Complete Newbie looking for help

[Lady of Garthmere]

Hi all,
We are in advanced negotiations to buy our very first boat, we have always fancied owning a nice boat, but as we all know the costs are prohibitive, but we are now in a lucky enough position to be able to buy one.
She is a 52 foot cabin cruiser, probably not the best choice as a first boat, but we have always jumped in feet first. Anyway as complete novices, can anyone please tell us what license we would need to be able to sail her in the med, also we guess we must have a license for the onboard radio equipment?.

We will take some RYA courses as we have not a clue on navigation etc, so would not dream of venturing out until we have the necessary paperwork and can navigate without electronic aids etc, it will just be used as an expensive holiday home on the marina, or if anyone knows if there may be a good rental market, or if I could hire an experienced skipper to take her out for us?, anyway we would really appreciate any advice because we really dont know where to start
Thanks in advance
Denise & Geoff

[bobholiday]

Are you serious?!? That's crazy!!

I did a similar thing in that I recently bought my first boat - with no experience - and did various RYA courses very rapidly before taking it out for the first time. But that was a Westerly Centaur - 26 feet long.

a 52 foot cabin cruiser is going to be one heck of a handful!!

Unsure that you _need_ any official licences other than the ones to operate your radios. You will need to do a DSC VHF course (RYA - takes one day, approx £100).

Suggest you also do:

RYA Powerboat Level 2 (2 day practical course) ~ £300

RYA Dayskipper Theory (Can be done as a correspondence course, takes approx 1 week full time, or spread over a year if you like) ~ £250

RYA Dayskipper Practical (One week course aboard a yacht) unsure of price of this as I've not done it.

RYA Diesel engine course.

The above would be an absolute minimum I should think. Followed up with a good few days of "own boat tuition" with a qualified instructor.

PS. Have you contacted insurers yet? You may find you have a slight problem there given your lack of experience.

Got a photo of the boat?

[Lady of Garthmere]

Hi Bobholiday, Thanks for replying to our post, in answer to your question, yes we are crazy, I think all boat owners must be , anyway, thanks for the great advice, don't worry we are not crazy enough to venture out without the proper training and we we have completed the great RYA courses you suggest, we would have a lot of on board tuition from an experienced skipper, but what we do find amazing in these hard financial times is, we have sent 3 emails to the broker and tried to call them but no response, so looks like we will have to find another boat to try and buy.

We have looked at the Poole boatshed website and boats and outboards, so if anyone else could suggest any other good sites that would be great. We are defo after a cabin cruiser and do fancy a 50 ft plus one, we seem to be drawn to boats around the 1970 to 1980 era, they just seem to look better, but as we said in our original thread we are complete newbies.

The radio tests should not be to bad as I am a fully licensed radio ham, so should have a head start on that course at least, so much to learn, think our heads will explode

Cheers
Denise & Geoff

[bobholiday]

I think I may know the perfect boat for you. There's a beautiful boat for sale down here in Plymouth Yacht Haven. Let me find you a link...

http://www.yachtworld.com/privatelabel/ ... m=pp233982&

It seems like an incredible bargain at £99,950.00, and is immaculate.

The broker selling it is great also. Very nice people.

[Lady of Garthmere]

Hi Bobholiday,
Thanks for the link, I agree a very nice boat, but her who must be obeyed says she wants a twin screw motor cruiser, so I think she will get her way