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TrueNorth Yacht Advisors - Living afloat Over the past few years, a quiet shift has been taking place. As housing costs rise and long-term stability feels less guaranteed, more people are downsizing their lives. Vans, tiny homes, cabins, and off-grid living have all moved from the fringe into the mainstream conversation. Alongside this, another option is slowly being rediscovered — not loudly, not dramatically — but steadily: living aboard a modest yacht. Not as a luxury life

Boat Market 2026 Analysis: Insurance-Driven Price Split, Buyer Risk, and Why Survey-Prep Guides Matter TrueNorth Yacht Advisors This article explains how the 2026 used-boat market has split due to insurance and financing constraints, how that split changes real buyer risk and pricing, and how structured pre-survey preparation helps buyers avoid costly mistakes while identifying genuinely undervalued boats. 1. Introduction – A New Reality in the Used Boat Market Over the past

TrueNorth Yacht Advisors - Survey Guide Buying a used boat is exciting, but it can also feel like stepping into a maze of hidden systems, misleading listings, and details that only show themselves after the bill of sale is signed. A proper marine survey will eventually give you the hard facts — but the first viewing  is your moment to spot early warning signs, ask informed questions, and avoid wasting time on boats that will never be a good match. This is exactly where our US

Why the Tropics Turn Your Boat Into a Sauna—and What You Can Do About It. Cruising yachts can cross oceans, shrug off gales, and keep you alive when the weather turns vindictive. What they cannot do—on their own—is stay cool, dry, and civilized in tropical humidity. Anyone who has spent a wet season in Southeast Asia knows the truth: the climate always gets the final vote. Captn Tommy at the helm In Norway, ventilation is comfort. In the tropics, ventilation is boat preservat

Homesteaders Make Better Offshore Sailors Offshore provisioning is not about gourmet meals, it’s about reliable, shelf-stable food that works when marinas are expensive, grocery access is limited, and the boat is moving. This guide explains a practical bluewater pantry system using pressure canning and simple galley workflows, with an emphasis on safety, storage, and real-world seamanship. Most sailors can talk for hours about solar arrays, battery banks, windvanes, foul-weat

Most people ease into sailing gradually. We did not. Aphrodite 36 - TrueNorth Yacht Advisors first boat Our first sailboat — an Aphrodite 36 we bought with more enthusiasm than experience — was supposed to carry us from Stavanger to Alta. A thousand nautical miles, two kids, a tiny puppy, and two adults who absolutely did not know how to handle a sailboat at sea or in a marina. Tommy had sailed oil tankers for years, but those giants don’t exactly stop — they just begin the p

Buying a used cruising yacht isn’t complicated—until it is. One moment you’re scrolling through listings, dreaming about trade winds and sundowners. The next, you’re trying to interpret bilge photos sent from an owner who last used a camera sometime around the Nokia era. TrueNorth Boat Buyers Guide Most buyers quickly discover the same truth: A yacht may look perfect in the listing, but the real story is always in the details. And that’s exactly why the TrueNorth Survey-Prep

Why not choose a sailboat instead? Every few months, someone in a digital nomad forum posts a photo of a beach in Thailand and writes something like, “Imagine working from here.” The comments roll in: Which café? Is the Wi-Fi stable? What’s the best SIM card? Does the coffee come with oat milk?   For a community built on the idea of freedom, most nomads still stay surprisingly close to shore.   And yet, just beyond that same beach, there’s usually a handful of sailboats swing

The Seawind 1160 has earned its reputation as a capable, practical cruising catamaran — light on its feet, cleverly designed, and built for sailors who value simplicity over excess.But like every production catamaran in the 38–40 ft range, the 1160 has patterns.Not flaws — patterns. And understanding those patterns early can save a buyer dozens of emails, a few flights, and potentially thousands of dollars in surveys and haul-outs that didn’t need to happen. That’s why we cre

TrueNorth Yacht Advisors Before you spend thousands on travel and a formal survey, you need independent, model-specific knowledge to veto the wrong boat early. This two-step system is built for committed bluewater buyers who reward diligent sellers and walk away from costly problems. Step 1: The Model-Specific Survey Guide (USD 29) The Essential Foundation These aren’t generic checklists. Each guide is built on dozens of surveys, owner reports, and known failure patterns for

TreNorth Yacht Advisors - FP Helia 44 The Fountaine Pajot Helia 44 is one of the most popular cruising catamarans on the market — spacious, efficient under sail, and capable of serious bluewater passages. But like every production multihull, it has a set of recurring structural, mechanical, and moisture-related issues that buyers should approach with clear eyes. Across hundreds of buyer reports, owner logs, and survey findings, a pattern emerges: the difference between a grea

Choosing a production bluewater cruising catamaran is one of the biggest decisions a sailor makes. A boat isn’t just a means of travel; it becomes the framework around every hour of life at sea. Its structure shapes how it behaves in swell. Its systems determine how often you explore instead of repair. Its shading, ventilation, and weight distribution influence how livable it becomes during long tradewind passages or months in tropical heat. Pick the wrong platform and the fr

Step aboard enough boats and you start noticing something long before you see the woodwork, the rig, or the state of the sails. It’s the smell. Every cabin has its own version of it. Some are friendly and familiar — a mix of varnish, canvas, and the memory of yesterday’s coffee. Others remind you of wet lockers, old hose, and a leak that’s been there longer than the current owner. Whatever form it takes, smell is often the first hint of how a boat has been living. Boat smell

If yacht listings told the whole truth, life would be very simple. You’d scroll through a few dozen boats, pick the one that makes your heart skip, wire the funds, and sail off toward whatever horizon feels most patient that day. Sadly, the world of pre-owned cruising yachts doesn’t work like that. What you see in the photos is only a small part of the real story, and sometimes the part that matters least. TrueNorth Yacht Advisors It’s not that sellers are trying to hide anyt

What Chainplates Are (And Why Your Mast Refuses to Stand Without Them) Chainplates are deceptively simple pieces of stainless steel, usually flat bars bolted to the strongest parts of the hull. Their job is to anchor the standing rigging—the shrouds and stays that keep the mast from falling over whenever the boat leans into real wind. Classic sailboat - chainplates Think of them as the skeletal attachment points of your entire rig. Subtract them, and the mast becomes a very t

Some boats earn their reputation through marketing. Others earn it through glossy interiors, fancy upholstery, and a good Instagram filter. And then there’s Hallberg-Rassy — a yard that built its reputation the slow, stubborn, Swedish way: by delivering boats that look after their crew when the weather decides to make things interesting. Hallberg-Rassy 44 Survey-Prep Guide click here: The Hallberg-Rassy 44 is a perfect example of this philosophy. It’s modern, more lively tha

And why doing your homework properly can save you from a very expensive mistake. Amel 55 - TrueNorth Yacht Advisors Some yachts become popular because they’re pretty. Some because they’re fast. And then there are the Amels — boats that earn their reputation the hard way: by carrying real people across real oceans, year after year, while other yachts quietly give up. The Amel 55 sits right in the middle of that legacy. It’s the last great ketch of the old Amel philosophy, and

Stay with me for a few minutes and you’ll understand the 12 boats that offer the best mix of pedigree, build quality, and genuine offshore ability — all for under $50,000. And more importantly, you’ll learn the one thing every buyer must do before they fall in love with any of them. Westsail 32 Most sailors dream of slipping the lines and pointing the bow toward a horizon that doesn’t end. But dreams and budgets rarely speak the same language — especially when you start shopp

From the first listing click to final survey — how to cut through bad photos, hidden problems, and broker optimism using a structured pre-survey documentation method. Avoid this! Buying a Used Bluewater Sailboat the Smart Way Buying a used bluewater sailboat should feel like the beginning of a grand adventure. But for most people, it feels more like trying to solve a mystery using half a jigsaw puzzle and a handful of blurry, badly lit photos taken with a phone older than the

A data-driven look at falling demand, inflated asking prices, and how to secure a bluewater boat for far less than the listing price. The dreamboat? Every few weeks, a familiar drama plays out quietly in marinas around the world. A retired couple stands on the deck of their well-loved 40-footer, remembering ocean crossings, sunsets, and a time when diesel was cheap and their knees didn’t click. They list the boat for what it used to be worth — not what the market will actual