We own a boat and our future plans

We finally own a boat!

After many years of dreaming about the right boat and the right time we have taken that leap. We are now the proud owners of a 2001 Beneteau First 47.7 currently known as "The Crone of Silence" and to be renamed. The boat was formerly Sher Khan and has competed in one Sydney to Hobart. It has a lot of extras that come with it, many are out of date or need an overhaul before use but are useful additions for our plans. Micah Lane at the Sydney office of VICSAIL (www.vicsail.com) was a pleasure to work with to purchase the boat.

On that note what are our plans?

First up is a move. It is very early on in the process but our short term plan is to sell up our household items in Melbourne and relocate the family to Sydney (where the boat is). This will entail our family of 4 moving into my granma Betty's 2 bedroom apartment in Rushcutters bay. It is a fantastic location so close to the boat and the small size will ensure we take every opportunity to spend time on the boat. We all have a lot to learn about life on the boat and we hope that this move will allow us to ease into it.

In order to move things along we have set ourselves the goal of a trip to Fiji next year to coincide with the Musket Cove Cruising regatta. This is held in September each year. A big ask for one year but the fallback is a cruise up to the Whitsunday islands. Both would be a great adventure and a decent sail to test our abilities. Before we can get to this level we need to expand our knowledge base. Liz needs to get to the level of a competent offshore skipper and I need to formalise some of my training that i have received during my time racing. We will surely be busy for the next year and a bit.

If you are thinking about the cruising life with or without kids here are some handy links to the SV Totem blog regarding "What you need to go cruising"

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/S/vTotemFamily/~3/8ozXxXUIa64/what-do-you-need-to-go-cruising.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/S/vTotemFamily/~3/7iK0cdNdEbs/what-do-you-need-to-go-cruising-start.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/S/vTotemFamily/~3/NFJPseWYhpI/what-do-you-need-to-go-cruising-part-2.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/S/vTotemFamily/~3/QtER3JZbsfo/what-do-you-need-to-go-cruising-part-3.html

The next entry should be about picking up the boat and relocation to the Cruising Yacht Club in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.

Have We Found Our Yacht?

We have made an offer on a yacht and it has been accepted. Just a few details to be ironed out and we will have a boat. It is large at 48 foot.

Need to complete the following:

• Survey
• Rig inspection
• Insurance cover

Only difficult thing is it is based in Sydney and we are currently in Melbourne. Luckily my father is helping us out with this and looking after the Sydney side of things. He will attend the survey and rig inspection on our behalf.

Which Boat?

This is what we are looking for in our yacht:

James' list

• Less than 10 years old
• able to maintain 7 knot average boat speed (sail and motor)
• good light to moderate wind performance to help maintain the 7 kn requirement
• Medium displacement to achieve above two points
• Cutter rig preferred, but the possibility to install later is an option
• 3 cabins, a space for everyone to call their own.
• Dedicated nav table
• saloon that converts to sea berths
• lee cloths
• L shaped galley preferred
• 400 litres fuel and 800 litres water
• It is not going to be a heavy world cruiser
• Most importantly it has to be within our budget

Liz's list

• Sailing characteristics left to James
• Not a wet boat
• Room for the kids to play both above and below deck
• good galley
• Agree with the water and fuel needs
• watermaker would be good

The search has started. Actually we have already been looking for some time. Mainly monitoring the web adverts and local magazines.