Bluewater sailboat and why not to buy one

Cashapp ChristopherCousteau

Venmo @howtosailing

ASA members discount

Welcome to Chasing Latitudes! Have you ever imagined the smell of the ocean air as your boat crashes through the waves? The freedom that comes from casting off the bow lines and heading out to sea to explore new places you can’t reach by car or airplane? Then this channel is for you.

You will not see white sand beaches here, restaurant reviews, beach parties, selfies or Japanese knives. What you will find is factual information based on decades of sailing experience.

My channel is specifically meant for one thing and one thing only, to help YOU find your new to you fancy-dancy yacht of your dreams and get on the water in the fastest, most time efficient manner.

Don’t get caught up in looking at old boats! I focus on mostly newer vessels, built in 2000 or later because I want you to spend as much of your time as possible sailing, not practicing your restoration skills on an old boat attempting to bring it to its former glory.

You want to take advantage of the amazing newer technology and modern hull designs when it comes to sailing. This is going to make your vessel far easier to sail solo or short handed and make them far more comfortable and efficient to live aboard full time or even just weekenders without buying more boat than you need.

I offer a wide variety of services including consulting where I will take you through the entire process of how to budget properly, choosing what vessel size will work for your needs, what type of vessel, I will help you shop for vessels, determine offer prices, schedule surveys, talk with brokers, teach you how to do your own pre-survey, walk you through hiring the correct surveyor and help you avoid all of the common pitfalls that you will find when purchasing used sailing vessels.

The consulting does not stop there, I will be with you every step of the way and long after you have purchased your vessel as consulting also comes with lifetime access to the members area,.

Chasing Latitudes hosts a large, active private members area where the members are more than happy to offer their own experience to solve problems, host private videos for ASA Sailing quizzes (ASA 101, 103, & 104), and live stream videos which feature anything from member cruising to boat shopping, boat comparisons, and other live content with chat from the subscribers to my YouTube channel and channel members.

It’s time for YOU to get on the water. Come aboard!

[stephanebernabe]

I bought my 1st sailboat 2 years ago. It’s a 57 feet. We did not know anything about sailing before. We are living aboard full time since September 2020, we leaved France, we are now in Canaries, and never come back to live ashore. We are 56 and 59 : it’s time to begin to live !

[mikenagy]

This video is absolutely truth to the "dreamers". I met so many people who had this dream but when it came time to go they never did. The sailing population is about 1 percent, of that maybe 10 percent leave home waters. Most of those people had one thing in common, fear.
I bought a blue water boat after looking for four years, a Nicholson 32. Yep, I had read everything Linn and Larry Pardy wrote, studied Hal Roth, and knew what I wanted. Only trouble was, after sailing down the coast to Mexico the dream faded as the reality set in. It isn't cheap to go, sails, rigging, electronics, and all the other maintenance items soon smashed my dream into bits. I realized that crossing oceans wasn't for me after sailing west toward Hawaii for five days and screaming at the top of my lungs, " why hadn't anyone told me it would be like this"? Crawling hand over hand to find the toilet, two hands to make coffee and my third hand to hold on, changing sails at 0300 with heavy foul weather clothing on and tied onto the boat, and crawling into my bunk exhausted only to be roused up half an hour later to make sure you don't hit anything.
I realize that it would have been easier with another person on board but what female will give up her settled life for this?
The point is, go sailing with something cheap, anchor out for a couple of weeks, and try your hand at ocean swells before you settle on a boat.
By the way, after 35000 miles at sea, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Nothing is more fulfilling as sailing.

[Ron-zrse]

If you are not self reliant and need to be around friends, family and people in general, stay onshore. That is unless you plan on just staying on the dock with an occasional shot trip. However, if you like a challenge, fixing things, putting up with unpredictable events and seeing places and things few will have the pleasure of seeing, then get out there and see the world. Life is too short to waste on things that do not matter.

[guns]

I grew up sailing. I always said I'd retire on a boat. Now it's almost time. This is all great advice and I know I'll be happy on a boat because I traveled the US for 3 years in the '80's living outdoors in the woods, etc. Then I lived off grid in the desert of Arizona in the middle of nowhere in an RV with my wife. I have about 60K and am finding plenty of boats that at least on paper are good boats in the 30k-60k range. For sure I'm paying for a survey before I buy. I'm rusty, so my plan is to buy the boat in the mid Atlantic area and hire a guy I know who's a captain and a mechanic to sail with me to where I live in Florida. I should get my sea legs by the time we get there. Then me and the wife are gonna rent out our house and give it a go! YOLO!!

[SV-DEDICATED]

I'm in the "buy your last boat first" crowd.

[Ethaara]

A big advice I heard from someone who is a liveaboard: Don't think about the days you are cruising, think about the days you spend in a marina or on 1 day of cruising it can be 5-7 days of staying in one place. So if you are not going full time cruising out in the ocean, you are perfectly fine with a production boat.

[johnlowe]

Ive owned many different boats over the years, and discovered (the hard way)exactly all things you pointed out.

[erents]

I am that guy who did a lot of small boat sailing on large Lakes, got the sailing fever. Then I retired, sold my house bought a 38 foot Catalina Morgan. The boat is in decent condition for a 1995 but I spent an additional $10, 000 after the purchase preparing to sail. After the purchase I had to move it. It was ma 3 day passage in really rough seas with no engine in order to get it to Ventura from Long Beach. I settled on this boat because it’s 38 foot, 20, 000 lb boat that could sail across an ocean if I got comfortable with the boat, the ocean. I have been sailing out to the Channel Islands regularly over the past 6 months and it’s amazing and for me it was definitely the best way to learn ocean sailing and to experience living on a boat. The marina is nice enough but I’m guessing it’s much like living in a trailer park, except for the fact that when you start feeling Costa phobic, you can cut the lines, set sail and imagine yourself never going back. It’s everything I imagined it would be but today I developed a potentially serious problem and will probably haul out and if I have to do that I should do some major work in order to say sail to Baja. New engine, transmission, new rigging prop work etc. easily another $20, 000 which brings me to $90, 000 total. Not bad but there really seems to be no end to the costs. A water maker, a life raft etc. another $10, 000 and these costs apply if I do all the work and that is not possible as I am not qualified or experienced in many of the systems. Rigging is intimidating, through holes cutlets bearing/packing box extremely intimidating, sinking is a problem, working with electricity that is literally under water in the bilge, intimidating at best, the there’s the keel bolts and the catastrophic failure of losing the keel is intimidating. I honestly think that I could make the boat sea worthy enough for ten years of sailing but I can also imagine sinking the boat at a much earlier date.

[kevinkoestler]

The most famous bluewater sailboat is without a doubt the Westsail32. That kind of debunks the size requirement to be called a "bluewater" sailboat. That being said I am enjoying your video. Thanks for sharing it with us all. It takes effort and I appreciate your work.

[beepseatsfindingfoodtreasu]

I was given a Flicka 20 Ferro cement hull and I Loved it! For two people it was fine! The cabin though small was full feature and with the solar system she had plenty of power the 9.9 long shaft was her only power. But her full keel and gaff rigging made her take all Lake Erie threw at her. So going larger isn't always what's best. How many people can trail their blue water to any coast and set sail? That advantage made her invaluable. And solo sailing was simple with all her rigging ran to the cockpit. And when docking the price per foot was more than affordable.
They all have advantages and disadvantages but when it comes down to it. A person buys a boat to sail it. I didn't need a crew I could just hoist the sails and go. My point is, But what sets your soul free. Don't buy a boat that requires others to make sailing possible.

[thomastaylor]

Great advice. We learned to sail in two seasons on a 19 ft dinghy. Then we bought a 29 foot older C&C. The C&C taught us what boat ownership was really like (good and bad) as well as helping us understand what we really wanted and the type of sailing we wanted to do. We then moved up, after 7 years or so to a 38 foot boat that enables us to do coastal cruising with some offshore overnights. Great advice!

[azothdrogo]

100% agree with this. My first live aboard boat was a Santana 25 (right outta college) and my second was a Catalina 35. Find out if you like the life first. I’m now having a a 60 foot catamaran built and I know everything I am looking for.

[dumbfrog]

My first real sailboat was $5000.00 and my second was $34, 500.00 and my home for 13 years

[isaacerwin]

I will literally live on a sailboat as soon as I save enough money to live on interest and get starlink internet. Hope I don't fall off.

[usernorcalroad]

One of the best things I did “even after years of experience” was join a sailing club and get ASA certified. Not only did I learn incredible skills and begin to use them, I have the opportunity to sail a variety of boats. Thankfully I live in San Francisco so every boat can be tested nicely. So far my favorite is the Beneteau 37 with in mast furling. Of course I love Swan, Oyster, and S&S but that’s a financial commitment that wouldn’t make sense. Beneteaus at 37+ feet are heavy enough to cross an ocean, but light enough to be fast. They point super high, and if you want to swim or make repairs in the open ocean the sugar scoop means you don’t have to trust your life to a line or a step ladder. Perfect boats if you ask me.

[ecnavttocs]

Glad to hear this as it is easy to get caught up in the Blue water dream and forget I will probably be coastal cruising my home waters for sometime before considering a blue water passage.

[garrettroberts]

Great advise. I totally F up my first purchase over a decade ago and bought a “fixer upper” Irwin 32 In hopes to sail it through the Bahamas. Needless to say I greatly underestimated the work needed to get the boat up to par and overall cost of mooring, docking, haulouts and all things associated with a midsize boat . Hell the Irwin wasn’t even a “blue water” yacht. That same year I bought a sunfish and then a laser and had the time of my life blasting around the bay. Life happened and the Irwin never got a refit and ive still yet to go to the Bahamas. Since then I’ve learned a great deal about cost, boat design, sailing and what kind of boat I want for the long haul. I’ll keep sailing the little daysailers until I have the funds to get exactly what I want and it will NOT be a “fixer upper” but it will also NOT be a $200, 000+ boat. Aye, certainly long for the circumnavigation of planet earth but may not be able to do that for another decade.

[samsung]

I went with my Privateer 20 coastal cruising once. I lost count of how many times I got slammed by the waves, got my stuff thrown all over the place inside, broke like 4 glasses and 1 bottle of wine, I puked two times. 10/10 would do it again.

[timothythorne]

Watch this video at 1.5x speed and it’s perfect

[matdur]

You don't become a sailor, you become a shipwright