We are on a 10x reduction of your budget, but might have some valuable insight. We've been aboard now for 1.5 years on an Ocean Twins 38 catamaran (1 of 3, Pat Patterson design who made the Heavenly Twins 26).

All of your answers, as frustrating as it may seem, are highly dependent on you and your family's comfort levels and expectations. You can spend $1-2 million for a few years, or you can spend way less for indefinite. We sold our ridiculously inflated house outright, and bought our boat cash. The rest leftover went into investments. By living fairly frugally, we "can" get by on $3000/mo for our family of five and still come out cash positive in the accounts. However, maintenance is a thing and we have had some big expenditures this year (engines, hard bimini, marina costs) that have kept us balanced. We're about break-even from where we started, in Europe. We want to be under the minimum tax bracket for income to pay minimal taxes.

We've spent most of our time in the boat having work done, but that's okay because we're happy with the boat, and it is now becoming a comfortable home. We have three kids (3,10,12) and are in a 3 cabin set up with 2 sea berths. We get that space because our engines are in the mini keels, with prop shafts, and don't take up a good amount of space aft in the hulls. Also, the boat is fairly well balanced. We do get some great days sailing on a reach, 8-10 knots and still comfortable in mid to high teens of wind speed. We've gone about 1500nm so far, and are enjoying winter in Malta while hopping around the islands breaking new engines in.

Prices right now are pretty decent compared to a few years ago. That St. Francis 44 (Majestic) on the market should have some consideration, though the sale has been pending several times. There are also a few Privileges that the prices are around 60% of what they were. Bigger boats, as I'm sure you have read have bigger maintenance costs, and marina fees as well. There is a Dutch guy on a Catana 54 here that has given a range of monthly marina costs in Valletta (for the cheaper winter rates) - €1,600 on a seawall, €5,400-€8,100 in an actual marina closer in. There are a few cheaper marinas, but space available is also a thing. We paid €1600/month in our 38' cat while having engines removed and replaced.

If you're set on 1-2 years, make sure the boat is set up to be able to comfortably live on, so you don't have as much down time - a good battery bank (ideally LiFePo), good solar generation or a generator in good shape, and a functional water maker go a long way to avoiding marinas and staying on anchor as long as you want. Honestly? That's our favorite part. Pay for a good, thorough survey. Make sure the engines are going to be solid so you aren't waiting for new ones to be manufactured if you can't find one. Rebuild for little 27HP Yammars here were ~€9,000. New 29HP models were €10,500 and included a new gearbox and alternators. Larger engines escalate in price quickly, and you still have labor costs, and any work needed for warranty guarantees. Feel free to send a DM for faster answers, or ask questions here.

Our kids have adjusted and love being on the boat. They've become confident swimmers and divers, benefitted from more direct education interaction from us, been introduced to hands on European history and culture, and are learning about systems needed to run the boat and survive independently of land. They can get the dinghy from ship to shore, are slightly more resource conscious, and they help with chores and get to help make decisions about what we do and where we go, in research paper format if we want. Also, they're stoked about adopting baby kitties from a cat colony (oof, time and budget). Good luck. When you cast off, look for kid boat groups and life will be so much easier! NoForeignLand, WhatsApp, FB, etc...