sea conditions, enough room down
below to be comfortable, structurally strong (if not overloaded) she
goes
to windward great. she rides downwind easily. on a reach she flies.
with
the cutter rig, the versatility of sail configuration is great.
our cruising kitty is very small, but both of us are working as we
travel,
so we seem to keep up with our expenses and the maintenance of the
boat. i
do sail repairs and custom canvas out of the mini sail loft in the aft
cabin, and jack works with his computer. a major financial setback
might
keep us in port for a while, but this is our life, and naga is our
home.
there's nothing to go back to.
so far, between jack and i, we manage to keep naga ship shape. with the
exception of the navigation equipment, the boat is a very simple one
without complicated systems.
we both really love it out here, and our relationship has only improved
with the time we have spent living, working and playing within 38 feet
of
each other.
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