Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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do most boat owners just pay to have this done @Giles? or do they do it themselves less frequently? Does the marina require boats to be taken out and maintained a number of times per year? or do you simply not have a choice if you want your boat operational?
maybe it's like getting a vehicle serviced. every 6 months you have to take her out and give it a once over?
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I think that it is very variable. Most people who own boats I know take them out of the water once every 6 months or year (but then I'm in an echo chamber). At the very least you should check the anodes and jet wash the hull. You can do a "lift and hold" to do that, but this time I wanted to cut, wax and polish, check and top up anti-foul and sort out a warranty issue with one of the trim tabs, which required replacing a "hull-thru". I've taken the decision to pull her out again in October, because I want to check how my new anode regime is working, probably re anti-foul her and see how my bare metal running gear is holding up. I will get all sorts of deals on the lift out and trades in October, so I'm thinking of making that my annual pull-out. The yard was horrendously busy this time and there were only 2 slots all week for them to put us back in the water.
Having said all that, there are some extremely sad boats in the Marinas and on swinging moorings. People have fallen out of love with sailing, run out of money, inherited a boat, but aren't interested, bought. one and scared themselves shitless the first and only time they have taken her out etc etc.
Brighton Marina is a graveyard of rotting boats, the mooring fee's are very low, so you get loads of people who cant afford to live in a house living on a boat, but clearly money is still a struggle. The same too in Gibraltar, but that is more about broken dreams, people who wanted to sail the Med, round the world, across the Atlantic, but got as far as Gibraltar and then gave up, the Marinas are full of basically floating wrecks. I call it the Sea of Broken Dreams....
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@Giles That is a great read
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Oh sorry, I only partially answered the question. Many owners pay to get all this shit done, but then many owners struggle to put 50 hours a year on the hull (Paula and I are at 610 in 21 months), and treat them as floating cottages/gin palaces.......Not that I am meaning to be judgmental. But, it is important to me that I understand as much as possible about how the boat works and what to do when it breaks. Every time we do something like this I know that I know the boat better, and I think that makes me a better sailor, certainly a better owner.
We have found a number of issues with the boat (all warranty stuff) that probably exist on every one of these made. But we are pushing the boat probably more than any other owner, so we are finding stuff that no one else has found, changes have been made to the production line as a result.
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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@Giles That was a fantastic read. The folks at the Marina must see you as a model boat owner. I had this elevated view of your marina being full of active and engaged sailors I failed to see what's in front of my face. someone in my family has a boat in the marina on the river here in town and the shape of fellow boats and actions of fellow sailors sounds very similar. There's plenty of rotting boats, boats that never get launched in the first place when the ice is out, and many boats that are used as a weekend getaway but never leave port. So many people come down to the dock just to hang out and drink visit with other boat owners. Gas is so damn expensive a 3 hour cruise up and down the river can cost $300 in gas. plenty of people can't swallow that every weekend for reasons you stated. They inherited the boat, or bought it cheapish only to realize that boat ownership cost doesn't end at the purchase. It begins there.
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Yep. Before Paula and I decided that we wanted to do this, we put together a very padded budget and projection of costs for the next 10 years. It was doing that which made us realise we could actually do this crazy thing, but also not fret too much about spending money on fuel, marina fee's, maintenance etc. Because we padded the costs, I know we have wiggle room and as long as we come in under what the spreadsheet predicts per month, I don't care how much we spend. That way we can enjoy ourselves with no sorries about costs.
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@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
… But we are pushing the boat probably more than any other owner, so we are finding stuff that no one else has found, changes have been made to the production line as a result.
Exactly this doesn’t sound like retirement.
More like ‘shift and changes’ as a life motto.
Wasn’t there a plan of the Menorcan builders to sell in the UK based on your boat @Giles ? -
@jordanscollected Case in point…..
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Looks like a floating flop house! And it also looks like that solar panel has the day off today. Re: the condition of the boat, Give it a once over with a paper towel and she's sea ready.
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Thank you. The "doors" to the side decks are quite complicated, so had to be templated. So that has been done and it's all been taken down and back to the workshop to be completed...But we are more than happy, I think it will allow us to use the boat even more in the winter.
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@Giles I'm guessing indigo blue wasn't an option?
