So, I'm gonna buy a sailboat and live on it. Plan is to

>>920211

for life?

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>>920214
Nah I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 years but I won't rule it out.

Depends on what your standard of living is and your sailing experience. What size boat are you looking at? How handy are you at fixing things? Are you looking to buy at a lower price and fix her up yourself or do you want one that will require minimal set up?

Not a sailor but when I was in France last year just watching the boats sail past I realised it was one of my goals too, anon. I wish you all the best and hope you update /trv/ with photos and stories. Maybe I will follow you one day.

Most boats are built in the the USA or Northern Europe. They really aren't designed to handle heat well, any useful life estimates are lower in a tropical area because it's just so much hotter and more humid.

There's also hurricane season which can destroy your boat if you aren't careful.

The Caribbean can be expensive, if you really want to be able to make it work go to somewhere cheap and sheltered like the Baja, there's a lot of expatriate sailors in Cabo and La Paz. You could make one thousand last a month there.

What would you plan on doing with your boat while you're back working? Moorage ads up quick.

There was another sailing thread
http://archive.4plebs.org/trv/thread/915917/#917609
>With second-hand boats, the difference between a 10k boat and a 50k one is just how desperate the owner is to sell.
Was the best info. There's a bunch of guys who buy boats, and then have their wives nag at them to sell it. Buy a 15k boat with a good hull and motor, then get a water filtration system and some solar panels.

Rigging a boat by yourself can be a pain in the ass, sailing solo also limits the distance you can go in a leg as you can only stay up and alert for so long.

As the other thread said, there are people that need crew for boats. I'd really recommend getting experience with them for a few months before spending all this money and going in by yourself without experience.

Heres a video or such my buddy who is a salt rat(sailor for life) posted.http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/374880/living-alone-on-a-sailboat/

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>>920598
>http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/374880/living-alone-on-a-sailboat/

yeah I've seen that video before.

all it does is strengthen my resolve.

>>920302
mooring is cheap where i live so like around 450$ a month for a live aboard. and if i find work along the coast i can just live on the boat and head in to work.

not married and no kids so the nagging bitch is not a problem.

i have a few friends that are down to go with me and we were all in the navy together so i know they dont have a problem with being on a boat for extended amounts of time.

>>920211

Do you know how to sail?

I like your idea anon, I'm thinking I will do it when I'm older, I want to sail across the ocean.

>>920761
I know the very basics but i am planning on taken a few courses.

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>>920211
Hey anon, I like your plan. Definitely doable. Just make sure you study sailing seasons/weather patterns:

The caribbean is a nice place in the winter, most boats arrive around november/dec and leave around april/may. Because you have hurricane season in the spring/summer, and it can also get pretty hot, not very comfortable to live on a boat (no AC!) in fucking scorching weather.

I doubt you'll have insurance (unless your country requires you to, not sure about the US), but the boat I sailed with was forced by the insurer to leave the caribbean befor May, because of tornado season.

That's me in the caribbean in a 90ft wood-and-iron beast from 1932. No winches, we had to haul those sails up by hand. Good fun. The previous owner was asking $100K for this beauty; a year later he let it go for under $20K. It's all about being in the right place at the right time.

>>921262
That's awesome man!

>>921262
what exactly did you do all day while being out on the ocean? I mean all I could think of would be fishing, reading books, maybe watching some movies if you have a portable DVD player or something

>>920211
Christ. It's a great goal to have, but I'd suggest joining a local sailing club first. You need to be around people with sailing and boat building experience, and soak up everything they tell you.

>>922042
Also, another option that won't cost you tens of thousands of dollars would be enrolling on a Yachtmaster course and working about charter vessels or superyachts.

>>920598
I don't think he's a dirtbag but he is a bit of a douchebag...

Learn the COLREGS, and learn them good. Avoid being an utter pain in the dick for anyone working on board actual ships.

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>>922038
not him but in my experience you do alot of standing at the wheelhouse staring (this is ok tho because you only get like 3-5 hours sleep at a time so your always pretty glazed.
Cleaning, fixing and polishing stuff wether it needs done or not.
Regaling stories about other ships you've been on and generally talking about ships and the sea.
Listening to yachties misusing the radio or trying to be funny by not adearing to radio practices.
Make sure not to look at or even think about waving to yachties who sail ridiculously close to you and stare gormlessly wether you do break rank and wave or not (I don't get the no communication thing).
Swearing at yachties who sail across your path.
Complain about fibreglass boats and their occupants.
Marvel at Navy vessels and surfaced marine life.
Once in a while haul ropes, climb rigging, raise, drop, reef sail and have a gay old time.

Below decks you eat or sleep if you can't do one or the other watch whatever you managed to download in the last bar.

>>922043
well, a Yachtmaster will cost you $10k, if you start from scratch. So you invest that money and then you have to go looking for a job, which is not always that easy.

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>>922094
exactly this, only it depends on the voyage you're doing.

Crossing the Atlantic, 3 weeks at sea, I would read almost a book a day. Other than that, just chill out on deck, have a beer (only one per day) while watching the sunset, shoot the breeze with the rest of the crew. My favorite thing was doing night shift, 2-5 am. Everybody else slept, you could see all the stars, no lights or nothing in sight save for maybe a distant ship out. I would put GY!BE on my ipod and take the helm (we used autopilot most of the time, but I loved steering at night) and feel the boat under my command, the rudder pulling one way and me pulling the other. Beautiful stuff.

Sailing the Med or Carib is different, because every leg is short, you never really have to sail for more than a day to get anywhere. And then you get to land, spend 2 or 3 days fucking around, exploring beautiful islands, kitesurfing, chilling at the beach.

Man, I gotta find me another boat soon.

>>921262

Fuckin nice! Were you with friends? solo? part of a crew?

>>922063

nah, come on. he's alright.

>>922118

how do you avoid storms/heavy seas? seems scary!

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>>922178
You don't avoid them, you just man the fuck up. There's heavy weather sailing techniques that help, but you just have to grin and take it. Me, I love rough seas. It's like a 24hr rollercoaster. A few nights we had to sleep with lee-cloths, google it.

>>922176
I just went to the marinas in the Canary Islands and started asking around, somebody always needs an extra set of hands. Once I got on that first boat, I just met tons of people, made friends, and sailed with them once we got to the other side of the Atlantic. One of those friends is now in Tahiti or somewhere around there, every now and then we talk about buying our own boat.

Pic related, middle of nowhere, Atlantic ocean.

>>922178
You follow weather forecasts via satellite or weatherfax. Plan your route accordingly. Sailing into a storm is foolish if you could have avoided it.

>>922063
is he bothering you? Is he taking your money via taxes? Is he taking a job from you? Is he encouraging violence against you, or voting for people do do any of the above?

Oh wait, he's not.

Fuck off. Where do idiots like you come from.

>>922390
how dangerous is sailing, all together? are there any numbers?

>>922440
That guy really is a douche. The way he talks about walking around everywhere with a knife as if it's his calling in life. Who says shit like that? I don't mind the fact he's living an alternative lifestyle. Doesn't mean he has to be a douche though, that's just by choice.

>>922390

Nice, did you have any prior sailing experience/ Where did you ask around?

>>922446
you're so fucking suburban it hurts

when you live out in the wilderness (on a boat as well I'm assuming) your knife is your main tool. You cook with it, you kill with it, you eat with it, you do repairs etc with it.

his grandfather taught him how to use a blade. it's a tender moment between family members. My grandpa taught me how to use a blade, a fishing pole, a gun how to cook, etc. And they're fond memories and I remember a lot, down to the feeling of the handle, or the smell of the gundpowder and kerosene.

He's just sharing something from his childhood.

You, who grew up among cars, video games, and commodity fetishism, you think everything is some sort of status game in consumption. Stop projecting.

You really need to get outside, dork.

Boatguy isn't bothering anyone.

You, however, you are probably rabidly supportive of a variety of political issues that force me to change my way of life or give you my money. I find you much more of a threat than boatguy, who makes his own living and leaves me alone unless I buy him a beer.

stop trying to police other people's lives, faggot.

>>922459
>You, who grew up among cars, video games, and commodity fetishism, you think everything is some sort of status game in consumption.

REKT! Truly.

Anon is lashing out at boat guy because boat guy is living the life on his boat doing what he wants and anon feels inadequate and the best he can muster is "uhh his knife carrying makes him a douche!"

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>>922397
you can't avoid them all. Weather is really shifty in some parts, and weather systems (storms, etc) tend to move faster than your boat. If the storm's coming at you, you can't outrun it. It is not realistic to assume you will be able to avoid all storms, so you do have to learn to sail through them.

>>922440
>are there any numbers?
I remember reading something about a 3, and a 7.5 somewhere in there too, but what they were refering to escapes me at the moment.

Not dangerous unless you do stupid shit. Prepare for the worst, have plenty of backups, know your shit. Boom. That's it.

>>922447
I got my Dayskipper license (two weeks of sailing/studying) and immediately after finishing I hopped on a plane to the Canaries. Ask around the marinas, wherever you see somebody on a boat. Also sailors' bars (not to be confused with cruising bar), usually in front of the marina.


>>922459
>(on a boat as well I'm assuming) your knife is your main tool.

uh, nope. Agree with everything you said but this. You do not want to be handling a sharp object while out at sea, with the ship rocking to and fro. Unless it's a really severe emergency, you never need to cut any ropes while sailing, and most other things should be fixed with anything but a blade. Some people keep a knife in the cockpit, securely fastened and easily accesible. You do not walk around with it.

Pic related, arriving at Saint Lucia.

>>922638
Maybe not on a yacht or steel ship. But all traditional sailors and fishermen carry knives.

A marlin spike is more useful but a rigging knife comes in handy and when it comes in handy it's usually in a life saving kinda way. Sure most only wear them on deck but it's not taboo at all for sailors to wear knives in harbour areas even in castrated places like the UK.

>>922440
Depends on the sailing and where you are also what you're doing. For most it's pretty safe and the emergency services for when things go wrong are second to none.

Professional fishermen is one exception I once got cornered by a woman who worked for a charity for the families of lost fishermen and the stats where shocking it seems one of the highest mortality jobs around. That's the nature of the other machinery, the pressure and the workload tho not the sailing itself.

>>922638

Damn I want to do this!

Can a day skipper license be earned anywhere?

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>>922707
Every country has it's own system of certificates. What I heard and saw in the places I sailed: most certificates around the world suck, because they are mostly theoretical and you get very little sailing time. The RYA, Royal Yachting Association (UK) is world-recognized and they are very practical. I lived for two weeks on the boat (slept there, food was provided) and we had some theory and sailing everyday, starting in the morning and finishing at about 5pm. You can find RYA schools all over Europe and the caribbean.

If you show up at any boat and tell them you got your RYA cert, they know they can trust you have the knowledge and skills. You show up with any other cert and they'll say, "alright, but can you sail?"

Of course, a lot of boats take people who've never sailed, they trust they can teach you to do it, and for the most part it's true. One of my friends had never sailed before crossing the Atlantic. But he was a life guard ("Dude, trust me, I know the seas") and a mechanichal engineer, always handy to have on board.

Even more: a lot of boat owners never did any course, they got no certificates. They learned to sail on their own. And they prefer to take rookies, because then they can teach them how to sail just the way they want. They almost don't want 'certified people' coming in and telling them how to sail 'properly'.

I also looked at other sailing schools in Croatia, Italy, even Hungary (at Lake Balaton) in an attempt to find a cheaper alternative, they were all about the same price: 600 euros per week, all included (room and board).

Pic related. That was the closest we ever came to another boat out at sea. When we met them afterwards, in the Carib, they told us they ran into a storm one night, their helm got caught in a line and half-ripped out, the kid traveling with them broke his arm.

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>>922788
>Even more: a lot of boat owners never did any course, they got no certificates. They learned to sail on their own. And they prefer to take rookies, because then they can teach them how to sail just the way they want. They almost don't want 'certified people' coming in and telling them how to sail 'properly'.

That is so, so true.
That's how I have started sailing, that's how I am still learning to sail. First thing I've been told was that I am not going to be taught how to pass exams - I am going to actually learn the craft.

The person who captains our boats* is certified though.


* - we rent them; aren't planning to buy one - why have one, if you can sail as many as you want? + it's always different experience with each boat rented.
Having a boat you know and love might surely be nice, but each time we go out it's going to be different, I guess.


Pic related, our last (my first) sea trip. South Aegan.
Lakes weren't as fun.

>>922793
Also, it was my first time calling pan-pan on 16.

Fun time.

>>922795
Whiskey Yankee Quebec 3165 here. Good times, good times...