We bought a catamaran and are moving to Panama with our 5 kids!

Cool. I just watched phonebooth. that movie budget most likely equaled the cost of your boat.

Isnt that a military boat? Better you spend your first werk painting it on rose color. I would not going around with that witj the chance of being mislaiding for a military boat.

There was a 50 foor Horstman trimaran on the wset cost for sale for a loong time and it sold for less than #100K.The guy actually had to trade it out in real estate You not only overpaid, you got far less boat. That Horstman was unbelievable!

I too am a multihull sailor.

The Leopard is a very nice design.

I will follow your site.

All the best in your travels.

Mosquito Coast OP? your poor wife and kids.

I guess i got deleted but have a great adventure anyway

Thanks! I must have missed your post!

Buy a dozen 26mm flare launchers and 150 cartridges.
Buy a dozen kabar knives and baseball bats.
Stash all over your boat to repel boarders.
A boat with that many able bodied people needs lots of tools to defend it.

We didn't really pick Panama (Bocas del Toro), but the boat was there when we bought it. I went down to look at it and fell in love with the area. Close to everything. Easy sail to the Caribbean and S. America, easy transit through the canal for the Pacific.

Bocas del Toro area is an archipelago of hundreds of islands. Absolutely beautiful! Awesome surfing and nature preserves. Reminds me of what Key West must have been like about 40 yrs ago.

Panama has a stable government, low cost of living. Slip fee is only $600/mo for our size boat. Good medical care in Panama City (about an hour plane ride away). Easy residency requirements.

Actually, she had 4 at the time she was working doing charity work with orphans in Central America (something she and the kids are passionate about!). She fell in love with a little 2 yr old boy that was found in a park abandoned with cigarette burns and bruises all over his body. She and her then-husband adopted him. A month later, she found out she was pregnant with twins! She went from 4 to 7 kids within a year!

Well stay safe, glad you're leaving before the hurricane season. so what makes you pick Panama? Don't the Chinese own that now?

Youngest 12 yr old twins. 15, 17 and 18. They all can't wait!
They spent the last 5 years living on the big island of HI. So they love the tropical weather and ocean.

I'm sure it is a great boat. But no, we didn't over pay. The Horstman is a very specialized type of boat (as are trimarans) that attract a very very small market for purchase. I am surprised he got that much for it.

Production boats always seem to hold their value because they are a known-quantity.

Sounds like a blast!

But don't mess around and get "Harbor fever"..:o)

I lived on a 51 Morgan for a while in St Thomas and so many people were living there at Red Hook, out on the hook. Always talking about the "big sail" but never went anywhere..

Uhm, how will you educate them?