After so many years of building you deserve a bit of R and R!  The Queensland coast is a fabulous cruising ground and you could have a lot of fun and learn a great deal about what you really want from the cruising life.  The biggest challenge will be logistical, learning to live in a small space.  I have done it for 16 years on Arion, with occasional guests for a few weeks but I'd have to get rid of a lot of gear if I took a first mate aboard permanently.  I have everything I own on board the boat but it would make more sense, especially for the two of you, to put as much stuff into storage as possible.  On a small boat less is definitely more!  I sure wish I could follow that bit of advice more effectively!  I keep throwing stuff out but I swear that stuff is multiplying, breeding in the dark!  I have met old salts sailing happily up and down this coast in 16 foot trailer-sailers (you can do it in a bathtub if you pick your weather) but they are usually true minimalists, with one blanket, one knife and fork, one plate and one spoon, just about, salt water monks!  I do like the idea of a junk-rigged Clansman (wonderful sea boat), though it is still a small boat.  Once you have sailed up and down the Queensland coast on Redwing for a few seasons, north in April/May on the autumn south easterlies and south in October/November in the spring northerlies, you will know exactly what you want.

It is of course a dream and I realise I'm running a bit wild with it. When you've lived with a short horizon for so long, lifting your gaze can be quite intoxicating. We will be sailing Redwing for a while. The real bit is that we are selling our house and that may take a while. We can live on Redwing as we are both use to living in small spaces but long term a larger boat will be needed. My ideal solution would be to buy an unfinished project just needing rig or conversion and sail Redwing while we work on the new boat. What we need to do is move on to Redwing for a week or two and see how we go.

Gary Pick wrote:I hope you guys realise what you've started here?
A 40 minute sail and the next I'm buying a yacht overseas and sailing it home. Kez wants an adventure, she reckons she's bored now.

So, I'm wondering, what made you decide on a bigger boat suddenly?

Gary Pick wrote:Okay two boats to choose from so far, one in Portugal, looking ready to sail and one in Spain requiring a good bit of work. As I've said I don't have the cash yet and my valid offshore experience is pretty much nil. So a possible option, assuming either boat is still up for grabs and I don't find something closer to home is transport by deck cargo. Does anyone have any idea on the cost of this?

Gary

I don't know about the tax side of things in OZ but I can tell you that to transport a Contessa 26 from the UK to Hong Kong as deck cargo was in the region of £5K.  It was interesting to discover that the time of year that you ship makes a big difference.  The various shipping agents I  contacted advised that if I could have the boat ready to go at short notice a deal could be done, as long as you weren't in a rush to get the boat, and you didn't mind it sitting in a commercial port for maybe several months.

When I lived in Melbourne I shipped a boat back to the UK in a 40' container.  I can't remember the name of the agent I used in Oz but they were excellent.  I also made sure (following their advice) that I didn't have the boat near sailing condition.  So it was classed as a project/kit for custom's purposes. The project boat in Spain could well come under this catergory.... just a thought. 

Of course the money you spend on shipping any project could be spent on getting the boat seaworthy again, providing a floating home for you upon arrival. 

I can try to dig out the company details if it would help.

Peter

David Tyler wrote:

Gary Pick wrote:Okay two boats to choose from so far, one in Portugal, looking ready to sail and one in Spain requiring a good bit of work. As I've said I don't have the cash yet and my valid offshore experience is pretty much nil. So a possible option, assuming either boat is still up for grabs and I don't find something closer to home is transport by deck cargo. Does anyone have any idea on the cost of this?

I don't know, but if you contact someone like

http://www.sevenstar-yacht-transport.com/

destinations/pacific/australia.aspx

I think you'll find that the answer is "way too much".

Look at it another way: you're keeping Redwing long enough to sail up and down the NSW coast and learn the trade. The coast of Portugal and NW Spain is very similar to that coast, so if you bought a boat there, you could go on with the learning experience. Then, you're perfectly placed to do the easy run down to the Canaries, and on across the pond. As I said recently, if you can handle coastal sailing, then crossing an ocean is actually easier, it's just a psychological hurdle that needs to be tackled and overcome. You certainly wouldn't be alone, sailing from Portugal to Australia, as so many people are doing that run that there is always plenty of help around. So you might well sail back to Australia, but if you're going to live on the boat, then home is where the boat is!

Very true David. I have had a short horizon attitude for a long time and this thread and the thought of buying a bigger live aboard is going some way to changing that.