# Any alternative to buying for international trip?



## robinls (Aug 10, 2012)

Greetings everyone. I was hoping to tap into the collective wisdom found here. I have been searching and reading the forum for awhile and would like to finally start participating. I would like to make a trip from Houston to Cancun Mexico Finishing in South Florida. I want to do this with just my wife and I. Is there anyway this could be done without purchasing your own sailboat. Obviously the marinas will not rent it. It seems that even the fractional ownership programs have restrictions on them. Is there a community of sailboat owners that would allow a boat they have sitting to be "rented" for such a purpose? I have been sailing now for about a year and a half. The first 20 hours or so was on a sunfish and I have begun to sail the small 20 footers in the yacht club here, (they are far easier to sail). I have begun looking for my own sailboat. During the search I have began to realize that the all around involvement and expenditure of buying and outfitting a boat for this trip is very great. I have also realized that I will likely only be interested in this one trip and then will likely not sail again for awhile, pending job reassignment. So, long story short the perfect solution would be a two week rental for a Houston, Mexico, S. Florida trip... Does such a thing exist???


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## johnnyquest37 (Feb 16, 2012)

Renting a sailboat is known as "chartering." Based on your sailing experience, it is doubtful that any charter company will charter a larger boat to you, let alone for the trip you are looking at. And the trip you are looking at is much more than a two-week sail. Houston to Cancun is close to 700 nautical miles. Houston-Cancun-Tampa-Houston is close to 1800 nautical miles. At 100 NM/day, you are looking at 18 days, and that would be non-stop, 24hrs a day, assuming 100 NM made good each day. 

A better idea might be to sign on to a two-week learn to sail course. You and your wife will have the two weeks of sailing and you'll end up the certs you'll need to charter on your own in the future.


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## robinls (Aug 10, 2012)

Thank you for your reply. That certainly sounds like what I am seeing in the market.


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## tomandchris (Nov 11, 2009)

Some people take a year or more to make that trip. I think you need to gain a little more experience and decide if the trip is worth the price of the boat as finding someone to bareboat charter a boat for that trip is near impossible.

If you just want to do the trip you could probably find a captained charter but the time window will be much larger and the boat probably a minimum of $5K a week and potentially a lot more.


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## ccriders (Jul 8, 2006)

Did you check with Watergate and the other marinas about rentals? While your experience is lacking for a trip you describe, that could be rectified fairly quickly at one of the schools. Then you could get the list of boats for sale and make a charter/rental offer on ones that are up to the task. Who knows, with good credentials some owners might be willing to get a little cash flow from their boats. Times are tough and boats are expensive.


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