Annual cost of crusing?

[gettinthere]

You want some numbers to mull over so here goes...

the boat will probably cost over $50,000 and possibly $100,000 including updates and getting ready. It can cost a LOT more if you want. Size, age and condition are all big variables.

Cruising costs are in the range of $15,000 to $30,000 per year with a paid off boat.

There's some ballpark numbers to consider. I doubt you can go much less but you can go a LOT more.


Are you planning on singlehanding around the world? With little present sailing experience? If the boat is worth $50,000, how much is your life worth?

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

By that point, you will have proven to yourself that you have a unique gift for the accumulation of capital, and, as a result, your dream may grow accordingly. You may then not be satisfied with anything less than a new 40'+ catamaran, and decide to re-double your efforts to save enough to make it happen.

Be smart like me and forget the 40 footer. Those 50+ foot boats are da bomb. And it'll only add a few years to my departure date...

[Sailingbeagles]

I can't speak to a circumnavigation at all (our cruising was done/is done/will be done in the Chesapeake, Bahamas, and the Caribbean - oh and a small stint in Galveston Bay and the Gulf ICW) but I can get to the last set of questions you asked.

We have a 28' fiberglass boat, hull finished in 1976. We are the 3rd owners, bought her in 1992 and plan to keep her forever. She now sails with a crew of 4 (us + 2 kids) plus 2 beagles. We spent 30 k to buy her and another maybe 10 (and countless hours of labor) fixing her up. She is ours, free and clear, and has been since 1993.

We cruised for 3 years from 1994-1997 in the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean on an average budget of $750 a month. I wish I had kept the detailed numbers, but I didn't put them on a spreadsheet and have misplaced that particular notebook. Some things to consider:

We rarely stayed in marinas (maybe 3 times in the 3 years), and less rarely ate out (maybe average of 1x a month, but that's probably high). We stocked up where the stocking was cheap but took advantage of local products where possible (New Zealand cheese and butter (and lamb!), full-fat powdered milk in the Bahamas, for example). We have a wonderful rain-catcher built into our awning and carry water tankage of 100 gallons.

I used my stove for 3 meals a day, yummy stuff including homemade bread, muffins, soups and stews and tortillas and . . . you get the picture. "Treats" included the occasional can of Chef Boyardee ravioli (and now we say HUH?) and Annie's macaroni and cheese. We drank rum mostly (no ice - keep the bottle in the fridge and all is good!) but did stock up hard on beer in the DR when we were there. We drank wine and generally did not feel deprived in any manner, especially in Trinidad where the produce and fresh stuff is incredibly varied and inexpensive.

Our boat is simple, with a wind generator for extra battery power, an engine driven refrigerator that does extremely well on an hour a day, often less - and our engine is woefully small for our displacement boat - a 10 hp hand-crank single cylinder old fishing engine, so the fridge actually loads the engine.

We cruised before electronic stuff was necessary - we earned Ham licenses and my other half is incredibly ingenious and built a Pactor (email) unit for $60 of parts and we had communication when we were northbound.

When we left we thought we had enough money for 2 years and managed to stay out for 3.

What do things cost now? Our insurance is $400 a year, and the marina/yacht club fees are another $2400. We spend close to $1500 a year (averaging out) on haulout and maintenance - we haul once every other year or every 3rd. That is just materials cost - I don;t put a price on our labor. We have repainted the boat once in the last 5 years, but we still have old sails (they may need replacement coming up soon). It will be interesting to track what we spend getting ready for the upcoming cruise (6 months in the Bahamas) but most of the stuff we need we have from the last one!

A long way to get around to "it costs what you have". I think you are doing a great job researching, and hope you also get as much sailing experience as possible before announcing to the world that you are doing a circumnavigation - better to say you are going for "as long as it's fun" (apologies to the Pardeys) and then there is nobody who can say you failed in any way.

Good luck with it all!

Nica
s/v Calypso, BCC #6

[Hudson Force]

scm007, As to the vessel cost, we paid $65,000 for our 41' ketch in 1985, $30,000 financed after the trade with our previous vessel. We have llived aboard since 1972 with the modest incomes of public school teachers. Until 2002 we cruised during holidays and summers, but we have been cruising fulltime since then. Additional information about the costs of living aboard becomes difficult because the variety of expenses for those on board is just as varied as the amount different families spend on land. I am confident that people can live on their vessels for no more than their costs ashore. Maximum insurance; life at resort marinas; hired labor instead of DIY yards can eat up huge amounts of money. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[jens_elsborg]

Hi 007,
Like you, I often look for the great experience of others in this forum with budgets and other topics and obviously people are partly right when they say it is difficult to be specific with something that is quite subjective but let me nevertheless give you some examples from my ’project’:
I have together with two friends recently bought a 49 feet, one-off aluminium cutter with retractable keel for US$ 150K and am currently investing another 70K in order to finish off a couple of unfinished things on the boat as well as upgrading her to a full circumnavigation including spares. This can obviously be done a loot cheaper with another type of boat.
We have insured her for a full circumnavigation with Pantaenius and unlike other replies we have not had any restrictions in terms of where are insured – there is an increased cost for The Red Sea due to piracy and obviously you need to behave responsibly in terms of sailing in waters with named hurricanes etc. The yearly cost of full insurance is app 5K/year. Whether you insure or not is like all other things in life you choose to insure or not – my advice is this: Insure the things you cannot afford to loose and do not insure what you can afford to loose.
We are budgeting with 20K/person/year for cruising cost and it is going to be interesting to see if it holds up ;-)

[Sailingbeagles]

Oh - I have called BoatUS to ask about the Bahamas rider we will need when we set off in October - the price for a Florida/Bahamas policy for our boat is $923 a year. Getting south of Hatteras blows the price up tremendously.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Sailingbeagles

Oh - I have called BoatUS to ask about the Bahamas rider we will need when we set off in October - the price for a Florida/Bahamas policy for our boat is $923 a year. Getting south of Hatteras blows the price up tremendously.

You may find, Sailingbeagles, that if you postpone going south of Hatteras until December 1st, and get back north of same by the following June 1st, it will decrease your premium for the Florida/Bahamas rider. Many (most? all?) insurance companies consider October to still be within hurricane season, and the price you were quoted may reflect that.

TaoJones

[MarkJ]

I'll have a go at this (I do agree with Tao and Hud that you are asking questions that can't be answered)

But:

A modern production boat, less than 5 years old, of good size can be found in the US for say, $200,000. Add $30,000 fitting out of equipment. Then budget $30,000 per year.

Don't borrow on the boat and you don't need to pay insurance. Don't pay for health insurance either. That saves over $10k per year

Those figures will give you a good fast cruiser and provided it doesn’t break down badly, enough money for maintenance and beer all round the world!

If you want to do it on less than that then you are back in the realms of imposable to answer


Mark

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

Be smart like me and forget the 40 footer. Those 50+ foot boats are da bomb.

Chics dig 60 footers, man.

I send Nicolle below every time a bigger boat sails past.