Couple sells all, buys boat, sinks

Sorry, I don't have much sympathy for the couple after reading this - I've been following the story on a sailing forum (with much more info). I wouldn't give them a dime...

If it’s true they’re planning to abandon the boat where it lies in St Johns Pass, I hope the state of FL bills them to remove it and they lose a big chunk of their go fund me money.
 

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Inexperienced kids, with no money, and no real training, end up sinking their boat when traveling an unknown to them area, at night, by themselves, without bothering to research where they were going worth a darn, and have to get rescued.

They ran their boat aground due to stupidity as I understand. The info about the channel's condition (and need for dredging) has been posted just about everywhere that a sailor should look, so not knowing about it was due to their own willful ignorance (a proper instruction into sailing would have told them to check for such things I would imagine, I can tell you this time next year when I expect to have my ASA 101, 103, and 104 certs done).

Either way, they had $94 to go to the keys and set sail around the world?? That's not enough to feed them on the way to the Bahamas, much less cover the costs of cruising around the world.
 
If you want a real-life version of this with a more disastrous ending, read "And the Sea Will Tell" by Vincent Bugliosi. Briefly: young couple buys scow, planning to find an uncharted Pacific island and live off the land in Paradise. They show up a few months later back in port in CA in a luxuriously-appointed yacht which they said had been found abandoned.

Years later someone on a remote island finds a couple of wood crates floating up from the sea containing the bodies of the yacht's owners. The real story: they did manage to get to an island although the guy kept getting seasick and went through their stash of pot to treat it, then ate too much of their food supplies. The woman, who had a few brains, figured out how to use a sextant and even realized she had to reverse everything when they crossed the Equator- but they found life harder on the island than they anticipated. Awhile later a wealthy couple shows up in the yacht, with everything including a refrigerator and a machine shop on board. They murdered the couple.

But- to get back to the OP- young people do stupid things, but I wouldn't be one of those contributing to a GoFundMe page- I assume they didn't even buy insurance since it's not mentioned.
 
This story hits a little too close to home for me. I recently joined, and posted in the "Hi I am..." thread about our plan to FIRE and live on a boat with two kids for a couple of years. Our boat is more seaworthy, insured, we have a bit more experience, and have the FI piece in place before RE, but I'm sure we will make some rookie mistakes.

To take a more generous view of the couple in the article, I would draw parallels with the Bumfuzzle couple. I first heard of them through this forum years ago, and they were part of the inspiration of our plans. They took off in a boat with little experience and sailed around the world. They've had other impressive adventures, and are currently back on a boat with two kids in the Bahamas. Hopefully the couple in the article are able to pull it together, learn from this failure, and have the life they are dreaming of.
 
The Coast Guard is making them get the wreck out of the channel, cost about $10k, so that’s supposedly what the Gofundme is for. They’re lucky this happened on day 2 close to help. I have to say this story fascinates me for some reason.
 
powerplay said:
They already have $9,284 pledged on their gofund page. It certainly seems that some disaster was likely with their plan and preparation or rather lack of.
Click to expand...

They've raised over $11,000 so far. I cannot believe people donate to them. They are young, don't want to work, and are paying the price for it. I would not bail them out, and I wouldn't donate to anyone where it was not a true emergency or tragedy. They need to go back to work and raise their own funds.
 
The only thing I can relate to so far is their original desire to live a life beyond megacorp. Outside of that, their story is not one I can be very sympathetic towards.

Maybe they use their gofundme dollars to hire a public relations specialist with the goal of creating a storyline that generates more empathy. Isn’t that the way to do it these days?
 
MuirWannabe said:
The only thing I can relate to so far is their original desire to live a life beyond megacorp. Outside of that, their story is not one I can be very sympathetic towards.

Maybe they use their gofundme dollars to hire a public relations specialist with the goal of creating a storyline that generates more empathy. Isn’t that the way to do it these days?
Click to expand...

That's all well and fine, until my tax dollars and SAR personnel safety are added to the mix....
 
MuirWannabe said:
The only thing I can relate to so far is their original desire to live a life beyond megacorp. Outside of that, their story is not one I can be very sympathetic towards.
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I can understand that at some point, but at 26 and 24 years old?
 
Love the drama of “sold everything they owned including their car” but that was 10k?! Really irresponsible. I have a nephew that just hit the Appalachian trail with no experience. I don’t think he has ever been hiking.
 
marko said:
I think all you need is a check for $500.

I'm a life-long sailor (and have taught sailing/seamanship) but was never asked about my experience when getting insurance.
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Experience and formal credentials can result in (very) minor reductions in premium, but are certainly not essential. See generally this thread: what is your qualification worth for the insurer?.

The most important underwriting criterion in obtaining insurance for recreational vessels is their age (newer is cheaper than older). Boats more than 20 years old can be very difficult, and certainly expensive, to insure.
 
Midpack said:
I think every boat insurance app I've ever filled out asked how many years experience and what courses have I taken (Coast Guard, Power Squadron, Colgate Sailing School, etc.) - but I agree there's no licensing and no verification whatsoever. It appears you can say whatever you want on an application.
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There is no real incentive to lie on the application. First, because it doesn't have all that much effect on your premium (see post 41). And secondly, because if you ever have a loss then the insurer will verify, and the claim will be denied for material misrepresentation.
 
What a couple of morons. Sell "everything" that they have... pay $5,000 for the boat and $5,000 to fixed it up and they don't have $6,700 needed to recover it? :facepalm:

What did they plan to live on while sailing?
 
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pb4uski said:
What a couple of morons. Sell "everything" that they have... pay $5,000 for the boat and $5,000 to fixed it up and they don't have $6,700 needed to recover it? :facepalm:

What did they plan to live on while sailing.
Click to expand...

Just remember, these people are allowed to vote in elections. :LOL:
 
Funny! I had actually typed "And these people are allowed to vote? :facepalm:" and thought better of it but we had the same idea.
 
pb4uski said:
What a couple of morons. Sell "everything" that they have... pay $5,000 for the boat and $5,000 to fixed it up and they don't have $6,700 needed to recover it? :facepalm:

What did they plan to live on while sailing?
Click to expand...

Fish?
 
pb4uski said:
What did they plan to live on while sailing?
Click to expand...
While it's difficult for me to understand, there are other young cruising couples out there attempting to earn a crust through Patreon. Perhaps that was their plan? :confused:
 
IMO, the most irresponsible thing these not overly thoughtful people did is take a pug on a boat. Pugs are not water dogs. Possibly the worst swimmers in the dog world, despite the cute surfing pug videos you see on YouTube. And they don't take heat well either. Very selfish behavior.
 
Milton said:
While it's difficult for me to understand, there are other young cruising couples out there attempting to earn a crust through Patreon. Perhaps that was their plan? :confused:
Click to expand...

The difference is those getting money from Patreon don't start out broke and needing the money, they start out with cruising money, make videos/blogs to develop a fan base over months/years, and THEN they start getting some money from others to cover their cruising costs. These morons had $94 left when they started their 'journey' iirc..
 
I have a mantra - if it flies, ****s or floats, don't buy it

could have saved them 10K

I need to add golf cart to that list
 
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