Having had their previous boat sit neglected for years, Sam and Cheryl knew firsthand the importance of choosing something that would better fit their financial and time constraints.

As you may remember, Cheryl and I sold our old boat back in 2002. She had sat neglected on jack stands for more than five years. At the time, we consoled ourselves with the promise that we'd look for another boat. Something less demanding both in terms of money and time. Well, you know how these promises go: First, it was the holidays, then spring break, next summer was here with various commitments, and before we knew it fall had rolled around once again-and still no boat!

This is not to say that we hadn't done anything. We spent lots of time looking at various boats on the Internet. Along with "Windows" shopping the boats-for-sale listings, we also researched the models that appeared most interesting to us. Even though we're heavily involved in the Internet, it was still amazing to learn how much information on older boats is readily available on the web. Most of it comes from sites that have been created by boat owners to help others with that specific brand or model. No surprise, but we also joined and un-joined dozens of our owners' discussion groups as we gained and lost interest in various boats. There's no better way to uncover a specific model's strengths and weaknesses than "lurking" while owners discuss these issues.

The major turning point came that summer when we got realistic about our budget. While we would have loved to purchase a new boat, it wasn't even a remote possibility. Getting serious about several used boats led to the realization that our budget, probably like many of yours, was far more limited that we originally thought. Once you get serious about buying a used boat, then you also have to get serious about maintaining it. Having previously made the mistake of having more boat than money or time, we were determined to not to repeat that error. So we carefully added up not only the monthly payment, but also our expected outlays for marina charges, insurance, and annual maintenance. After looking at dozens of boats, we also realized that we needed to set aside some cash for the inevitable upgrades. After going through this exercise, we established a cap of $30,000 as the purchase price for our "new" boat.

The bad news is that a $30,000 budget eliminates a huge number of very desirable boats. The good news is that a $30,000 budget gives you a variety of choices from a wide range of great boats.

The search payed off in full. The Boyles found a 1977 Pearson that fit perfectly into their well established parameters, making the decision to buy an easy one to make.

The next step was defining our intended usage for the boat. We're convinced a lot of people buy the boat they want, rather than the boat they need. In our case, the goal was something that would be fun to sail in Charleston Harbor, large enough to accommodate the family on an over-nighter (two adults, an early teen, and a pre-teen), safe to take offshore on a coastal cruise, and potentially competitive on the local beer can circuit. Applying the budget cap and our intended usage narrowed the field quite a bit.

To make a long story short, there's a 1977 Pearson 10 Meter that will shortly begin the journey from the Chesapeake to Charleston Harbor. The boat fits our needs perfectly: it comes with a reasonable amount of accommodations, good sailing characteristics, solidly built, and affordable by our standards. In our particular case, we found a boat that had been meticulously cared for and had just undergone a re-powering. The new Yanmar was icing on the cake. While we're thrilled with the boat, a list of upgrades is already in progress. Besides the usual bottom paint and re-commissioning, we're faced with 20-year-old rigging, 10-year old sails, outdated electronics, a fixed prop, and a host of smaller items.

Keeping to our concept of "affordable sailing", we're determined to stretch our limited dollars as far as possible while updating the boat to newer standards. We can guarantee there won't be any "gold-plating" on this project. Not only will this meet our personal needs, but we hope it will be a useful example to those of you who are also forced to make trade-offs on your sailing expenditures.

The interior was as appealing as the exterior, being adequately suited to the sailing needs of a family of four.

The reality is that no matter how much we love to sail we still have to make the house payment, buy groceries, and plan for the eventual college tuition bills: two down and two to go. We intend to make every dollar count when it comes to spending on this boat. So, don't be surprised to see detailed explanations of what we decided to buy, and what other options we may have sacrificed in that decision process.

We don't pretend to be the experts, or to have the only path. We simply think a great many of you share both our passion and similar financial constraints. Our goal is to share the journey of how we reconcile desire and responsibility in a way that gives us satisfaction on both scores. We hope that might make the process a little easier for some of you.