So we thought we had it all laid out and knew exactly what our plan was to go buy a boat.  It was going to be simple… Sell the condo, pack a couple of bags, go over to the Mediterranean, rent a cheap room while looking for a newer boat in good condition, buy one and take off!  After looking at lots and lots of boats online, we had decided that we wanted to go for a Jeanneau and knew that Croatia was the hot spot with a very large concentration of relatively newly retired charted boats, so figured that would be an easy place to find a great deal.

But now we are rethinking and questioning if that’s the right path…

We like the idea of starting in the Med, as we would have easy sailing for a few months, or a few years, until we felt ready to set off and cross an ocean.  There would be endless islands to explore and good weather pretty much all year round.  Because there is such a huge amount of newer, retired charter boats available, the prices are great!  So we figured that there was no better place to go.

jeanneau
2001 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 in Turkey

At the same time, however, we are happy to go anywhere and want to keep our eyes open for any really great boats that may come up for a good price anywhere in the world.  And as we have expanded our search, we have begun to wonder if the Med really is the right place to start…  Sure, the newer boats there are pretty affordable, but we’re worried it may be more expensive to outfit it with things like a water maker, solar panels and a wind vane in Europe.  These sorts of things would undoubtedly be cheaper in the US, and there are plenty of places in the word that have a lower cost of living than the Mediterranean.

Although we thought we were dead set on a production boat, we have also now begun to consider older, more traditional sailboats as well.  While these older boats range in price greatly, the benefit is that along with being tried and tested blue water sailers, many would be already be set up for cruising an have a lot of the gear that we want already on board.  However, we definitely don’t want to get a “project” boat.  We know that any boat that we get will require work to be done, but we don’t want to take on something that needs to be completely overhauled before we can set off cruising.

tayana
1986 Tayana 37 Mark II in Florida

So now our search has spread from just the Mediterranean, to Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and California.  The good thing is that these places in North America are much easier to get to go check out the selection on a weekend trip.  Over the next few weeks we hope to make several trips out to begin looking at what’s available over on this side of the world.  We are hoping that looking at a range of these boats, both older and newer, traditional and production, will give us some clarity and help us to narrow down our search.

We hope to make our first trip sometime next week, and of course we will post an update on where we went, what we saw, and what the boats were like!  Stay tuned!

4 thoughts to “How do we decide on a boat?

  • Nancy

    This is a tough decision., we know because we are in the exact same position you are. We just sold our old smaller boat and are looking for a 37 -45 boat to live and cruise on. Good Luck. The right boat is out there.

    Reply
    • adventureadrift

      Thanks, Nancy! It really is a tough decision, we are coming to realize it all comes down to what sort of trades offs we’re willing to make and what our preferences are… we are trying to look at as many boats as we can and trying to figure it out along the way.

      Best of luck in your search! Hope you find just the right one for you!

      Reply
  • Rafa

    We are in the same problem you are. It´s very difficult for us to choose the boat. Nevertheless we live in Chile, so is more expensive and require a lot of time looking for the boat of our dreams!
    Now we are going to go to Spain and France. In winter for 3 weeks.
    We hope to find our boat and we want to start sailing 2017 in the Mediterranean 2 or 3 years before crossing the Atlantic to the Caribe.
    Staying in Winter in the Med living on board could be not good.
    Do you have some knowledge about this?

    Reply
    • adventureadrift

      Hi Rafa! There are SO many boats to look at in the Med, so that should be a great place to spend some time looking! We have read mixed things about the Med in the winter… If we were to stay the winter there, we would check the weather often and plan accordingly. We have also read that staying in marinas in the Med during winter can be quite cheap, as it is the slowest season! Best of luck on your search!

      Reply

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