So this will be a series I guess. Giving me a better grasp of what I want and to give the uninitiated a better understanding of my struggles. Luxusprobleme is the german term for the struggle to find a decent yacht btw.

Question #1 is normally: How big a boat should be? This one is relatively easy to answer: As small as you feel comfy with. The larger the more expensive. As a rule of thumb the price doubles for every meter of length, so a 11m boat is 4 times the price of a 9m boat. The curve gets rather linear for large values, Superyachts for example are around a million per meter. Since I’ll be living on the thing I want standing headroom and some space, so it will be around the 11m of length and 3m wide. Less room than a 20m2 room for comparison (boats ain’t brick-shaped).

Question #2 is normally: Price?. This depends on Question #1 of course. For Example a new Dufour 350 (35ft -> 11m, mid range mass produced model) retails around 150.000€ and is neither equipped nor really suited for long distance travel. A new suitable and decently equipped boat for travelling probably runs around half a million but since these are not really mass produced there are no price lists available. Having a boat is also pricey, if you’re not into DIY expect to pay 10% of the buying price each year as expenses (insurance, service, harbours, …). To cut a long story short: buying new is beyond my budget, even if I could come up with the purchase price, the running costs would push me in a full time job which would take all the travel time away. So were looking more at 40+ years old boats, costing around 10% of the aforementioned sums.

Question #3 might be: Sailboat or Powerboat?. This one is related to #2 as well. Powerboats are so thirsty that I just can’t afford long distance travel with them. And there’s the impact on the environment, organisational issues (no gas station in mid atlantic), the noise of the engine, …

To sum it up: Sailboat, around 11m long, 3m wide, and 30+  years old. Standing Headroom, suitable for long distance travel. Got a picture yet? No? Just bear with me, I’ll fill in some details…