New liveaboards ?????

[Jobe2438]

You must have read this story many times before,but here goes with mine.Have sold my house and should be out by early September,have only sailed with a friend a couple of times but fancy the life of a liveaboard in Greece.Have the advantage of a Daughter living in Athens so that is the reason why for Greece.Advice on the best places for looking and purchasing a boat would be a help,have lefkas and kallamata in mind.Plan to travel out as cheaply as possible as I've read that british cars not worth anything once there and buy a boat whilst out there.Am keen on PC's also so how do you guys access the internet?I know mobiles are used but is there any wireless access available at any of the marinas??.Winter is also playing on my mind !!do you guys do a regular "migration" to warmer climes ??Cyprus,Malta ???any suggestions on places to go would be welcome,the nearer the better???.One more for you,Multi hull or mono ??have been reading up on both and there seems to be good and bad with both.Any advice you can give will be most welcome and I will probably be on with more questions soon !!!!!!Many thanks in advance. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Salty John]

There's an article on picking a cruising boat on my site under 'Cruising resources', might do as a starting point.

 

[Richard10002]

[ QUOTE ]
have only sailed with a friend a couple of times but fancy the life of a liveaboard in Greece.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I hadnt done lots of things I wouldnt have done with hindsight, I wouldnt be sitting on a yacht in a pretty little bay near Palma ...... so who am I to say you shouldnt do it, but.... <g>

you could do with knowing that you can cope with what, for some people, are the bad bits of sailing in general, and living aboard, in particular.

Getting from A - B can involve unexpected bad weather - you might enjoy it, you might like the challenge, or you might hate it.... I think you need to find out.

Living in a small space, (even on a big boat), might send you stir crazy ..... 2 or 3 weeks on a boat with a chunk of time spent at anchor not getting off would give you a flavour of this.

You need to know what you are doing, (to a degree). I'm learning new things every day, even after 30 years of sailing, so you dont need to know everything. If I were starting again, I would definitely get the training up to Coastal Skipper as quickly as possible, without compromising the fact that you need more experience than the course requirements suggest to make it worthwhile.

As for the boat, tell us your max budget, knock of about a third for what you will spend on initial preparation, unexpected repairs and maintenance in the first few months, and fancy gizmos, and a few of us will tell you what we would buy, and why.

Internet is fairly straightforward, so dont worry too much about that. A mixture of local GSM sims, a decent aerial for your PC, and some knowledge which you can get here nearer the time, and you will be reasonably well connected in most of europe.

apart from this forum, which is an incredible source of info if used correctly, the following site is my source of info for SIMS around Europe:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/

Good Luck

BTW if you have a SWMBO, she needs to be involved and commited as well as you.

Richard

 

[Richard10002]

Take a look at this:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2183

Looks like Greece is well taken care of SIM wise.

Hope this helps

 

[chrisarcher]

Best help and advice we can give is to continue with your research regarding the boat (size, type e.t.c) and narrow it down to a few choices. When you get down to Athens come and see us in Piraeus and we can put you in touch with some local brokers that we know who are genuine and helpful. We could also help with other contacts such as surveyours e.t.c.

I am sure that you will get lots of sound advice through this forum but much comes down to budget, personal preferences and how committed you are. Take it a step at a time, sort the house out, get yourself down here, then take your time to have a good look around at what is available. September onwards is a good time to look around, as the season is almost over and there should be some nice boats with owners keen to sell.

While you are doing your research you would be well advised to look at training, RYA accreditted organisations being the most obvious choice. You should at least have the basics in place - such as Day Skipper, I would suggest, before you start out sailing in earnest. Day Skipper theory courses are available land based in the UK and would give a very good insight into what you are letting yourself in for!!

There are some good general interst books around, I would suggest 'Sell up and sail' by Bill and Laurel Cooper as a good starting point. There are several others but have a look on ebay to see what is available, as some are out of print now.

When you get here just contact us through this forum, or our web site and we will be happy assist in any way we can. Whatever happens on your 'journey' don't give up!! - as so many do - and we wish you the best of luck!! It is so worth all of the effort when you are here!!

 

[mandlmaunder]

Multi or Mono- You will probably live on your floating home longer than anywhere else once you do the DEED,Multi's have several advantages over "skinny " boats in our not so Umble OP (own 36ft cat now in Caribbean) .
Available living space
The View (Panoramic not up)
Ease of manouevering( at low speed if you got 2 engines)
you also have a full spare engine as and when 1 breaks down
You can have His & Her sides during mutinies
Skinny boat owners will never agree with any of this , but have heard the phrase "next time we buy we're getting 1 of these" from Skinny boat owners SWMBO.
Any time you ask a boaty question expect all to have different view.
Try a charter off season on both Mono and Multi it's cheaper than realising that your purchase was wrong, and will give you much needed experience(in greece if possible)
Cost of keeping a boat is based on size (sort of obvious) so cat if kept in marinas is higher.
General rule of Whisker pole 10% of purchase price is about the minimum you should expect to pay per year in maintenance if you can do basic repairs yourself
good luck, find what works for you and do it whole heartedly
M&L