Solving Problem 2 - Buying a Boat

In order to sail you need a boat with sails. But what kind of sailboat ? How big ? How much should we spend? Do we buy the boat we want to live on first ? Do we buy a smaller boat first to learn ? Where do we keep a boat ? On a trailer ? At a club ? Can we afford this ???

We had a few sleepless nights trying to figure it all out and tried to not make any mistakes. However in the end we knew we had 7 years before the youngest left the house for college so just went for the middle ground. We purchased a "starter boat" to decide what would work for us.

We decided on a 36 ft Catalina Sloop, not too big but not too small for 2  people. It was too big to trailer though so we decided on in the water. The closest lake to us, 30 minute drive from our house, is Lake Ontario. So we chose to keep it at the Yacht Club in a city named Hamilton. We purchased our boat after driving to the east coast and visiting a whole bunch of boat brokers before we settled on  a great boat from a man named George who lived in Massachusetts. If you really want a GREAT book that helps someone buy their first boat, you need to meet Fatty Goodlander and his wife who are in our opinion the the great guru's of saving money and living the dream...