a little advise please

[rodmar]

hi, i have no idea of anything that has to do with boats or sea but i want to start, i am 25 years old, from mexico and i was thinking on buying one so i searched the web, prices were to high for me so i decided to build one and the kits are expensive too. besides all of that, there is an infinit amount of differente types, sizes, uses, performance, engeneering and names of sailboats.

my question is this, i want a boat that i can sail by myself but that it has also enough space for friends, i would like it fast, but i don´t know how fast can it be, i was thinking about a 40'.
i want to learn to sail deeply offshore!
what materials are best? fiber-glass, steel, wood, alluminium??? what size is good enogh for a couple to sail to the middle of the atlantic ocean and further? from mexico to... mmmm italy! jajaaa.
how fast is the fastest i can get? and what recomendations on finding less expensive ways of either buying one or building it?
where can i learn to sail?
i will learn and i will get a boat, nothing will stop me from achiving that jajaja but still, it would be of great help if someone helps me out with this.

thanks,

[mizzenman]

What makes you think that you like boat life?

i have no idea of anything that has to do with boats or sea but i want to start

buy an optimist pram and learn the basics, than go bigger from there

[Manie B]

i had to try this pasting thing just for FUN

i have no idea of anything

prices were to high

kits are expensive

sail by myself

space for friends, i would like it fast

thinking about a 40'

where can i learn to sail?

my good friend take good advise

buy an optimist pram and learn the basics, than go bigger from there

[rodmar]

the freedom, the getting away from anything, the arriving some place new every once in a while, the exitment of to sailing in rough waves (i would have to learn firs, i agree on that and probably it won´t be that exiting either, nevertheless!!!) the peace of nothing around and the exitment of ariving to some unknow place! being able to just "get lost". i guess that is the reason why... i do not want it to sound like a poem or a movie jajaja i just would like to do all of that! i have always wanted to sail across the ocean and get somewhere different.
now i work in a family business, owned by my father and that means i work seven days a week at least 10 hours a day, and more if needed, its been that way for three years now. After a while i just wish i could do the things i wrote before!

[Manie B]

i like you already - you sound just like my son

[longliner45]

your dream sounds good ,thats how we all started,,longliner

[Brent Swain]

40 ft is grossly oversized for what you need. I saw a Rawson 30 for sail at Mazatlan boats for $9,000 in Mexico. You could buy that and start your cruising in Mexico, if the boat is useable. At that price it would be a disposable, and thus far more worry free. Eventualy you will probably want a steel boat , but the important thing is getting started in relatively benign waters, in a boat that doesn't mater all that much..
Brent

[PAR]

I was born on a boat (no kidding) so I was doomed from birth, everyone else needs an excuse to explain their fetish with tossing good money into a hole in the drink.

Considering your experience level, you need a small boat, maybe one with camp cruising accommodations. These will let you get your feet wet (literally) and you will acquire the skills necessary to move up to larger, more expensive craft.

You should be looking for nothing bigger then 22', preferably less the 20'. There are thousands of these types of boats out there, but you have to dig them up. They'll be lying under tattered tarps, covered up in a carport or a barn, dieing a slow death in backyard, used as planters in larger gardens and every once and a while, in the classified section of the newspaper.

EBay is a good source, check there first. Go down to the local sailing club before 8 on a Saturday morning and see if someone needs crew for the days' sail. Make friends with someone that has a sailboat, preferably one with nice legs, about your age and is independently wealthy. Okay stop fantasizing and start looking, an welcome aboard.

[rodmar]

jajajaaaa! mixing a friend with good legs and learning has never given me much of a good gain on the learning part!!!

thanks a lot guys, i guess you right, i´ll try something small first; after all i would not even know how to handle a larger boat. and i steel have some years of hard work before i can afford one anyway. perhaps starting with a small one will keep me dreaming for a while longer every time i see a larger one pass by.
once, when i was younger, i saw a guy about 50 years old passing by on a dream car, i got exited and asked my father if he had seen it; my father said: yes!!! and then he asked me: did you see the man who was driving it? it was a man who worked his whole life before buying a car like that!!!i never forgot it. i guess i´ll have to work for a while too! thanks guys!

[Meanz Beanz]

My advice after watching people go through the process of boat choice for many years in the marine brokerage business is...

Find the most popular production boat with the best resale value in your area that is close to your needs. Use it for a few seasons, form firm ideas about what you like, dislike, need and use... then sell it and buy the right boat. If you don't have the experience you will find that you will be unlikely to make the right choice first up. You will find that with experience your ideas will change and the reality of boat ownership for you will also become very apparent. You may be very surprised with what you end up with after a few years on the water have better framed your view. So it is best that your first boat/s are very salable and preserve value so that once the right choice is apparent you can buy as much boat as you need. I have seen to many buy "dreams" and make costly blunders...

That was the general gist of my advice to first timers and the very few that took it on board certainly seemed happy with the eventual outcome, that being the right boat for them.