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From: Dwight Yachuk (no email)
Date: Tue Dec 14 2004 - 14:38:09 EST
Hello again Lynn,
Sorry to hear you have lost of time to comtemplate the future.
I plan to divide my sailing into seasons. I could be on the boat for several months and then ashore for several months. Thinking that way, I don't need to have a house near the boat. I could be a days drive away or even a flight away. There are inexpensive marinas in both Europe and the Caribbeans.
Actually I'm thinking of a gulfstar 50 or similar boat for just hanging out in the caribbeans. When I go blue water sailing it will be on a smaller boat. The 36 footer we sailed across the atlantic was just the perfect size.
If you are thinking about a Hans Christian have a look at this site: http://www.sleepingwithoars.com/
I believe his boat is a Hans Christian. Although they are a beautiful sail they are a cramped live aboard. They tend to command a premium as well. You can get as good a boat for 1/2 the price of a HC.
Having said that, this one looks pretty nice: http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/pl_boat_detail.jsp?currency=USD&units=Feet&checked_boats=1256929&slim=quick&
dwight
-----Original Message-----
From: lynn stone [mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 2:13 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [world-cruising] Digest Number 491
There have been some good points made thus far and
some that make me wonder if some of those on the list
do any planning at all or your plan is to just float
with the currents and tides. To begin with, I think it
is _very_ important to plan for the future. So far,
our future plans have not gone exactly the way we
would have thought many years ago; we're not wealthy
by any stretch of the imagination. OTOH, we're not
living on the street either. So, some of our plans
have been poor and others great with the result that
we have now gotten to the middle to lower middle class
depending on where you are located. Right now, I'm out
of work (merry x-mas! they said as the job went off
shore) and my husband is just out of the hospital and
unable to work for a few months till he heals properly
then he must start his business over again. Most
places, that would put us in the lower economic
levels. But, there has been a lot of that going around
in the last few years. We did _our_ best to make a
change in the status quo a month or so back but we are
only 2 people. Hopefully, we at least counted. Anyway,
medical problems and work problems have probably been
the catalyst for the retirement fund worries.
I think it was Dwight that said that he planned to
move to a less expensive part of the country. We've
been considering that too as a result of the posts on
this list. In fact, a work friend did that within the
last 6 months and a couple more are considering it.
However, we think that unless we are about an hour or
less from the boat, we will probably not need a boat
since we will likely not get there as we progress in
age. We want the land base so that we will always have
something to come back to if anythingreally drastic
happens and we don't want to depend on our children.
We worked and suffered for it and we plan to spend
their inheritance well. :-) The 401Ks are also the
absolute emergency funds.
Unlike Dwight, again as a result of posts on this
list, we are looking at smaller boats. We just don't
see why we should pay for something "huge" in
anticipation of guests arriving when in actuality,
they might not. Then, we're stuck with a "barge" to
handle by ourselves or have crew. Neither sound great
to us.
We have long thought that a 38' Hans Christian would
be just about the perfect size and, generally,
configuration for us both above and below decks. With
real estate beginning to "dip" a bit at times, perhaps
the 38' isn't the one afterall although we would still
like to stay with that manufacturer or at the very
least, design. Cost of house and boat (with upgrades
at purchase) can't exceed the profits of the house we
sell. So, we'll be looking at anything from 33 to 38
in the older category. We do like the 41 and the 43
but we have to be careful with money and know that we
might not be able to handle that length in an
emergency.
Cruising plans might be as simple as taking the boat
out of hurricane waters during that season and
returning to the house during the non-hurricane
season. Or, it might mean long term/distance cruising
for a number of years. That part of the plan won't be
settled until the adventure actually starts; if then.
We'll be cruising on my husband's retirement in the
beginning and later supplement that with social
security from both of us as we become old enough. For
one of us that will be another 5 years or so while the
other will be a bit longer. We do plan on doing as
much of our boat work as we can.
In the meantime, I'm probably going to email someone
we know casually in Switzerland who could probably
tell us first hand about how to work in Europe if that
is what we decide to do and probably also take a look
at eBay. We were talking about eBay over the last few
weekends in fact. Something to do would make at least
1 of us feel productive even if it doesn't produce
bags of money. Perhaps it would allow the weekend in a
marina or a nice restaurant from time to time.
Perhaps.
I suppose that if we sail the boat to Europe and sell,
the _buyer_ gets to pay _all_ the VAT? It _is_ worth
thinking about at the very least.
Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I would
like to hear more. If nothing else, it has helped to
calm our retirement nerves a bit. Anyone have any
ideas where the larger concentrations of U.S. english
speakers with "bags of money" burning holes in their
pockets are located in the Mediterranean area?
=====
Lynn
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