to go or not?

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have a 26 feet long keeler fully equipped and i want to go cruising for a year or 2 i am 52 and i think it is my the last chance to do it. cant buy a bigger boat! i have a small pension should i go for it or is it too small a boat? want to sail to the med and maybe Caribien is this a stupid venture ?

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Depends on what space you need, small long keelers have sailed the globe! I presume you are going alone if I was in your position I would go, or if you have a partner and you can manage in a small boat, (lots of others have and do on a small budget) in the med you tend to live outside not inside most of the time, when we were in the BVI's we had a deck barbi.
I am just 52 and will be going through a complete life change, house will be on the mkt in a couple of weeks then who knows! I lost my best and only friend to the big C last year we were making plans for the future, they are gone! if you can hack it go for it, dont have regrets on a death bed, life can be very short!!!!!!!!

Wishbone
Rolling, rolling, rolling keep them doggies moving!
Where’s me chuck wagon gone?


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I think you should set off and go. If you do not like it then you come back. Life is too short to put these dreams on the shelf until the time is right. Fact is the time might never be right, just go for it. Good luck. Paul

<hr width=100% size=1>" there is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats".
 
im only 28 but heres my tuppence worth..............

lifes too short..........go for it.................

im planning to do the same too! nothing ventured nothing gained......

what have you got to loose?

a whole lot to gain

Enjoy!!!!!!!

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Do you really have a choice?

You must know it's possible, and you know you want to do it - so go, enjoy, and drop us a line on SB to let us know how you got on.

SWMBO and I are hoping to follow in your wake in a year or two max.

Which long keeled 26 footer, BTW?

- Nick

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It is a very personal decision, for myself it is probably the most challenging thing I have ever experienced and the most fulfilling. Also, whilst it has its scary moments, and then some, it is also freedom beyond bounds and the only civilised thing to be done with early middle age.

I have heard that it doesn't suit some who try it, but all the small boat cruisers I've met in the Med enjoy it. I guess those that didn't are piled up around Gibralter or Spain.

As to length, the way I see it is we should commiserate with the couples on 36 footers. After all that is only 18 feet each, I have 27 feet all to myself and you know, there are some parts of the boat I don't visit from one week to the next!

Also, for what it is worth, living on a fixed income, being 8 metres saves you a lot of money if you do get marina bound and the soft riding long keel helps with crew fatigue and safety. Just ignore the puzzled expressions on the Bendy/Bewaria drivers when it takes you 10 minutes longer to work yourself into your Med style mooring. You will be a member of an exclusive 'long keelers' club.

If indeed you are single handing don't let the comments you will inevitably hear from a small minority about "loners" etc put you off. My best estimate is that maybe 5% of Med tourers are single handed, but the anti social ones are very few and far between and the numbers are then swollen by those getting somewhere to meet their usual crew. There is a very lively and open society out there and more new friends are made in a season than on land.

Excuse me banging on, but, yes, you can cruise well and cheaply on a small yacht and there are no words that can substitute for the experience.

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I know a guy who sails from the same boat yard as I do who sailed round the world a few years back in a Folksong. That's 25ft loa.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=purple>Ne te confundant illegitimi.</font color=purple>
 
Thanks to all of you Friends out there for your support it have helped me to take the decision to do it!

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If the yacht is in good shape and you are Ok.... GO FOR IT....
I have come across a few Pommies .. older than you , exploring the Pacific, met one couple in their late 70s in about a 28' er in a remote part of Tasmania... having a ball .. they knew there were some ( 3 ) million dollar yachts around them, however aso knew the owners never sailed them.. thats what the crew were for.. they were not sailors.. they were " pretenders" .. I ask, who was happier, the real sailors ( who had already sailed the world once ) or the make belief sailors.

There are some very good reasons posted as to why you should go.... didn't read one that said stay at home....

Yep go and keep in touch with the BB ...fair winds

BrianJ

<hr width=100% size=1>BrianJ
 
Re: It\'s not to do with the boat

It's about your living standard.

You'll be tight for space which is a good thing in some ways. Stops you taking stuff you don't need.

Go somewhere warm and you live outside more and outside is the same size wherever you are.

It'll be cheaper to more and maintain your boat and easier to handle it. You can spend some of the saving on the odd Hotel treat if you crave a bit of comfort.

You just have to quit going upwind sooner than a bigger boat, if it blows up.

Don't set hard targets. Just potter off over to France and either go through the canals or coastal hop down Biscay. No real big objective no pressure.

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No, don't "go for it"!!

why not work up in stages so that at any time you can say 'i have reached my/the boat's limits'. there's plenty of challenging sailing around the coast of europe so you can build experience and/or confidence before committing to crossing the ocean. you may find you're quite happy around the med or you may then feel confident to head westwards but you will have a choice.

if you set out too soon across to the caribbean you might then feel unable to tackle the much tougher return trip and be stuck a long way from home.

having sounded that note of caution, the one thing i wouldn't advise is sitting at home wishing you'd given it a try.

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A 'stupid venture'? What madness is this?! Go, go, go! If I had the chance you wouldn't see me for dust/wake. Follow the advice of everyone else here and go for it - you'll only regret it if you don't.

/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://kilkerr.members.easyspace.com/santateresa_pics.htm>Santa Teresa and other t'ings</A>
 
A couple of years ago, getting a boat seemed like an impossible dream. I read this on the site of a nutter who's rebuilding a rustbucket motorsailor in the States:

"There comes a time when you file away the dream forever. You attach a rationalization of why it cannot be, and why that is really not such a bad thing. You convince yourself that you do not and indeed cannot feel bad about it. Then you put it away.

"Basically you kill it, with intent and with cold blood. You may not know it, but part of you dies too."
(http://cuagain.manilasites.com/stories/storyReader$33)

I had tears in my eyes as I read it, but a year later I had my boat. Maybe he's not such a nutter after all...

Don't kill the dream.




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