Started out at cruisers forum and the fine people there said trawler forum would be more helpful.
My wife and I are both 44 and have decided that we don’t want to live and die looking at cornfields. We talked and both agreed that the cruising lifestyle is the life we want to live and we both think that the experience will help our children be more confident adventurous people as they grow older.
Our plan is to cruise the East coast of the US and into the Bahamas spending the cruising season living on board, preferably on anchor as much as possible and remain as self sufficient as possible. In future years we would like to explore deeper into the Caribbean. But for now our cruising life would be 7-8 months as live aboard and 4-5 months back in the Midwest.
We own a nice camper and lot in a campground that is open may-October so our plan would be to live there for basically free in the off season $2200 a year dues that includes utilities. Our children basically live at the campground all summer long as it is and we would have no problem living there in our time.
My wife is nurse and can work as many hours as she wants in the 4-5 months we take off for storm season. She currently makes approximately 10k a month and can do 12-15k a month if she works overtime.
My income is tricky, my employment is not guaranteed at this point but if I can make it 2 more years I can take early retirement of $2000 a month plus free health insurance for life. But it is only 50/50 chance that my employment will last that 2 years I need. If it does not then we can make it on her income and I can work to help build our cruising kitty every year. I estimate that we will make $50-60k a year in the off season and think that should be sufficient to live 7 months cruising and 5 months working.
Currently we have 16yr old daughter and 10yr son so a 3 stateroom/2 head boat is required. We currently only have small ski boat experience on lakes. Our ocean boat experience consists of Royal Caribbean and carnival cruises. Haha...
Selling out home and accumulated junk we can realistically have a boat budget of $150k all in with updates and upgrades. That will leave us with about $50k bank to sail away for our first season.
Since it will be our home for most of the year we want a lot of outdoor space. We sort of narrowed it down to either a Hatteras 53 MY or 90s era Sea Ray 50-55. They both seem to have what we are looking for in a home. But both seem to do 1Nm per gallon of fuel at trawler speeds. The ability to run from storms is appealing but if running 99% of the time at trawler speeds why not try and save a fortune on fuel and look at a trawler. Sadly I do not see many in our price range though.
I do not mind doing some work to a boat, I have restored 2 cars (1963 Caddy series 62 and 1972 Buick Skylark) and have a decent knowledge of most mechanics, I am also very handy with carpentry skills and basic electric. Before we began I would want to take a diesel mechanics course, a marine electronics course , and if course some boating courses.
So all that said I found the type of MY that fits our needs and within our budget but are there any trawlers that fit my needs? I did see a beautiful 1982 48ft Defever listed here that would be perfect but it’s a little above what I can spend and I am not looking to buy today. I will either be buying in 3 months or 2 years depending on my job status.
My wife and I are both 44 and have decided that we don’t want to live and die looking at cornfields. We talked and both agreed that the cruising lifestyle is the life we want to live and we both think that the experience will help our children be more confident adventurous people as they grow older.
Our plan is to cruise the East coast of the US and into the Bahamas spending the cruising season living on board, preferably on anchor as much as possible and remain as self sufficient as possible. In future years we would like to explore deeper into the Caribbean. But for now our cruising life would be 7-8 months as live aboard and 4-5 months back in the Midwest.
We own a nice camper and lot in a campground that is open may-October so our plan would be to live there for basically free in the off season $2200 a year dues that includes utilities. Our children basically live at the campground all summer long as it is and we would have no problem living there in our time.
My wife is nurse and can work as many hours as she wants in the 4-5 months we take off for storm season. She currently makes approximately 10k a month and can do 12-15k a month if she works overtime.
My income is tricky, my employment is not guaranteed at this point but if I can make it 2 more years I can take early retirement of $2000 a month plus free health insurance for life. But it is only 50/50 chance that my employment will last that 2 years I need. If it does not then we can make it on her income and I can work to help build our cruising kitty every year. I estimate that we will make $50-60k a year in the off season and think that should be sufficient to live 7 months cruising and 5 months working.
Currently we have 16yr old daughter and 10yr son so a 3 stateroom/2 head boat is required. We currently only have small ski boat experience on lakes. Our ocean boat experience consists of Royal Caribbean and carnival cruises. Haha...
Selling out home and accumulated junk we can realistically have a boat budget of $150k all in with updates and upgrades. That will leave us with about $50k bank to sail away for our first season.
Since it will be our home for most of the year we want a lot of outdoor space. We sort of narrowed it down to either a Hatteras 53 MY or 90s era Sea Ray 50-55. They both seem to have what we are looking for in a home. But both seem to do 1Nm per gallon of fuel at trawler speeds. The ability to run from storms is appealing but if running 99% of the time at trawler speeds why not try and save a fortune on fuel and look at a trawler. Sadly I do not see many in our price range though.
I do not mind doing some work to a boat, I have restored 2 cars (1963 Caddy series 62 and 1972 Buick Skylark) and have a decent knowledge of most mechanics, I am also very handy with carpentry skills and basic electric. Before we began I would want to take a diesel mechanics course, a marine electronics course , and if course some boating courses.
So all that said I found the type of MY that fits our needs and within our budget but are there any trawlers that fit my needs? I did see a beautiful 1982 48ft Defever listed here that would be perfect but it’s a little above what I can spend and I am not looking to buy today. I will either be buying in 3 months or 2 years depending on my job status.