What type of boat

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I have just sold up, and am looking for a boat that will take me from the UK to Australia and back again. I have a budget of £20k for boat and equipment, and £15k for living expenses for a year to 18 months. Can anyone help with 2 queries:
- What sort of boat would you suggest I buy on this budget (was thinking along the lines of a Twister or Elizabethan 30).
- Is the budget realistic?

Any suggestions welcome
 
To be honest your budget for the boat sounds low, very low for what you are going to need for a journey such as this, IMHO.
 
Re: realistic

hi Daydreamer,

'realistic' depends on your expectations.
I don't think the budget is low at all,
I live humbly, and I've been doing this
long distance boat stuff for a while

In your stead I would check out boat prices in the US
- Florida and California.
If you sail from Florida you get to practice cruising in
the Carribbean,
from California you can train in the Sea of Cortez
- wonderful!

for the money
you should have no problem finding a good older
and already mostly equipped 'around 30-footer'

and if you don't hit the bars too often
- well you know...

I'd immediately set aside some of the cash for emergencies.

Good Luck!

...peter, www.juprowa.com/kittel
 
Hi

We have an Allegro 27 (28 LOA) which was sailed to Aus from Sweden. Very sound seaworthy boats and common in Sweden I believe. We have some friends who did the trip on a Vertue. No problem with the budget as such but think you may take longer hence blow your budget (you are planning on stopping???) and when you get to Aus you might not want to leave.

Cheers

The Lash
 
An Elizabeth 30 would be a perfect boat, just make sure you have everything you need on the boat before you go, nothing worse for the budget as having to buy more stuff for the boat..
As for you budget, listen to know one, just go and live within your budget. Some people do it on a lot less, so just go. You'll love ozz...

Bobby aka Seawolf..
Freedom is the song of your soul..
 
Re: realistic

I'd like to see some adverts of "30 something" boats, equiped for this voyage, for 20 grand. But I wouldn't want to pour cold water on anybodys dreams, just being a little realistic.
 
K.I.S.S.

I've seen people managing very nicely on that sort of budget, a good example was an australian in a small wharram cat, no engine, no electronics, rowing tender etc. what really kills a budget is repairs and replacements for hi-tech equipment. very few places charge you to anchor and eating the same food as the locals rather than western-style supermarkets is always cheap (except in bermuda!)
it can be done if you have the right attitude

i prefer a bit of comfort and spent £20k for a year for two of us.
 
I recently bought a Camper and Nicholson 26 for under £10K. I was lucky, £14K is more like it. Add to that a windvane, new sails and various upgrades and for 20K you'd have a boat which would take you anywhere except the South pole. Of course, it's only really comfortable for a couple but you could put two more people up from time to time. You could get a Vancouver 26/27 which would do a similar job but that would be £25K up. If you were looking at a boat for one or two people £20k should get you a well found, entirely conventional but slightly old boat.
 
Re: I was curious myself

so I checked the classifieds at www.latitude38.com

Found, amongst others a Contessa 26 w. diesel engine for US $ 12.500
and a Dufour Arpege w. diesel for US $ 7000

lots of othersuitable boats up to .............................. US $ 20.000

which would leave you 10,000 Dollars or more to equip the boat
before you hit your 20.000 Pound Sterling.


These are asking prices of course,
and in my experience boats are a lot cheaper in Florida


good luck!

peter,...www.juprowa.com/kittel
 
You\'re welcome!

I'm sure it can be done for this price, but as far as I'm concerned its strictly for masochists, people planning to write a book about it, ... and daydreamers.

Get a boat big enough to carry a good woman and a load of beer as well as yourself, and enjoy!

PS If you don't have a good woman right now, don't worry. One of the pleasures of blue water sailing as a single man is that there are plenty to be found out there.
 
Re: You\'re welcome!

is this the voice of experience?? .......and how I hope its true 'cos I'm a coming boy!!!' well not in the literal sense....you know what i mean....i hope.....
 
Believe me!

That's how I met the present SWMBO. God, its 10 years last month. Time to get out again!

I've met some wonderful couples 'out there' who met while cruising. Martin and Bella. He was sailing this tiny but exquisite 24ft Pilot Cutter from England when he teamed up with the tiny but exquisite Bella, a Portuguese fisherman's daughter. Both in their 20's, both hopeless romantics. When we met them in the Azores she was 7 months pregnant and it needed major shoe-horning to get her in and out of the tiny yacht. They were dashing back to her Portuguese fishing village for the happy event. I hope they made it.

Tony and Sandra. Tony was one of life's natural drifters, coining the odd buck by busking. His instrument was a double base, which occupied a very sizeable slab of his 28ft home-made plywood yacht, along with a keyboard and amplification system. He'd been "working" in Trinidad for a year and so met Sandra. Attachments scared him, plus we think he owed a fair bit to Sandra who'd been subsidising him, so he did a moonlit flit. But Sandra had smuggled herself into the forecabin along with her cat. She was horribly seasick: the furthest she'd ever been from Trinidad before was a visit to Tobago. But she thought going to England for Christmas sounded nice, what with the lights in Oxford Street. All she had seemed to be a tee-shirt and skirt, I asked if she would be concerned about the cold, but I don't think she understood. She was quite convinced Tony would marry her. Well, they did get back and lived somewhere like Wigan for a few months until one day he was gone. She phoned us hoping we would know a way she could stay in England, but we've not heard from her since.

Loads more stories like this.
 
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