Dreaming Big, the Five Year Plan

9

First we wanted a boat. Then we got a boat. Then we realized it wasn’t exactly the perfect boat. Then we realized the perfect boat doesn’t actually exist.

We love our boat, Chantelle (we didn’t choose her name, she came with it and it was painted on so nicely we chose to live with it), but we are outgrowing her in a few ways.

After just a few short years we came to the realization that a planing hull wasn’t really what we needed since we generally travel rather slowly. So we thought a trawler might be what we were after. But the more time we spent sailing with friends the more we liked it.

Then we chartered a sailboat in Greece for three weeks…and we were officially hooked. So now the planning begins. It’s a long way off yet, but we are in the market for a sailboat.

We looked over a number of makes, narrowed it down to three: Catalina, Beneteau, Bavaria.

Bavaria was knocked out of the running relatively quickly and we are now down to two.

Size is the next issue. The Catalina’s we like are either the 42′ or the 47′ two cabin pullman style.

The Bavaria will either be the 46′ or the 49′ two cabin cruiser.

Ah, dreaming is so much fun. Decisions, decisions. The first step is done, we joined a local yacht club. Next we need to actually get in with our current boat, probably at least a year or two off. Then get the mortgage paid off…about 4.5 years…finally…start shopping in about 5 years.