I try to keep my post as short as I can , but this one might wander on.

I have a boat in Japan. I love it and feel a responsibility to it because she is a survivor of the tsunami and her previous owner wasn't.
However I am 66. In four years I will be unemployed and on the Japanese pension.
There are jobs for pensioner like collecting carts at the supermarkets or waving a flag at a construction site, but the number of pensioners far exceeds the opportunities, That is a reality.
There are almost NO SUBSIDIES for pensioners in Japan.
The pension is just enough to freeze to death in winter (due to the price of heating fuel), stave to death or kick off because you can't afford certain medications. Again that is reality.

So my wife and I will have to live frugally.

She explained clearly that the boat is an extravagance that we cannot afford in the future.
So I approached a younger bloke that I have worked with and chatted with in the past.
His father had been a dinghy instructor in England and he had grown up sailing every summer.

As boat owners we have knowledge of sailing (and all the accumulated mistakes ) and knowledge of our boats.
I am in the enjoyable situation of sailing with John, passing on my knowledge of sailing and of my boat.
He will dob in 1000$ a year over the next 4 years and then the boat will be his.
Except it will still be mine to sail, work on and enjoy. For free.

We went out yesterday in 8 degrees with 15 to 30 knots. As we were motoring back into the wind I purposely cut out the engine and
said," John. We are in the s**t now . What should we do?"

He really quickly got a lesson in emergency anchoring.

Sharing a boat and all that knowledge is an extra bonus of sailing for me now.
I am lucky to have found a win-win situation. The wife is pleased too.

Gary