A quick need/want refresher...

Having a couple of boat related blogs that tend to fixate on the less expensive side of things, I get quite a lot of mail of the "how-can-I-have-the-stuff-I-want-for-not-a-lot-of-money" sort.

I'm pretty sure my answers to those folks are almost always disappointing because the words 'want' and the phrase 'not a lot of money' seldom, if ever, play well together.

For instance, a bunch of years ago I really, really wanted a Krogen 38 because it had just about everything I wanted in a cruising boat... Shoal draft, good performance, flush deck, good headroom, and a civilized interior suitable for long term living aboard. In other words, the perfect boat for me!

Well, except for the little fact that back then a new Krogen 38 was completely out of my price range (unless I took up a life of crime and went into politics or won the lottery).

Not having a talent for crime and since my luck is the kind that is sort of reverse to what one wants (the only lottery I ever won was the one for my draft number which I most certainly did not want to win!) the Krogen, as a new boat, was simply unattainable...

Sadly, today a used Krogen 38 is still far more than I can afford or what I care to spend on a boat.

So how to get what I felt I needed (Shoal draft, good performance, flush deck, good headroom, and a civilized interior suitable for long term living aboard) for what I could afford?

An older boat to rehab was my first choice but the search for a possible boat was unsuccessful as there are just not a lot of real shoal draft boats in the used market that actually sail well.

So instead, I built a Bolger sharpie as something of a stopgap because living in Paris was expensive and being able to move on to a boat would allow me to save money towards the sort of boat I wanted (I still dreamed of the Krogen) and we could sail to our hearts content when we wanted to in the meantime...

Loose Moose nestled in its Paris (Joinville le Pont) suburb berth which we paid $66 a month for including water/electric/showers.

We only planned to have Loose Moose for a couple of years but it was so comfortable and sailed so well that we wound up living on it for nearly five years... It may not have been the boat we wanted but it did fulfill our needs.

Loose Moose saved us so much money on Paris rents alone that we were able to amass enough cash to pay Phil Bolger to design Loose Moose 2 to better fill our needs  and build it.

The build and outfitting of Loose Moose 2 came to a fraction of what a Krogen 38 would have cost us and was entirely paid for by our savings from living on Loose Moose. Most folks get and understand the cheap and affordable boat thing but, what most folks don't understand is Loose Moose 2 (and Loose Moose before it) were both awesome boats...

Fact is, in my wants department Loose Moose 2 beat the Krogen on every point except a flush deck. It had a better more livable interior, more easily accessible storage space, good headroom anywhere you actually needed it, and would out sail and show its transom to a Krogen without even raising a sweat. Oh yeah, it could also SAIL in two feet of water!

What Wooden Boat Magazine had to say about Loose Moose 2

Which is a long and roundabout way of saying if you address your needs you just might find you get what you want.

Solving the cost per pound equation one step at a time...

Most people don't realize it but it is really rather easy to make building or rehabbing a sailboat a whole lot more affordable...

For example, let's look at hatches since I recently replaced a few on "So It Goes".

My options were to buy new hatches, try and find used hatches, or build new hatches. Of course, it's really a little more complicated because there is a real plethora of hatches available at a variety of price points and quality levels...

Take this Bomar for instance...

It's a really nice hatch, it's stainless and seriously heavy duty! The problem is it also costs way more than I care to pay at $849 for the size needed.

On the other hand, I could always go with a less expensive hatch but the cheapest I'm going to find is going to be around $300 or so... Not happy making!

Used ones always seem to have issues as people mostly replace them when they leak so there is a good chance I'd just be buying someone else's problems.

So why not build? The material to make a strong and leak-proof hatch are at most (including hardware) $75, it's an easy project well within the abilities of anyone who can walk and chew gum at the same time, and they're more likely to not leak than the various expensive made to order hatches available these days... Do I hear an AMEN!?

The three hatches I recently built for our boat to replace the leaky Lewmars took a half day of less than inspired work while costing a sum total of about $60 for the wood, glass/epoxy, and hardware. So you might say that I've saved between $840 to $2487 dollars.

As far as I know, the best discussion and how-to of building hatches is in Fred Bingham's "Boat Joinery & Cabinetmaking Simplified"...

...It's always worked for me.

but, then again, with a cunning plan and a thick skin...

OK, I think I've made my point that you cannot build a boat with a VolksCruiser budget if you play the game the way everybody tells you it has to be played.

So, you have a choice, you can either play by the rules or go rogue, step outside the accepted norms of sailboat fashion, and scandalize the neighborhood.

Give it some thought... It's really not an easy decision because your choice of boat and lifestyle, if you don't toe the fashionable party line, very much affects how folks relate to you and not always in a positive way.

I know because I built this boat and sailed it to a lot of places...

To say that a shoal draft, scow bowed, free-standing gaff cat rig sharpie upset some people's idea of the proper order of things would be something of an understatement...

Heads may have exploded...


Now if you can live with a bit of negative reaction, really pissing off some folks, and the odd head exploding...

...Stick around and we'll try and sort out the whole getting on the water for less gig!