Welcome aboard Robert and Patty!
Its great to have you aboard. Living on a boat, especially a power
catamaran is a very fulfilling experience. Granted, you will fully
experience some things that aren't necessarily on your wish list. But its
real. We have about a week to go to our 5th anniversary of moving on
board. And want to drag this whole thing out as long as we can.
Don't worry about the lack of experience thing. Our sum experience with
power boats was mainly via waterskiing. Although we did spend a couple of
summers canoeing.(not sure if that counts!) I think chartering a couple
of different boats for a week at a time would give you some good insights.
And if you can do general maintenance on a diesel and understand AC and
DC currents, you're well on your way.
When it comes time to buy, talk to boaters, not builders and have a lot of
fun.
Mike
MV Chrysalis
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Today's Topics:
1. Welcome aboard (Gary Bell)
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:39:59 -0800
From: Gary Bell tulgey@earthlink.net
To: power-catamaran@lists.samurai.com
Subject: [PCW] Welcome aboard
Message-ID: 4B44A0BF.6030606@earthlink.net
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
All hands--
Join me in welcoming Robert Franklin to the List.
Gladly Georgs. Welcome Robert and Patty!
My wife Patty and I live in Lynchburg, Virginia and are certain to
be the most inexperienced and least knowledgeable members of the
list. We have never owned a motor boat.
<snip> ...in a former life I was a
chemical engineer and still do some consulting...
I challenge the least knowledgeable part. You will be surprised at how
useful your chemical and engineering experiences will be on a list where
fuels, lubricants, paints, building materials (particularly composites
like FRP), etc. are common topics. Most of what we all learned about
how to live on land extends onto the water as well: finance, cooking,
relationships, insurance, health care, etc. etc. etc..
<snip> Since we are both in our 50's and are coming to boating
late in life
we will probably only buy one boat so we want to make the most
informed decision possible.
You certainly can do that, but instead of a single momentous decision on
which so much rides please consider that real experience is the only way
to develop and understand your own capabilities and preferences. The
only way to learn to ride a bike is with both feet on the pedals and a
couple of Band-Aids in your pocket. I strongly suggest instead that you
get a progression of boats from the smaller, simpler and cheaper working
your way toward your ultimate goal of a coastal cruising power
catamaran. And don't fixate on just one single unchanging final goal
here, feel free to re-evaluate as you go. You will need plenty of help
and advice along the way, and these lists are great places to find it.
You will clearly find that there is seldom a single choice that everyone
would make the same. 'Different boats for different folks!' Get lots
of different advice, evaluate it with your own experience and keep
moving ahead. And get out on the water as soon as you possibly can.
Charter crewed boats at first, then take bareboat chartering classes
together. Charter boats you are attracted to. You couldn't possibly
have too much real, personal, on the water experience to inform your
important choices. That way you can get the mistakes over with earlier
in the game and minimize the risk of finding that single huge decision
was somehow wrong.
I also suggest paper magazines, two of my favorite about the cruising
lifestyle are Latitudes and Attitudes and Cruising World. Actually
you can score Lats and Ats online for free I'm told, and I kinda recall
that CW is available online as well, although I think a subscription
price is involved there. Save a tree. Both mag.s extensively cover
long term cruising and liveaboard lifestyle. Recently there are a spate
of new blogs about everything, including those from cruisers of every
sort. Check them out.
So feel free to meld our opinions and experiences to form and guide your
own, and again, welcome,
Gary Bell, sometimes known as that old drone Mister Science.
Power-Catamaran Mailing List
End of Power-Catamaran Digest, Vol 57, Issue 5