It’s the idea of pure freedom. The idea that, when you don’t like your neighbors, you can untie lines and move – taking your whole house with you. There is the powerboat lifestyle, zipping to the next destination quickly, and the sailboat lifestyle, where time and petrol don’t set the limitations to what you do.

While I don’t have much experience on powerboats, (or motor vessel if you prefer) I can put in my opinion about the sailboat. Sailing was the first form of long distance travel that wasn’t walking. Look at the Polynesians, settling from Hawaii to Easter Island to New Zealand, guided by stars and the waves. There’s still something majestic about being able to shut off all power, and be propelled by the wind in the unfurled sails. It’s the same force that has been around for 4 billion years, unchanged, and harnessable.

Don’t be swayed to the roar of an engine if you’re largest concern is not knowing how to sail. If you live by a coast, then there is a good chance that there is a sailing center or sailing club that may offer lessons. In the states that are land-locked, it is harder to take a drive to any facility that may offer some good advice, yet there is a good chance that if there is a decent lake, there will be a sailing community near by.  Check it out now, don’t wait till your retired. Mum and dad exposed us early to that lifestyle and it became one of the best things I have ever done.

In either instance, a good hands-on approach would be to charter a boat.

Boat chartering is becoming a popular form of vacationing. From a boat owner standpoint, it gives you a taste of the lifestyle without the overhead; the destinations are vast, from the Bahamas to Mexico to the Mediterranean, charters are available. Many times you are required to take a sailing lesson on the boat the first few days you are chartering. Read the fine print of the chartering company, find out what you can/cannot do with the charter. Understandably, there are limitations when chartering trough most brokers. (e.g. Must have taken a sailing class before chartering, cannot enter international waters without prior notice, ext.)

Lets say that the short term isn’t for you. That you have thought long about the thrill of the open ocean and want to get away from that ‘land lubber’ lifestyle, and want to jump into buying a boat.

If you want to go headlong into the boating lifestyle, I will give you a very useful tip – be willing to put in work. Buying a boat just after hurricane/cyclone season that has slight damage, and you are willing to put in the tender love and care, you can find a decent boat for a good price. Also look at marinas that offer dry storage. Boats that have been put on ‘the hard’ (the term for dry storage) and were forgotten for many years and abandoned over the years are sometimes put up for sale by the marina to compensate their losses.  These boats are the lost boys from peter pan, they just need some TLC and an extra coat of varnish (and maybe a new bilge pump, and some engine work, and a fresh coat of bottom paint, and some new sails…. You get the idea). They range from the slightly neglected to the highly abused, so it depends on how much work you are willing to put in/pay for.

Also research types of boats and ‘sample’ what they look like down in the cabin. Boats have different layouts like houses. Some have the strange passageways that you have to go outside to get to the next room, some have large living quarters, others have bunk-bed style births.

When we were looking for a boat, we had very basic requirements; mum wanted a bathtub, wide decks (for the sake of her many broken toes) and a larger Galley (dubbed the 2-butt galley, so we could fit more than one bum in the area at a time). Dad required a ketch rig and a large cockpit. After Hurricane Floyd, a friend of a friend had had some damage to their Irwin, which is what we had bought. The mast had snapped in the high winds. My father knew how to repair the damage, which made it the perfect boat for us.

Till next time – Bon Voyage!