FAQ

You can always view our approximate current position on our tracking page Where Is Poly

Such opinions come primarily because most people have no idea what life on a sailbaot looks like. Most people think we are all in the middle of the sea all the time without land access. In practice 90 percent of the time we are in a place anchored next to the islands, where we can experience local tastes, meet people, walk, children can go out and ride bikes, etc. And in reference to this madness … We are crazy, but in parallel we are treading terribly. To this way of life we needed to prepare very carefully. We also read family blogs that were already living that way. We created a list of things that should be on our boat. We have passed first aid courses, we know all the safety procedures on the water and not only, and we continually refresh our knowledge. Practically most of the time we are within the reach of medical help, which in the Caribbean or the Bahamas is quite good. But recently I realized that the proximity of a hospital gives only a false sense of security. Because when an accident occurs, people often can not provide basic help, and as we know that often the first minutes are crucial. Besides, we want our children to learn the world live, in practice, visiting and experiencing new places, people, cultures, languages. Lessons of biology, physics, geography are in practice. For me it is a completely different quality of learning because it arouses curiosity and satisfies it naturally, practically, and not theoretically. On the other hand, life on the boat teaches responsibility, cause-and-effect type of thinking. Kids love when they are assigned adult tasks, when they feel responsible, such as being able to drive a boat.

We don’t regret, never regretted, on the contrary. With every next day we know that what we do is 100 percent ours and for us. This does not mean that there were no worse moments. The first year was very difficult for us. It took us a long time to get over the boat maintenance issues, learn to handle it, do most repairs ourselves, and that was a lot. Unfortunately, the quality of the equipment is getting worse and a lot of the newly purchased items failed.

We do not specify this. When we are financially able to catch a bigger breath, and we think that it may happen in about two years, we want to take a trip around the world. Most likely next year we are going to sail across the Atlantic and spend the summer in Europe in the Mediterranean, and in the next step we will move towards the Pacific. How long will it take and what will it take? Hard to say. For some time, somehow naturally this entire idea of living outside the system has become for us in a sense a mission. There are so many people with whom we share our experiences, we show these wonderful places. We are very actively working to launch YouTube videoblog about our journey and alternative lifestyle. We want to share this with others, show that you can live differently, but not necessarily exactly like us. There are many other ways to live, travel, “escape the corporation” and fulfill your dreams…  and the more we taste, the more we want!!!

Now, as we anchor in some place, sometimes we send kids to local pre-schools. We know that this is also important. As far as further education is concerned, at the beginning we plan to remotely teach children to combine our lifestyle with the needs of our children. Eventually we will probably have to stop somewhere for a longer time, maybe for some time to settle in one place. But it’s not NOW (laughter). For now we keep sailing.

Yes, it is a Neel trimaran. Poly was built in 2010. She was a demo for the Neel Trimarans startup for the first two years. It is actually the only Neel 50 ever made. It was the prototype for the whole production line of the concept of a trimaran with the bridgdeck living space. Probably that was the biggest issue behind the low popularity of trimarans that normally had nets in between hulls and a 15 meter boat was only decent enough size inside to provide living space for 4-6 people. Note how  much narrower trimaran’s center hull is comparing to a monohull of the same length.

We like catamarans as well. In some ways they are better and in some they are worse. It’s hard to compare without getting into the details of specific models. In general however catamarans are significantly more course stable and hence could be a bit faster downwind, the same characteristic makes them harder to tack. Cats are immensely easier to maneuver in tight spaces with their two engines. Trimaran specially without an effective bow thruster requires a lot more preplanning as you are approaching the dock or a tight space. You must take the wind heavily into account as the super shallow draft bows turn the whole boat immediately off the wind as soon as it slows down and rudder becomes less effective. The living space of a catamaran and a trimaran with full bridge deck is comparable. Here’s where trimarans win hands down: they point to the wind as good as a decent monohull remaining faster. They are insanely fast on broad reach to beam reach as you can drive the rig much harder with the extra beam over a catamaran resulting in significantly higher righting moment. Also, flying a hull is a non-event. We usually don’t notice until it slaps landing back in the water or we look back and see that one of the 3 wakes is missing :). Let’s make sure we are talking about flying one hull or ama, and NOT the center hull. That would not be possible on Neel even if you tried. It would stall the rudder and broach before letting you load the rigging as hard as to lift the main hull. This is in the end a cruiser regardless of its taste for speeds over 20 knots in perfect conditions.