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From: Mike (no email)
Date: Thu Feb 05 2004 - 17:49:23 EST
Hello, I am a new group member, and a new sailboat sailor (though I
did a Westpac in 1986 when I was in the US Navy). I'm learning to
sail with the intent of fulfilling a life-long dream of sailing
around the world, or as much of it as I can manage. I plan to work
up to it, first sailing the Channel Islands in California, then
Mexico, the Carribean, and finally going off on my round-the-world
cruise, or at least around Cape Horn, however far my finances manage
to allow me to go.
I'm leaning towards a steel or aluminum boat, or heavily built
fiberglass. The questions I have relate to outfitting the boat, and
what's the most expensive or difficult things to upgrade. Tankage is
the biggest concern of mine. How difficult/expensive is it to expand
the tank capacity for fuel and water, if I find an otherwise suitable
boat that I like and want to buy? Is this more or less of a major
problem to solve with a fiberglass boat, than steel or aluminum?
It seems to me, based on my research so far, that I should seek a
boat with all the basic infrastructure already there. It should
already have a marine toilet and holding tank. It should already
have adequate tankage for fuel (at least 50 gal.) and water (at least
100 gal.). It should have a sound diesel engine with low-ish hours,
or a recent rebuild. If it's steel or aluminum, it should already
have a foam insulation liner installed. It should have sound basic
rigging and need few upgrades in this area. If I decide I want a
genset, it should already be integrated into the electrical system.
It seems to me that these basic items are the ones that make a cheap
boat into the cheap boat that you can't afford. Electronics,
amenities like deck shower and pressure water, reefer, auto-pilot or
windvane, solar panels or wind generator, and "add ons" like that
seem to be much easier to upgrade or install, than adding tankage, or
replacing major rigging, or adding a genset or replacing a diesel
auxilliary. I am thinking I should probably not even consider any
boat that does not have these things mentioned in the previous
paragraph, like tankage and rigging. All the other stuff is
comparatively easy to install or upgrade.
Does that all seem like a reasonable ordering of priorities to
consider while shopping for a world cruising boat? Are there any
differences between metal boats and fiberglass with respect to things
like installing extra tankage? I'm very interested in what
experienced cruisers have to say about this.
Thanks for your help.
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