Advice needed on retirement plan.

Hi,

I'm not sure where best to post this and felt that this might be the best area to start with so apologies if its the wrong place.

I had a mad idea a couple of years ago on what I wanted to do when I retired, basically at the time I was restoring an old wooden canal cruiser, some said she was too far gone from saving but after nearly 1,000 man hours of work she was refloated back on the canal. During her restoration it occurred to me that I would like to restore another boat, a larger boat as a live-aboard and retire to her, ideally using her to sail (although obviously it would be under power) around the world.

While researching the idea I came across this site and have been reading posts and looking at various vessels ever since.

I'm now almost at the stage where buying a boat to start work in is becoming a reality, I realise that working on one of these vessels will take a lot longer than my 25' boat, but I plan to do it over the next 10-15 years, spreading the work and obviously the cost.

I want to restore the vessel to her original shape, with as few changes to her shape as possible, but internally she would be all modern for long term living.

However the questions that I have are more about things like sea-worthiness, obviously some of these vessels were used in blue water for rescue and other duties. Fuel costs are a concern, however I want to use diesel electric hybrid propulsion or some of the high efficiency electric motors to use when "pottering" around and speed isn't required.

All the advice I'm after initially boils down to, what type of boat to go for? Initially my thoughts were one of the older wooden boats, I can do wood work, I have a reasonable supplier for hardwood, however they seem to be quite rare, or in reasonable condition so command more money, or in most cases their current owners want unrealistic money for them. I know for long term live-aboard I need 60+' in length.

I know a lot of people are going to say:

"are you mad?" - Yes
"don't do it" - someone has to, otherwise we lose these vessels
"do you know how much that will cost?" - unfortunately yes , budget to restore will be around 100k

I have considered a newer, steel or aluminium boat, but haven't managed to find any real details about them. This seems to be the best resource I have found on the internet to this class of vessel.

Any help/pointers/advice (constructive) would be greatly received.

Cheers

- Paul

Hi there,

Think I need to remember that I have my signature enabled and don't need to keep adding it to my posts

Hi Paul, My name is Peter Wallis and, as in Christian's post above, I was the owner of Fervent - now "32". If you are interested in purchasing "32" I have hundreds of photos of her which may be of interest to you. I would VERY much like to see 32 rescued from her present location and have work done on her which she richly deserves. She was/is a very fine hull and gave me years of pleasure and adventure. I have written a comprehensive story of my adventures with her (Part of which has been reproduced in Christian's post) You can contact me via email: pjwallis2@bigpond.com

Greetings from (currently) Borneo/Malaysia.
Have you thought about to cruise now and not in 10 years? We have got such a vessel, a 62' Trawler Yacht equipped for cruising the world and we are looking for somebody with a brought range of skills to help us keeping the vessel in good shape. Sounds interesting to you? Please contact ulrichkuhl at gmail dot com.