Advice Request on New Yacht

As my screenname implies, my wife and I are fairly recent large multimillion dollar lottery winners.

Having owned small boats almost all my life, both power and sail, and with a deep love for the ocean, my wife and I are considering buying a motor yacht as our primary home and sailing the world. In fact, this has been a dream of mine for decades.

This brings to mind thousands of questions, and I don't even know where to start! Does anyone publish a "Yachting for Dummies"-type guide? My uncle owned a 45' motor-sailer and I spent several summers sailing to/from FL/The Bahamas as a young man, so I do know a few minor things, but not nearly enough to chunk down megabucks without some good advice.

Scenario:
Myself, my wife, and one (maybe another later) small child, with ocassional guests (2-5 additional souls). Mostly warm-water ports worldwide. We are people of simple tastes/pleasures - being waited-on hand-and-foot and eating 4-star cuisine at every meal is not required or desired and nothing extravagant, like helicopters, are needed aboard. I am a currently-licensed RN and Amateur Radio operator. Initial (cursory) investigation convinces me that I'd be equally happy with a whiteship or a commercial conversion, as some expedition-type cruising will be done.

Several factors:
How large a vessel do we need to be "ocean-going" (small as possible - we really don't need the space for huge groups of people)? How large a crew? (I know that I'll need at the very least a qualified captain, for awhile anyway, for bluewater travel). What are the expected rates of pay for the necessary crew? What should I expect in the way of expenses for fuel, dockage/berthing, insurance, provisions? Is it possible to one day become captain of my own vessel? It is possible to find yacht captains that can "become part of the family" rather than just hired professional help? Would I be better off chartering?

As you all can see, I am adrift in a squall. Any advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much for the advice, Kevin. We played the lottery as a gag... you know... what will we do if we win? One quickpick ticket a week when the pool was over 25Mill.

Sometimes, Ladyluck just lands on you. We are just regular folks: we have no wealthy friends/relatives to help advise us in matters like this, and our financial adviser has told us to be VERY careful with whom we do any kind of high-dollar business.

We are planning a barefoot cruise soon (small party), because I have always enjoyed small boat sailing, but I already know that I want a motoryacht. My problem is that I am wary of involving too many people in my plans, because of the obvious security concerns. That's why I came here for some initial advice - so I'd know if I was being handed a bag of b/s, etc., by unscrupulous people when I do go shopping. I considered hiring a broker to help me, but I don't want to get ripped off, or be sold more vessel than I need; one with prohibitive costs of ownership. That money has to last the rest of our lifetimes!.

Thanks again.

Thanks, YF.

I'll look at those links you provided.

Any size recommendations? My first thought was in the 100'-120' range, but it seems a little ... large for our needs/wants, and if I go that large I'll likely be stuck with a professional captain indefinitely. However, I don't want to be 1000nm at sea in a rowboat without a clue, either.

99.5% of my boating has been done in protected waterways, and my "bluewater" experience was in perfect weather with the most careful human being on the planet in command. I can steer a heading, and do simple dead-reconing nav, and set an anchor in shallow, calm water; but that's about it.

Thank you very kindly, L_c. I appreciate the great advice.

I would love to come to Ft Lauderdale in October, but we have already booked a European "cooks vacation" for most of the month. We will be going to England, Ireland, and France - so I don't know if we'll be home in time, or if we'll feel like traveling again so soon if we do. However, I had already planned to tour some builders there, just to get an initial look around. I appreciate your kind offer, and may yet take you up on it.

As for the BIG yachts, I just don't think so. I'm really thinking in the 30-30m range, with a small crew; maybe 4. However, I do want in excess of 5000nm range and 45 days independence: I may HAVE to buy larger. I want to learn to competently conn my own vessel, and I'd really like to find longterm, loyal employees that become more like family. We are planning for this to be our nearly fulltime home - and we really care naught for opulence - so we'd like to keep the staff small and as informal as possible. For that reason, we may find our staff through an agency, but we plan to assist in all aspects of vessel operation and maintenance, and I want total yea/nay on the crew. I'm thinking, at least initially, about a highly experienced, professional captain; a hands-on ChEng/Bosun; a crew cook/steward(ess); and possibly a deckhand. Maybe a tutor for our child - but I'm not sure about that yet as we were considering homeschooling before our lucky day arrived. Anyway, those salaries you listed are tolerable.

I cook for my family now and always have; from cheese sandwiches to gourmet fare, so I see no need for a professional chef. Parties I'll have catered; who needs the trouble? As to maintenance, I'll spare no expense where that and safety are concerned. Any needs will be attended immediately; onboard or in a yard.

Maybe, If I can keep to the size I'm thinking and the number of crew I'd like to have I can keep expenses at a reasonable level. Your example didn't seem prohibitive, so I'm beginning to think this is doable. I was thinking 5.5-7m for the ship, and 1m/yr for upkeep. Your numbers seem in line with that.

Again, I very much appreciate your advice and information.

Thanks, Kelly.

Will do.

Thanks again, Kevin!

I was just starting to come to that realization when I saw your post. This site is amazing; the helpful people like yourself with such good information.

As funny as it sounds, I don't really care what the ship looks like; as long as she doesn't resemble a derelict scow.

I am much more about function than form, and my limited experience says the larger the vessel, the harder to handle, crew, maintain, etc.

Can anyone address the future ability of captaining my own vessel? Or are the training/licensing issues too complicated. Anyone have a recommendation as to Nation of Registry?

Thanks, Stan.

I suspected that, perhaps instinctively. However, my primary motivation in that regard was not wasting money by buying more ship than I need. I'm glad to hear (see) an opposing view.

Again, I suspected that. Having been a manager previously, I can attest that most of my problems were personnel-related. I am going to be looking for specific things in my crew: genuine friendliness, love of kids, relaxed atmosphere most of the time but an ability to be formal on ocassion, etc.

Sage advice. I also want to find one that will take pleasure in training a newbie ship handler (the owner!). Maybe one nearing retirement? We got lucky: we can, with careful management, live extremely well for the rest of our lives and our child(ren)'s lives - super rich we ain't!

I didn't know you could do that! What do the owners/crew do during transit? Fly over and wait? I'm not macho at all - a fair weather sailor at best. Can you address the possibility of eventually being my own captain? Pros, cons, and issues, if you would.

Au contraire! We've use up more than our lifetime allotment already! That's whay I'm asking questions now. Before I stick ... something in the fan.

Who cares? If it means I don't have to ride out a mid-atlantic storm, it'll be cheap at twice the price including air travel.