SUNSITE

It has been our goal for a very long time to acquire a sailing boat with the intent to live on board it. Our plan of late has been to buy an apartment in the city, live there for a few years and then buy the boat and move to the boat wile renting out the apartment. After some financial calculations and taking Suzy to the Melbourne boat show we are seriously thinking about reversing those plans, buy the boat first and then later buy the apartment. With the housing bubble, rising interest rates and inflation this may even make financial sense in the short term.

So now we are have taken to trawling the internet for sailing boats, rather than apartments. Boatpoint.com.au has taken over from realestate.com.au as our most popular website. Suzy likes the bright and open spaces of the Catalina and I keep hoping we will find a reasonably priced catamaran at a livable size. The end result however is more likely to be a hardcore cruising yacht of about 33 feet. Most likely an Australian design and build as they seem to be more reasonably priced than the imported boats. Australians are also very good at designing and building boats intended for living aboard and cruising the Pacific. Bruce Roberts, Adams, Van De Stadt and Hartley are all good examples. In the catamaran category we have the Seawind, Jeff Schioning, Craig Schioning & Prestige which are all very good cruising cats.

Unfortunately Melbourne is not the best place in Australia to buy a good value cruising boat. The best deals are up in Queensland, Sydney, Darwin and Perth. Going to these places to have a look at yachts, and then getting the boat we buy down to Melbourne will be a challenge. To make it easier we may even tie the timing of the delivery to Melbourne to our wedding, which will be in August this year. Stay tuned, I will keep posting news on the boathunt as things progress. Right now we are both very excited about this option. This is the second time in the last months we consider taking this option and this time we are quite serious about it. Don’t be surprised if when you next come to visit us, you will be staying on the bay rather than by the bay.