Bluewater/liveaboard forum?

[Mavanier]

I hope Nick doesn't mind me asking about other forums...
I'm wondering where the best place is online to get advice for an aspiring bluewater liveaboard cruiser. I frequent TOP, but the liveaboard section there seems to consist primarily of elderly wrinkled Med dwellers who call themselves liveaboards because they spend a few months of the year on their Bavaria in Greece.
What I'm really looking for is people who genuinely live aboard all year round, on modest budgets, plying the typical bluewater routes. Not people who happen to live on a boat in a marina somewhere, whilst holding down full time jobs and being generally tied to the land.
I've tried Cruisersforum as well but it seems to be mostly Yanks who pop from Miami to the Bamahas and back again every year...

Any other suggestions?

[claymore]

You're a bright enough chappie - what information could you possibly benefit from? Make it up as you go along and learn from the mistakes you make.
Sail this way by Stuart McDonald is a good book to start with.

The problem with going onto supposedly 'expert' falorums is you get showered with their daft opinions - few of which are of much use. Bill and Laurel Cooper used to post on TOP and what a bigoted load of old bollocks he used to churn out.
Nah - just make your decisions based on what faces you - if you don't get is just right you will the next time.

[Mavanier]

haha thanks for the encouragement. There is certainly plenty of information out there- just finished reading 'Get Real, Get Gone' which is pretty much an updated and less eccentric companion to Annie Hill's 'Voyaging on a small income'.
Also a fair bit can be learned from Youtube, although I think we tend to see edited highlights which paint a rosy picture.

The questions I'm wanting to ask relate to things like equipment, cruising grounds, admin and bureaucracy. Not necessarily the most glamorous stuff, and also not relevant to people who aren't really long term travelling liveaboards.

[moomba]

Cruisers forum . a US site is good for liveaboards mainly those cruising the Caribbean and North America and the Pacific some good posters and lots of info and less hostile than TOP , you will find all essentials on it

[moomba]

Missed out Noonsite which has all the info for Countries and info for cruisers as well

[Mavanier]

Yes Noonsite is a great resource, many a happy hour spent on there.
I do use Cruiserforum a bit but perhaps I'm not posting/lurking in the right sections...

I did ask recently about people's choice of tender. It was quite interesting to see a wide variety of responses, with many people extolling the virtues of plywood sailing prams. Yet when I went back through the thread and tallied up the dinghies people were actually using, it turned out that whilst lots of people thought plywood dinks were a neat idea, the vast majority were actually using a RIB with a large outboard.
So as with any forum I suppose you have to separate the useful information from the speculation and armchair opinions...

[claymore]

Read Stuart McDonald. Sail this way. He nails the section on tenders.

[moomba]

There is also some good cruiser blogs and websites out there , but as everything its an opinion and we like to have an opinion

[wully]

Buy Annie Halls book ‘Voyaging on a small income’ Everything you need to know is in there.

[Mavanier]

Buy Annie Halls book ‘Voyaging on a small income’ Everything you need to know is in there.

Have read it cover to cover quite a few times.
It's good, and thorough, but IMHO she is quite a fierce advocate of ideas that are not mainstream, without really giving much consideration to differing opinions.
E.g. she reckons plywood epoxy is the ultimate in low maintenance boatbuilding. I do not agree!
She reckons that teak decks are unbeatable as a low maintenance and non slip deck surface. Personally I prefer grp with Interdeck on it. I know which one will occupy less of my time and money in the long run.
So when she opines about tenders, I do take it with a bit of a pinch of salt. Yes, some people do happily build and use a plywood dinghy and no outboard. But some people also use a bicycle instead of a car. Some people cruise in engineless boats... anything is possible really, but I'm not convinced that the ascetic life is necessarily for me...

[wully]

You don’t need to follow it chapter and verse....

I’m sure you won’t obey all the stuff on a web forum either?

[Mavanier]

You don’t need to follow it chapter and verse....

I’m sure you won’t obey all the stuff on a web forum either?

Haha certainly not... but I do try to learn from other people's mistakes where possible...

[steveyates]

Doesnt the cruising association have most of the lowdown on the admin and bureaucracy of different cruising areas?

[wully]

The CA strikes me more as a business than a club...

I would suspect the joining fee would be better spent on a few beers with fellow travelers en route than is hanging around a club in London.