The whole idea of doing the VolksCruiser thing has everything To do with affordability and sustainable living. Apparently, not everyone seems to understand that.
It’s long been my opinion that the best place to find a good deal on a boat is being on the water and seeing a boat for sale that looks interesting. The problem, it would seem is that you need to have a boat.
Back when I built the first Loose Moose the plan was to use it to explore France and UK anchorages to come come across that mythical “perfect” boat waiting for us to come across its faded For Sale sign. As it happens, we found that that the plan got short circuited when we discovered that Loose Moose was just about the perfect boat but a kiss too small for the long run.
Still, moving on to Loose Moose forced us to do a big need/want process and downsize in a big way. So if we had found that perfect boat we’d already be up to speed on what we needed.
So, maybe instead of looking for that perfect boat today you’d be better off looking for a smaller, less expensive, and turnkey interim boat.
I’ve long had a SHTF hurricane plan where during “H” season I keep an eye out for likely small boats in the 25 to 30-foot that are a direct flight away from the Caribbean that we could go to in the event of losing “So It Goes” during a storm. Sadly, living in the Caribbean, we have far too much experience with storms, boats being lost, and the aftermath of disasters to want to hang around after a total loss scenario.
The idea of buying a turnkey CAL 25 or reasonable facsimile, then using it as a temporary abode while looking for a more long term situation. Having a small boat would also make doing any work on a new bigger boat easier as trying to live on boat you’re working on can be problematic.
Something to think about…