Hello everyone - We have been surfing the forum for some time now but are making our first post this evening. We're researching possibilities for a vessel and looking for some suggestions to help steer us in the best direction. We're planning to retire in a few years, sell the house, and liveaboard full time. We've done a good bit of reading, gone to several trawlerfests, and spent some times with friends on larger boats. We've developed some thoughts on how we'll use the vessel and certain attributes we'd like to have and would like to hear some suggestions on ships that might fit our needs.
We expect to be mostly coastal cruisers. We have family in the Chesapeake area that we would plan to visit from time to time but would prefer to spend most of our time in the warmer waters off Florida and the Keys. We're both avid divers and would plan to dive from the ship as well. The most ambitious we would ever get would potentially be the Great Loop or possibly the Bahamas.
Some features we're initially considering are...
-Overall theme of simple, reliable, easy to maintain
-Full displacement, slow cruising, efficient on fuel
-39 to 45 ft, ease of handling by two people and possibly one
-Low horsepower, top of the line single engine
-Max of two staterooms (second to be smaller for possible visitors)
-Second head not a hard requirement, single head must have full shower
-Fiberglass with no exterior wood, as low maintenance as possible
-Flybridge helm nice for cruising but not a hard requirement
-5 to 10 years old in good condition, not a fixer upper
-Nice size swim platform with dingy storage
We haven't set a hard budget yet but for the sake of this post let's keep it under $300k.
Thanks in advance for any help we may receive and we welcome any questions to clarify what we're looking for.
Regards!
We expect to be mostly coastal cruisers. We have family in the Chesapeake area that we would plan to visit from time to time but would prefer to spend most of our time in the warmer waters off Florida and the Keys. We're both avid divers and would plan to dive from the ship as well. The most ambitious we would ever get would potentially be the Great Loop or possibly the Bahamas.
Some features we're initially considering are...
-Overall theme of simple, reliable, easy to maintain
-Full displacement, slow cruising, efficient on fuel
-39 to 45 ft, ease of handling by two people and possibly one
-Low horsepower, top of the line single engine
-Max of two staterooms (second to be smaller for possible visitors)
-Second head not a hard requirement, single head must have full shower
-Fiberglass with no exterior wood, as low maintenance as possible
-Flybridge helm nice for cruising but not a hard requirement
-5 to 10 years old in good condition, not a fixer upper
-Nice size swim platform with dingy storage
We haven't set a hard budget yet but for the sake of this post let's keep it under $300k.
Thanks in advance for any help we may receive and we welcome any questions to clarify what we're looking for.
Regards!