Do you like your boat?

[dancrane]

...with two businesses sold and after a working life of accumulation, one has to realise that the decumulation phase needs to start, that's a very difficult (for me) strategy change to manage.

You're quite right of course. With work comes the money to enjoy time we cannot call our own...but at retirement, there's not always time to spend all we've saved. I envy you the savings that I haven't yet accumulated, but am dismissive about the value of the years I'll waste, saving. It's nuts!

Too many times I seen people newly retired spending years fixing up a boat to how they want it and then being too old to sail.

Decades ago at Bosham, my mother made the same observation and we laughed. When I lately bought a yacht that I spent more time working on than sailing, it must have taken all her diplomacy not to remind me.

If an owner is happy to camp on board without going sailing, and/or is happy working through a calendar of maintenance to a long-term plan, that may be enough at least for a while. But I think most of us probably only do maintenance, updates, conversions and restoration in hopes of bringing to life our vision of the boat we desire, being sailed rather than just occupied and toiled upon.

That said, if I could find cheap storage ashore for two years, I'd buy again for the pleasure of knowing it'd be exactly what I wanted when I launch.
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[dslittle]

If an owner is happy to camp on board without going sailing, and/or is happy working through a calendar of maintenance to a long-term plan, that may be enough at least for a while. But I think most of us probably only do maintenance, updates, conversions and restoration in hopes of bringing to life our vision of the boat we desire, being sailed rather than just occupied and toiled upon.

Interestingly (well to me at least) is the fact that we have consciously planned our ownership exactly the opposite way.
We bought the yacht when we were fit enough and had enough money to maintain her whilst we sailed her extensively.
In due course, as our health/ability to sail decreases, we fully intend mooring her up somewhere nice and using her as a holiday home in the sun.
Hopefully the plan will work!!!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Ours wouldn't make a particularly good holiday home in the sun. We love her for the speed, exhilaration factor and she feels lovely on the tiller. The interior accommodation is something you put up with for the sailing performance. We have a fair bit of deck space of course.

 

[Lightwave395]

After 19 years, I love my boat still, despite the time and money spent which I long ago stopped counting. We've gone from solo and double handed racing to the past 10 years cruising, she's perhaps not the ideal cruiser but she is fast, safe, comfortable and still easily handled by two crew - 76 and 68 years old respectively.
I thought of downsizing but by the time I've sold, found and bought a replacement I might not be able to handle her so I bought an electric winch handle instead.
My sailing ability may eventually fade but we'll still have a nice floating holiday cottage in France...

 

[Sea Change]

We'll have owned our Moody 39 for five years this April. She's grown on me. What we really wanted was a Sealord or a Warrior 40, and we were open minded about the early 80s AWBs too.
But your can only buy the boat that's on the market at the time, and the Moody was clearly the one to go for at that point and with our limited budget.

She's far from perfect and is technically quite under canvassed. Despite that, she's done everything we have asked, and in trade wind conditions just gobbles up the miles with no fuss. We're continually surprised at the speed she can actually do, given that's basically a bath tub with a mast.

Compared to other more modern boats she had a very comfy cockpit. At Christmas it was our boat which ended up hosting dinner for a get together, with the kids down below and the adults up top. And this despite some of the other families having larger boats than us.

So... yeah I guess I do like her. But the next boat will be slightly smaller, faster, prettier, and with better sea berths.

 

[langstonelayabout]

Alas, our boat is my third choice, but came along at the right time.

Our bilge keeled Konsort is a nice, comfortable boat and does everything we need a boat to for our Solent based sailing, but I’d still have preferred the Victoria 30 or the Halmatic 30 as they are set up to sail further offshore.

I blame COVID, it addled by brain and made the owners of the Victorias and Halmatics to inflate their asking prices.

 

[Stemar]

Right now, I'm in the middle of removing the old antifoul in preparation for hard antifoul, so I hate my boat!