We're looking for a boat!

We are officially looking for our next boat. We've been unofficially looking for several years. Like everyone else, we sit at an anchorage and stare at the other boats. We walk the docks at every marina that will let us (and many that won't). We try to learn all the different designers and manufacturers and models, and the benefits and problems with each.

Ten years ago, we loved every boat we saw. We'd daysailed a lot, but had never cut the docklines for any cruising. Add to that the fact that we both grew up looking at classic boats, and you can probably get an idea of the kind of yachts we liked: Big, heavy, full-keeled ketches with running stays, ratlines and baggywrinkles galore.

That was when we were offered our first free yacht. It was a woody, and luckily my Father and the people from our dock told me in no uncertain terms that I would be a “god-damned idiot” to take over a project boat like that. I was a bit heady by then with my “skills” as a boatright. We thought that having fixed a couple of things on the mast, changed the oil, patched a sail, built a dinghy, and scraped and varnished a quarter acre meant we had what it took to restore, if not build, a yacht.

It's OK, you can laugh. We do.

We had a world cruiser, it just wasn't THE world cruiser, but several things happened at the same time to convince us that what we had was good enough. The first was that we'd been on the docks long enough to hear the “next season we're heading out” stories from the same people for the third time. These were the very folks who would say “what you really need is a...” The people who had said “what's wrong with what you've got?” were out cruising.

The second thing was we had the time and money to either buy a fixer-upper and spend all our time fixing-up, or to go cruising in a limited fashion now. That wasn't a hard sell. Finally, my Mother was diagnosed with cancer 3 years before she was going to retire. She said “Don't Wait!” And so we didn't.

We went up North to cruise the inside passage for a season, and ended up staying for six. Our boat lent itself to the gunkholing we liked. We added quality equipment as needed, and less and less of the other boats appealed to us. One huge reason is that for half the year we were absentee boat owners, and leaving a $25k boat is a lot easier than leaving a $100k+ boat. Another reason is that we noticed the big shiny boats never cruised, they just stayed at dock and ate money.

When we decided to bring the boat South, we did so with the intention of continuing in that direction. We had a couple of major projects on the boat, wanted to spend some time with friends and family, and wanted to build up the kitty. We also came with the idea of “maybe” getting a bigger boat, but now we had a set of rules:

1. We had to live aboard our boat for a year, continuously. We had to justify the costs of a boat by living on it before and after our cruise, and we didn't know if we could. Dock life had not appealed to us while we were cruising around.

2. Whatever boat we considered had to be a proven design. You can get a one-off for next to nothing, because when you put $50k into it, it's still worth next to nothing. I have no illusions of getting our money back out of a boat, but I want at least to look at the market and kid myself that I'm retaining some value. Plus, when it gets messy out there, it's nice to know that others have been fine in the same situation in the same boat.

3. We want a boat that has at some point been well equipped by quality workers, not something that has been minimally maintained with the cheapest stuff available. A cruiser, not a liveaboard.

4. We want a real improvement over what we have, and not just a bigger boat with bigger problems.

5. No more bowsprit (we want a boat so well designed that it carries its sails on board), and no more full keel (strong cruising fin with a skeg-hung-rudder).

6. Kim has to be able to handle the boat single-handed. This means either a ketch, or a cutter with an easier to handle main (jiffy reefing etc.), also all lines need the ability to be led aft.

7. We have to have a good berth at anchor and dock, a good sea berth outside of the companionway splash zone, a usable shower, storage storage storage, tankage tankage tankage and a well thought out galley.

8. We want to have occasional guests and crew, but don't want to haul around a full guest bedroom or crew bunks, so a v-berth/storage-cave is ideal, and a simple forward head is a plus.

9. A minimum 3hp per ton, by design, on a good engine with good access.

10. It has to make us smile when we looked at her lines, and make our hearts go pitty-pat.

After a couple false starts, we came back and have lived continuously aboard for 16 months. We don't mind living on the docks, in fact it's great. Much better for us than a condo, apartment, or place in the 'burbs. The only way we could afford to live on the water in San Francisco Bay for sure. And now we feel we've earned a bigger boat. We've got the sea hours, the boatyard hours, and a much more practiced eye for design and manufacture features and flaws.

We're looking at the 70's and 80's center cockpit cruisers which are flooding the market right now. The people who bought the boats new are now finding themselves unable to keep them up or enjoy them, and they're also finding a very soft market. Unfortunate for them, but fortunate for us, because there are some designs out there that really fit our needs.

Hopefully, we'll come across the right boat, and the right owner, before we lose momentum. Somewhere there is a cruising thoroughbred that needs some TLC, owned by some other cruising couple who are realistic about the value of their boat, and who want to see it sail over the horizon as soon as possible. If we don't find them soon, well, we already own a world cruiser.