If you are the type of person who adores the smell of salt breeze in the evening and the soothing pitching motion of the sea, then life on the open waves could be just for you. If you don’t want to sign up to the Navy and spent weeks and weeks at sea, then owning your own yacht could be just for you, and this will allow you to get out on the open waves whenever you what to. If you are rich enough to afford your own yacht, you may consider getting a nice sailing yacht, a luxury motorboat or a speedboat.
I personally would not choose a sailing yacht, although I can see the appeal of using the power of the wind and the sea to quietly and calmly cut through the open waves. The problem I have with this is I would want my time at sea to be lazy, and having to constantly trim the sails does not sound exactly lazy.
I would probably not select a speedboat over a motorboat though; although a speedboat would be lots of fun. The thing about speedboats is they have very little luxury to them. It’s just a way of travelling across the open waves at high speed, which of course is fun and can be necessary when you’re in a hurry. The other thing about speedboats is they are often open topped which leaves you open to spray and the weather, which let’s face it is not nice if you are either getting soaked by the spray or getting fried by the sun.
I would have to choose a luxury motorboat to cruise the open waves, as it would be something not too big, with a couple of luxurious bedrooms that would have space for me and my girlfriend and a couple of friends. Also, it would have to be rapid when I wanted it to be, but also nice and smooth and a silent cruiser most of the time.
Before you go out and buy a yacht of your dreams there is one very important thing to think about and that is money, as any sort of yacht is not cheap to buy and run. A small rubber inflatable can set you back as much as a thousand pounds. Large boats like speedboats, sailing ships and motor yachts tend to start in the tens of thousands of pounds for a small second-hand one and this can rise to millions of millions of pounds for large oceangoing ones.
Once you have bought a yacht of your dreams the expenditure do not stop there, as regular maintenance is required to keep the yacht seaworthy. Simple things like wiper blades are more expensive, and replacement wiper blades have to be bought regularly as the salt attacks the rubber wiper blades and the metal frames. My tip to reduce the money spent on replacement wiper blades is to buy flat wiper blades made from silicone. These wiper blades may be one of the costly on the market, but you make your money back and more by not having to buy them as frequently. This is because of the design of the flat wiper blades, there is no metal frame to rust and because they are made from silicone, the salt water will not damage them. Another thing to consider is fuel costs as nowadays fuel is not inexpensive and only seems to go up and up, so it is always best to shop around for the cheapest price. It is important to remember you cannot just pull over and then pop down to the nearest petrol station when you run out of fuel in the middle of the sea.
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