Newbie advice needed

[Skiaviator]

Hi Guys and gals,
Although not entirely new to sailing and its principles (dinghy sailing as a kid), I have come to a juxtaposition in my life where I have found out it is better to follow your dreams than to regret not trying.
So after trying to register with other sailing forums who obviously deem the cut of your blazer and suitability of your tie more important than the enjoyment of a pastime/life choice I have stumbled upon your forum.
So I have a question or 3 (hundred) , my dream is to by a cheapish sailboat, and at the age of 61+ years sail around the world, I know this sounds ridiculous considering the last thing I sailed was a wayfarer with the school back in 1976.
My challenge is, I have a budget of approx £30000 to by and refit a boat, no sea experience and no idea !!!!!
So, I am sure that there are a whole bunch of people on here who can point me in the right direction for courses/experience (I love to learn) and to whether it is possible within my budget and experience to fulfill my dreams, after all being as old as I am I do not really want to ask the RNLI or others to come and get me
Any real advice would be more than welcome as in reality other than google and you tube I do not have a real clue.

 

[Lucy52]

Try, Annie Hill, “Voyaging on a Small Income,” Tiller Books.

Voyaging On A Small Income | TillerPublishing.com

Caution, allowing for inflation, their boat would cost about £70,000 in today's money. There is better value on the second hand market.

 

[Kelpie]

Why set your sights on going all the way round?
Nothing wrong with just doing the nice bits.
Better to do what you want to do, not get bragging rights to impress other people.

 

[Skiaviator]

Why set your sights on going all the way round?
Nothing wrong with just doing the nice bits.
Better to do what you want to do, not get bragging rights to impress other people.

I see your point, don't bite off more than I can chew, but apart from the idea of doing it my inspiration comes from Adventures of an old seadog. He has shown some of the reality of solo sailing.
I guess that I will have to get some training and and see how things pan out.
Cheers Kelpie

 

[Skiaviator]

Try, Annie Hill, “Voyaging on a Small Income,” Tiller Books.

Voyaging On A Small Income | TillerPublishing.com

Caution, allowing for inflation, their boat would cost about £70,000 in today's money. There is better value on the second hand market.

Thank you Lucy,
I will look into this as my budget will definitely be small (miniscule by some standards)

 

[ashtead]

You might want to look at joining say the Weterley owners association and following the utube videos of A certain Westerly Fulmar but I suspect even buying an older boat from the1980s and restoring with your own time and effort you might end up spending more than £30k given your plans. So maybe start small in terms of distance expectations , read up on what’s on utube and look out for a westerly or moody etc by visiting secondhand boat shows etc and kicking a few tyres and asking questions. I grew up sailing as a kid , am roughly your age but not retired but the spending on a boat can easily get out of hand. You might find you can gain experience by volunteering for charity projects with a sailing dimension at little cost and clear a local sailing club might help. Also ask your boating friends for sailing opportunities . Plenty of sailing courses out there- you don’t say if you plan to sail with family but if so maybe a flotilla holiday . If say you buy a small cruising yacht for £15 k then you have to maintain,berth,insure it etc so careful budgeting on works needed . I don’t know if you have any craft in mind but if so many learned types on here who will share advice the only problem is it’s often all different but narrow your questions and mission maybe as otherwise answers will be too varied sometimes. Let us know for example what type of boat you currently like the look of maybe as a starter? Good luck with your plans .

 

[Kelpie]

Annie Hill's book is good but pretty out of date now, and she has some odd ideas. E.g. wooden boats are lower maintenance, teak decks are brilliant, saildrives are more robust than shafts. These opinions tend to follow choices that were forced upon her, which she subsequently endorses.

Get a copy of 'Get Real, Get Gone' for a more realistic version of how to sail on a budget.

 

[Wansworth]

Your not alone there is another would be Magellan on the forum….Dana or something like that.Do you have any practical skills that lend themselves to making a success of your quest……engineer,woodworker?
personally I would go for a twin keel boat for several reasons many small drying harbours around Europe and if you need to leave the boat safely whilst away it will sit without a cradle and you can also beach it to clean the bottom without more cost

 

[Skiaviator]

You might want to look at joining say the Weterley owners association and following the utube videos of A certain Westerly Fulmar but I suspect even buying an older boat from the1980s and restoring with your own time and effort you might end up spending more than £30k given your plans. So maybe start small in terms of distance expectations , read up on what’s on utube and look out for a westerly or moody etc by visiting secondhand boat shows etc and kicking a few tyres and asking questions. I grew up sailing as a kid , am roughly your age but not retired but the spending on a boat can easily get out of hand. You might find you can gain experience by volunteering for charity projects with a sailing dimension at little cost and clear a local sailing club might help. Also ask your boating friends for sailing opportunities . Plenty of sailing courses out there- you don’t say if you plan to sail with family but if so maybe a flotilla holiday . If say you buy a small cruising yacht for £15 k then you have to maintain,berth,insure it etc so careful budgeting on works needed . I don’t know if you have any craft in mind but if so many learned types on here who will share advice the only problem is it’s often all different but narrow your questions and mission maybe as otherwise answers will be too varied sometimes. Let us know for example what type of boat you currently like the look of maybe as a starter? Good luck with your plans .

That's sound advice, and the sort of answer I am looking for. As you have gathered I am at the start of this journey and researching as much as I can.
A bilge keel boat would be first on my list of boats. As for sailing experience I was thing first of going on a RYA day skippers course in the med out of season, just to get the experience of cruising and with the possibility of rough weather, then getting some miles in with crewseekers.
Many thanks for your excellent response.

 

[Skiaviator]

Your not alone there is another would be Magellan on the forum….Dana or something like that.Do you have any practical skills that lend themselves to making a success of your quest……engineer,woodworker?
personally I would go for a twin keel boat for several reasons many small drying harbours around Europe and if you need to leave the boat safely whilst away it will sit without a cradle and you can also beach it to clean the bottom without more cost

Hi Wansworth,
yes I do have some skills, I have in the past been a qualified electrician, although marine electrics are a different ball game the principles are still the same. I have also refurbished 2 houses so have gained some woodworking skills.

 

[Skiaviator]

Thank you Lucy,
I will look into this as my budget will definitely be small (miniscule by some standards)

Just looked on amazon £85 for a paperback !!!!!

 

[Tranona]

Just looked on amazon £85 for a paperback !!!!!

Got out my copy and stroked it now I know what it is worth!

A good read, but as Kelpie says it is a product of its time and times have moved on and there are far more choices of boats and ways of living now than when she and Pete started building Badger. Having said that she is still living in much the same way although pottering around NZ rather than travelling the world.

It is certainly possible to buy and fitout a boat to go long distance cruising with a budget of £30k provided you keep your aspirations modest with a "traditional" boat around 30' that is already in reasonable condition. You can get boats like Halmatic 30, Nic 32, Elizabethan 31 for example at around half that leaving plenty to refit and equip. Many projects like yours fail because people buy boats that are too big and need too much work then get bogged down literally for years struggling with yard costs and finding time to do all the work - never mind finding the money for all the expensive gear they think they need. Look on the boat as a tool for the job rather than an end in itself, so the simpler the boat the quicker you will get going.

However, before you take that step find out if you like sailing and living on a boat and your suggestion of doing a course is good. However, not in the Med. Do it in the UK out of season if you want to find out whether you like the "rough" end of sailing. Getting further experience with mile building passages will also help. However these will be in larger modern fully crewed boats which is rather different from solo voyaging. An alternative might be to buy a small cheap boat like a Centaur that you can easily sell on and have a season working your way round the coast on your own. Bilge keels will help in this because you can use drying swinging moorings which are relatively cheap. However if you do decide to go further afield they are of limited value and better to go for a long or fin single keel. Having said that one of the most successful long distance cruisers from the past is the Golden Hind 31 which is long keel with bilge plates so it can dry out if needed. A good one of these is well within your budget - a couple for sale now at under £20k.

Lots to think about but good luck.

 

[scottie]

Being simplistic perhaps bilge keels would suggest you are looking at a boat for shallow waters rather than the deep blue sea as they are not normally first choice for sailing performance not say that starting with less ambition and getting a feel of boat life might have its advantages

 

[st599]

Jimmy Cornell's World Voyage Planner is worth a look. World Voyage Planner, 2nd ed. - Jimmy & Ivan Cornell - Cornell Sailing

He's done multiple round the worlds, Antarctica, North West Passage, started the ARC, has run a load of long distance cruising rallies and survey's long distance cruisers for equipment reviews.

 

[ashtead]

Another thought to gain knowledge is to see if anyone is throwing out old copies of practical boat owner or such like particularly old copies from the 1970s and 1980s which might have various articles on types of boat you might seek. As well as dinghy sailing I also sailed a Westerly Centaur for many years and as said if you can find a re engined version which comes with a river mooring that might be a way to dip your toes in the water metaphorically at least hopefully but do avoid ones you need to re-engine - I just read the latest PBO and the owner spent £20k on a new engine and bits although the engine was£8k however hopefully picture is clear.

 

[V1701]

Couple of things to think about:

Where will you keep the boat once bought & for how long (whilst you refurbish/get ready for voyaging and learning to sail) - you have to have somewhere to keep it and start paying as soon as you buy it. UK marinas, e.g. will be anywhere from, say, 5 to 10k p.a. for something up to 12 metres. Paying daily/weekly/monthly quickly gets very expensive so have somewhere to keep it lined up before you buy.

Only after you start sailing, do some longer passages and spend significant time living on board will you begin to understand what you might be letting yourself in for and answering the question of whether you actually do want to do a solo RTW. It's far from an easy thing to do, you absolutely need to be made of stern stuff mentally and physically. It's not for the vast majority of sailors let alone people in general.

 

[AndrewB]

Do you have income as well as capital? You will need this for long-distance cruising. It can be done for a rather less than you normally spend living annually at home, but that's the sort of figure you should be thinking of.

A typical sort of figure for a couple on a budget is about £25,000 per annum (see for example Jimmy Cornell: What It Costs to Cruise). There are those who claim to do it on far less but be wary of very low estimates. Younger people can pick up casual work as they go, which helps, but this is less easy at your age unless you have specialist skills.

 

[DeepKeel]

I would strongly echo those asking why you are aiming to sail around the world, as opposed to just go sailing. Having that as a goal seems perverse for someone in your position. If the objective to have some fun, challenge yourself, do new things and meet new people in new places, that's enough to get started with IMHO. My advice is simply buy a capable boat and just go sailing. You may end up circumnavigating, but I rather doubt it. The boats I know who have done the most demanding and challenging sailing on extended voyages lasting many years, have not actually circumnavigated as far as I know. Although, come to think of it, they might have done, I have never actually asked them and they have never mentioned it!

My very personal comments: £30,000 will buy and fit out a boat capable of going anywhere, but you need to be careful over the hull that you choose. It will be tempting to get the most volume that you can for your money - do not do that! Costs of everything goes with length cubed. Physical effort for many things, like lugging sails around on deck, also go with length cubed. Get the smallest, most solid, boat you can live with, and one where someone else has already spent money on an expensive fit-out. Spend no more than 60% of your dosh on the initial purchase, keep the rest for the inevitable big expenses as soon as you start.

Also, at the risk of sounding rude, your comment about not wanting to call out the RNLI is telling. In most of the world there is no-one who will come for you and no-one to hear if you shout for help. You will be on your own. Even with an EPIRB and a satphone, no-one is coming to pull you off the rocks or give you a tow. The embarrassment of a shiny lifeboat coming to your rescue is the least of your worries ;-)

 

[Sassyblue]

"It's what you haven't done that matters when your old",
No harm in doing research, enjoy the journey.
Where are you based?

 

[Graham376]

Do you have income as well as capital? You will need this for long-distance cruising. It can be done for a rather less than you normally spend living annually at home, but that's the sort of figure you should be thinking of.

A typical sort of figure for a couple on a budget is about £25,000 per annum (see for example Jimmy Cornell: What It Costs to Cruise). There are those who claim to do it on far less but be wary of very low estimates. Younger people can pick up casual work as they go, which helps, but this is less easy at your age unless you have specialist skills.

£25k? Based on what size of boat and lifestyle? Way over the top for many cruisers, who don't have big boats and rarely use marinas, expensive restaurants and golf clubs.