Cruising on $5,000 / Month

[Hudson Force]

I was just considering another reason why cruisers like Zeehag, Sailorchic, and others as well as myself might have a lower maintenance cost. I believe that they, like myself, have no ownership of "stuff" off the boat. If the boat is your singular concern for personal property there's a far greater amount of time available to keep everything working. I usually do something for my boat every day. Recently it was moving, inspecting and cleaning all my through-hulls. Yesterday it was cutting out a new main mast boot and replacing the old one where my keel stepped mast passes through the deck. Today I pulled my three bilge pump intake hoses out of my bilge and cleaned the gunk from their screens. I don't usually select these tasks because they have given me a problem, but simply because I think of them and feel that I should inspect, clean or change them. I'm thinking that the others that have a lower maintenance costs are working on upkeep before they come to the point of responding to a problem.

[a64pilot]

Preventative maintenance is always considerably cheaper than reactive maintenance, usually a lot less stressful too

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Hey aren't there any standards in the Bay area? They let rip rap into the upscale Goodwills?????

You know, I don't always shop at Goodwill
[sip of DosXX]
But when I do,
[another sip]
I shop an upscale Goodwill.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

I was just considering another reason why cruisers like Zeehag, Sailorchic, and others as well as myself might have a lower maintenance cost. I believe that they, like myself, have no ownership of "stuff" off the boat.

That may very well be it. I do fuss about the boat and do general maintenance item several times a week. Sometimes everyday. Always checking lines and rigging, looking at wiring connections, testing bilge pumps, etc. Its rare I have a failure that puts me dead in the water. Actually has not happened yet. Though the engine rebuild was more then a little stressful for me.

[Certeza]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

and self?

Albeit to be fair, deluded Accounting practices are pretty much the norm (and compulsory?!) when owning a boat - on any budget.


And of course folks will be talking of budget in cash terms only - when you can contribute time (and skills and knowledge) then the cash part can shrink radically........not just on the fixing, but in the sourcing (for boat and self).............for some using own time / wits instead of cash (and the need to generate some!) is priceless, for others a living nightmare! - no "right"answer for everyone.

Whenever I used to tell my dad that my time was worth something, his response was always, "What's time to a pig?" I never really understood until I later realized that all time isn't created equal. Earning $50/hr at a day job doesn't mean that all of your spare time is suddenly worth $50/hr. If the time would've otherwise been spent watching TV, then the time probably isn't even worth minimum wage, which was where my dad was coming from. Otherwise wasted time truly is free time, and doing something productive with it rightfully shouldn't be factored into costs.

OTOH, if you could've and otherwise WOULD'VE created some other part time income, then your DIY time is worth exactly how much income that time would've created. But to this day it drives me crazy to hear an electrician say that he doesn't change his own oil because his "time is worth $70/hr", as he sits and watches 5 hours of TV every day.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

SNIP

Recently it was moving, inspecting and cleaning all my through-hulls.

SNIP

Sounds like a job I would have a problem doing. The head on my boat is a Nature's Way so the thru hull fittings were removed and the holes plugged and fiber glassed over. I have outboards so no thru hulls there. In fact there are no thru hulls on my boat.

Last thing I did was defrost the Engel and wipe the inside down with paper towels and let it air out for a day.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by Certeza

Whenever I used to tell my dad that my time was worth something, his response was always, "What's time to a pig?" I never really understood until I later realized that all time isn't created equal. Earning $50/hr at a day job doesn't mean that all of your spare time is suddenly worth $50/hr.

^^This

Lordy, back before I found out I was too old for engineering, my pay was about $44/hr, Not to shabby for a bimbo. Ok Not BIG bucks, but not bad for a girl either. I still did all my own boat work back then. When you'll alone on the deep blue sea, paying somebody else is just not going to cut it. Ignorance may be Bliss, but not so much on a boat.

[sailpower]

Originally Posted by undercutter

Want to bitch about something, complain about healthcare cause we sure don't get anything for the exorbitant taxes we pay.

Whoa, we are told this is one of the systems we need to emulate. Clearly you are leaving something out.

[sailorboy1]

keep healthcare rants out of this thread, there are already lots of others for these you can play on, if on the other hand you have some actual cruising health care info it is always welcome (but bitching isn't)

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Preventative maintenance is always considerably cheaper than reactive maintenance, usually a lot less stressful too

“Deferred maintenance” is a terrible misnomer for what really happens when maintenance doesn’t get performed for a long time. A better name for it might be “catastrophic failure.”

“Geaslin’s Inverse-Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance”
If you defer maintenance, you can expect future expenses to be equal to or greater than the cost of the part squared, or 15 times the total repair cost.

➥ Disastrous Effects of Deferred Maintenance - Peterson Predictive Maintenance

[carstenb]

Well worth knowing if you ever find yourself without a corkscrew
�用開瓶器如何開紅酒.wmv - YouTube

yes the link works

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

keep healthcare rants out of this thread, there are already lots of others for these you can play on, if on the other hand you have some actual cruising health care info it is always welcome (but bitching isn't)

not sure what you are looking for???? what exactly do want to know??
we do not carry health insurance and in colombia the admiral had hand surgery that in the usa the doc alone wanted 12k and that does not include the hosp, test, ect -- in colombia a hand surgeron did it and total cost was abot 1,500usd -
in trinidad the capt had a major growth on his nose and dermotologist sent him to plastic surgeron who charged 1,500usd or so to have 3/4 of left side of nose removed and replaced and docs afterward have trouble telling it was done -
doc visit in st lucia was about 20usd i think and medicines a lot less expensive - only place we found high doc cost was in antigua - similar to usa
in tunisia our dermotolgist is about 24usd per visit - had a full root canal done for 360usd and that included a cap -
so generally medical is a lot less expensive than in the usa -- AND you can walk in and be seen - not wait for an appointment in the far distance future

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

(wish more cruisers with blogs would post something about their expenses). Seems that there are a lot of people spending in the $2000-3000/mo..

http://www.svthirdday.com/PDF/expenses.pdf

We posted monthly spending numbers for our 4 year cruise for our family of 4.
Easy to cruise like a king in Mexico on less than $2k...we did including boat maint.
Just get your boat out of the buget sucking Marina and you save $600/Mo.....easy.

[Dixie Dog]

I spoze I would lean more to a newer boat,some of them fancy navigation maps, and a new watch that fits,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Do I have to share it with the wife?

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by Dixie Dog

I spoze I would lean more to a newer boat,some of them fancy navigation maps, and a new watch that fits,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Do I have to share it with the wife?

English please.