Here is where the real work starts; remember from step one:
“Your energy cannot be steered if you are not exerting a massive action towards your outcome, towards your dream.”
It is time to start steering your energy towards your goal. Start by doing the actions you listed in step two.
Here’s Ann and my initial action list:
- Try this sailing lark to see if we like it
- What production yachts were on the market
- Which yacht builders catered for liveaboards
- Learn about yacht maintenance
- Think about how we will finance the yacht
- Read some first-hand experience books
Remember we booked ourselves on a sailing course? That course was a five-day competent crew course with Westfleet Cruising in Neyland in Pembrokeshire. Well, June arrived, and we drove up to Neyland. Peter George welcomed us onto his Sigma 38 “Phoenix 2”. Ann and I thought this is great, at last a real yacht.
We were joined by another couple, Julie and Mark and a man on his own called Paul. We were briefed on the safety gear on board, where the seacocks were and how to switch them on and off.
Mark was an experienced sailor and was here to take his Practical Coastal Skippers Test. He would be in charge of the vessel for the week and do all the things skippers do so he could get the practice for his exam, which was to be held on our final day on board.
We had a wonderful time. It was dawn to dusk sunshine throughout the week. The wind was never over a force 4, and the Sigma sailed like a dream. I loved it, and Ann loved it. We put a big tick in the completed box on the list.
Both of us attended the Southampton Boat Show in September 1995. Lovely yachts, but only one we felt would suit liveaboard cruising. That yacht was the Island Packet 42 priced at over £300,000. That neg ferret on my shoulder started screaming again. I ignore it.
I read every single book I could find in the library ( Amazon had only just launched, and the internet was not what it is today). My work colleague Jeff helped as he had a well-stocked collection of sailing books.
We visited marinas and spoke with yacht owners in Milford Haven, Nayland and in Cardiff. The consensus was that it is possible to live aboard production yachts. But I had my doubts.
I subscribed to Practical Boat Owner, a well-known yachting magazine, and every month, I devoured the content from front to back. Reading each article several times. I read every single book by Eric Hiscock. Around the World in Wanderer 3, Cruising under Sail and Voyaging under Sail, to mention a few. Plus, books on boat maintenance and so on, you get the picture. Wonderful books giving insights into life at sea and living on a yacht.
Just for the record, after looking at all of the production yachts we finally concluded that the only way we were going to get the perfect yacht for us was to have one built or build one ourselves. I went on the search for a good design.
My colleague Jeff came through again. He had read lots of books about boats, and he gave me a copy of Joshua Slocum’s “Sailing alone around the world” and Bruce Roberts book “Spray, The ultimate Cruising Boat”.
Every word was studied in great detail. Two weeks later, I was convinced that a spray-type yacht was the one for us. We contacted Bruce Roberts UK and asked for some advice.
They were very helpful, and we concluded that a 38-foot Spray was the right size for us. Ann and I were taken on a different path to the one we thought was going to be the one to make our dream come true.
Had we given up because all the production yachts were not right or far too expensive to buy, that would have put an end to our dream. The new path led us down to building our own yacht; the hull was designed by a naval architect, Bruce Roberts. The internal layout and fit out by Ann and me. We got the perfect yacht to live aboard on.
Back to Your Action
I hope you take all of the above as guidance for your own action stage. Follow along and do what you wrote in your plan. Keep ticking off the list; as you take action, you will add to it and move forward.
The next step is Step 4: Review
