Homeless No More!
When my wife and I sold our home in Annapolis, MD in the spring of 2012 and decided to live on our sailboat, many of our close friends and family hinted we would regret selling our beautiful Annapolis home. And everyone else we knew just thought we were crazy to live on a boat; and it was a very small boat at that (Odyssey was only 36 feet).
Last summer (2014) when we told everyone we were selling our small boat and we were NOT going to buy a house but were just going to travel for a while, I think some of our friends were really starting to worry that we were losing it and perhaps the state authorities need to step in.
Well I am here to tell you that, after 3 years, I can honestly say that selling our home was the best thing we ever did. It freed up a lot of funds (as well as time) to do things that we would not have been able to do otherwise. Since we sold Odyssey last summer, we have spent most of the last year visiting friends and family, hanging out in the Bahamas for several months, taking a couple cruises across the Atlantic Ocean, and traveling in Italy for 4 months with no worries about money. In fact, in the last year, we have been spending less money per month than we were when we had our mortgage-free home in Annapolis and a medium size sailboat. It has undoubtedly been the best year of our marriage. At some point I may write a blog post about the benefits of our year of shedding all our overhead and just traveling, but this post is about our next phase in life.
The reason this post is titled ‘Homeless No More!’ Is because we have just contracted to buy another sailboat. As more evidence we have lost our minds, we are still in Italy and we are buying a sailboat in the U.S. sight unseen. It is a long story how this came to happen, but basically when the right situation presents itself, you must act. This sailboat was simply too good a deal to pass up.
We are very familiar with the boat model we are purchasing. It is a production boat, so, just like a Toyota or a Honda, they are all the same. The only thing you are looking at when you buy a production boat is the condition, the equipment upgrades, and the price. Since we are still in Europe, we had our Annapolis broker, who we completely trust, negotiate the deal and fly down to Florida to check out the condition and meet the boat surveyor.
For the record, I was OK to continue with our full time traveling lifestyle, it was my wife who wanted to buy another sailboat and continue cruising the Bahamas and beyond. She felt we had only seen a small area of the Bahamas and there was much more to see. And she made a good point that, now in our late 50s, was the time to do the more active things that we would not be able to do later in life. We also love the camaraderie and the social aspect of the cruising lifestyle. But if we were to continue cruising I did think that we needed a bigger boat. Not a lot bigger but a few feet bigger. So the boat we are buying is a 2001 Beneteau 411; a 41 foot boat.
Why did we choose This Boat?
The Cost:
Our budget was a real limiting factor. Our budget was a maximum of $150k. But every cruising boat needs things done to it after purchase so it has the things you want and need. We were allowing $20k for these extra items. So we were looking for a well maintained boat that we could get for a maximum purchase price of $130k. This price does not allow for a lot of choice in 40+ foot cruising boats less than 20 years old. We considered several boats but we were biased toward Beneteau because of our familiarity with them. After owning Odyssey, a 1999 Beneteau 361, we are now very familiar with how to maintain them and we are on a first name basis with the Annapolis Beneteau Dealer parts personnel.
The Beneteau 411 Profile View
15 year old boats can really vary as to condition. So the trick is to find one that is in superior condition. These boats generally sell for between $100k and $125k depending on condition and equipment. The boat we are purchasing was very well maintained with so much upgraded and new equipment, the yacht listing took two pages to list it all. I estimated that for us to buy a good condition but average equipped 411 and then add the equipment this boat already had would cost over $50k. We got this boat for $110k. As I said it was too good to pass up and the unique situation with the seller was such that we did not want to risk waiting 4 weeks until we returned from Italy.
The Boat:
The Beneteau 411 solves a lot of the problems we had with our previous boat Odyssey. It is only 5 feet longer, but 5 more feet provides a lot more volume on sailboats. Here is a list of the things a 411 has over a 361:
- The 361 has 85 gallons of water, the 411 has 154 gallons. We average about 10 gallons usage a day so the 411 allows us to stay out at anchor for a week longer before needing to come back to port for more water.
- The 361 has a 20 gallon diesel fuel tank which is minimal, the 411 has a 39 gallon tank; the boat we are buying also has a 20 gallon auxiliary tank that was added making 59 gallons total.
- The 361 has one head (actually a good size head for a 36 foot boat), the 411 has two heads.
- The 411 has about 50% more inside storage area than the 361 for provisions, personnel effects, boat maintenance items, etc.
The 361 has a cruising speed of about 5 to 5.5 knots, the 411 has a cruising speed of 6 to 6.5 knots. - The 411 has a bigger cockpit and a bigger swim platform.
The deck plan of the Beneteau 411
From a living standpoint the biggest problem we had with Odyssey was the main cabin was in the stern of the boat and it did not have good air flow through it. The cabin was often too warm even with fans. The 411’s main cabin is in the bow area with a Pullman berth. It has 3 overhead hatches making for very good air flow through the stateroom and the entire boat.
The below deck layout of the Beneteau 411
One of the most important criteria in choosing a cruising boat if you are going to spend your time in the Bahamas is the boat’s draft. Odyssey had a 5 foot draft. This was manageable. There were some places we had to wait for the tide to rise before passing through an area or getting into a harbour, but 5 feet was OK. However, I would not want to have anything much deeper than 5 feet. As a sailboat gets larger the draft usually gets deeper. This was another advantage to the 411 over other 40+ foot boats. The 411 came in 2 drafts, 5’7″ and 4’9″. Most of the 411s built in America were made with the shallower draft of 4’9″ which is what we will have. The 411 mast height above the water is tall at 58.5 feet but there are no bridges to worry about in the Bahamas.
Our new boat is named “Satisfaction.” She will be our home for the next few years. We will spend about 2 months in Florida this summer making some upgrades and getting our personnel effects on board. Then after fully provisioning her, we will head over to the Bahamas sometime in September for more Bahamas adventures.
But for now we are on the Italian Riviera at Cinque Terra. The pictures below do not do the beauty of the area justice.
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