Offer your boat
Offer your boat
Unplugged Island Life — est. for a 2029 departure
We're looking for that boat. Give her to us and we'll haul her out, put her back together, and sail her over the horizon in 2029 — and you'll watch every mile of it from wherever you are.
Course made good · 2029
01 — The ask
Every marina has three or four of them. Good hulls. Bad timing.
You bought her with a plan. Then the plan got postponed by a job, a knee, a divorce, a grandchild, a decade. Now she sits on the hard under a blue tarp, and every spring the yard bill arrives to remind you about a voyage that keeps not happening.
Selling her is its own project — the listing, the tire-kickers, the survey that comes back with a number that insults you, the guy who offers you $4,000 and a trailer full of opinions. So she sits. That's how good boats die.
We'd rather she didn't. We're looking for one donated bluewater sailboat — free, as-is, wherever she's lying. We'll deal with the title, the yard, the transport, and the years of work. In 2029 we cast off and start living aboard full time, and we'll document all of it: the refit, the shakedown, the first ocean passage, and every anchorage after that.
Your boat goes back to sea. You get to watch. That's the whole trade.
02 — Who we are
We're Ken and Lisa. We've spent years chasing the same horizon from the wrong side of the beach — Aruba, the California coast, and more sunsets over the Florida panhandle than we can count.
Every one of these was taken standing on sand or a dock, looking out at where we'd rather be. That's the part we're trying to fix.
We're not dreamers who've never been wet. We know what a boat costs in money and weekends, we know the difference between a bad day on the water and a dangerous one, and we're going in with our eyes open about how much work a neglected hull really is.
What we don't have is the boat. That's the only piece missing.
03 — What fits
This is a wish list, not a filter. If your boat misses on two or three of these and you still think she wants to go, write to us anyway.
30 to 45 feet Sweet spot around 35–40. Big enough to live on, small enough for one person to handle at 3 a.m.
Full keel, modified full, or fin with a skeg-hung rudder Solid fiberglass preferred. Cored hulls considered with a moisture survey. Steel and aluminum welcome if the plating is sound.
Sloop, cutter, or ketch — cutter preferred Standing rigging is a wear item. Assume we're replacing it; don't let old wire stop you from writing.
Inboard diesel, running or seized A frozen Yanmar is a weekend of penetrating oil and a decision. It isn't a dealbreaker.
Designs with ocean miles already on them Westsail · Tayana · Pacific Seacraft · Valiant · Cape Dory · Alberg · Bristol · Contessa · Nicholson · Rafiki · Baba · Hans Christian · Southern Cross · Ingrid — and plenty of others we'd be glad to learn about.
Anywhere in North America; elsewhere considered We'll come to the boat. Yard, mooring, back pasture, boneyard — tell us where and we'll figure out how.
Clear title or documentation, or a path to one If there's a lien, a missing title, or an unpaid yard bill, say so up front. Most of it is solvable.
People talk themselves out of writing because of this list. Don't.
04 — What you get
No listing, no showings, no brokers, no waiting out a season. One conversation, a bill of sale, and the yard bill stops being yours. We arrange haul-out and transport at our cost.
Every stage of the refit goes up here on video — the day we pull the engine, the day the new rig steps, the day she floats. Then the passages. You'll know exactly where your boat is.
Keep her name and we'll sail under it. Change it and we'll still tell the story of who gave her up and why. Come sail a leg with us if you want it — we mean that literally.
Being straight about the tax question, because people ask first: we're two people with a plan, not a registered charity. A boat given to us is a private gift, not a charitable deduction. If a write-off is what you need from this, a boat-donation nonprofit is the better route and we'll say so rather than waste your time.
What we can put in writing: a signed bill of sale, a title transfer that takes the vessel out of your name on a date certain, and proof of removal from the yard. Talk to your own accountant about how any of it lands for you — we're not qualified to advise on that.
05 — Passage plan
Dates move when boats decide they should. The departure year doesn't.
Reading every message that comes in, traveling to look at hulls, and choosing one. This is the part you can change.
Haul out, gut the interior, find every soft spot and wet core, and get an honest picture of what she needs before spending a dollar on paint.
Rig, engine, steering, seacocks, tanks, wiring, ground tackle. Self-steering and a hard dodger. The boring gear that keeps you alive offshore.
Back in the water. Coastal miles, one overnight, then a longer one, breaking things close to home where breaking them is cheap.
South with the season, then offshore. Living aboard full time, moving with the weather, no return date.
06 — Ship's log
Newest first. If you give us a boat, this is where you'll watch her come back.
The first entry goes up the day we stand in front of the right boat. Until then the log stays empty, which is the honest thing to show.
07 — Offer a boat
Rough details are fine. Make, model, roughly how long she's been sitting, and where. A few phone photos say more than a paragraph — send a link, or just say "I have photos" and we'll ask.
Every message gets a reply from a person, including the ones we have to say no to.
Prefer email?
hello@unpluggedislandlife.com