I bought a tophat mark 1 about 18 months ago for 5k in
Australia.
Since
purchase id say ive spent about 3k stepping the
mast, replacing some rigging, running and standing.
Its a double spreader rig and rock solid with 6.5mm stays. Over rigged.
Ive fitted her with Spinlock
rope clutches removed the
mast winches and brought everything back to the cockpit. She only has an 8HP OB.
Im planning on a departure from
sydney in June heading north then east to New
Cal and up through the solomons.
I would have spent another 6k by the time i get oz reg and buy a few other items.
So total cost for ocean going tophat in sound condition about 14k.
Everything is very simple but comfortable aboard.
I have a removable dinnette table which is firstly the main
cabin bed base, underwhich i store my sails. Cruising i have 2 on deck both hanked on.
The dinnette board is a chess board and used as my dinnete table that attaches with hinges. just slides on. This is also a cockpit table.
4 uses and a total cost of about $11 on the hinges.
THe
galley is a basic metho
stove. I made a fold up table next to the sink as i love to prepare
food and the tophat
galley leaves nowhere really to do this.
This also doubles as a chart table.
Also installed some free stuff i found to hold plates and some $2 small buckets with holes in bottom for cutlery and kitchen stuff.
I installed a great pioneer stereo from ebay for $90. Scored a bose speaker
dock from the roadside for $0, and ripped the speakers out and installed them also in the main
saloon. Stereo sounds awesome and also has a
remote.
i was going to install a
bimini but decided against the windage and weight, so i bought some awning
fabric and installed eyelits. Ive used this in coastal passages in summer in 30knots and it holds up.
magma coal bbq.
Paddle board grip for cockpit floor
kiwigrip
paint for grip on decks.
I did the mast
work myself. paying for the
lift off and back on in
beer at a local barge company.
I needed 2
backstays made up which was done at a rigging company, i replaced a few turnbuckles, cleavis pins, masthead sheaves, exit sheaves and one of the upper spreaders.
Total cost for mast
work was $500, however before i depart i will be getting the rig tuned by a guru as ive only done it myself using a loos gauge but it was fine on 4m swell and 35 knots on a recent syd-jervis bay trip.
I love the tophat. its a great boat. Small, but
seaworthy, easy to heave to and gentle in a rough sea.
I believe my boat will handle a few surprises, but having said that im a little nervous but excited.
I highly reccomend "Cruising encyclopaedia" by Steve and Linda Dashew. 1000 pages of inspiring and wise words from these 2 who sailed around the world over 6 years.
Their philosophy is go sooner rather than later. your boat will need to be
seaworthy but do not get bogged down worrying about things like
radar etc. All these things are great to have but will blow your
budget pretty fast.
A friend of mine just sailed from
europe on a 30 footer. He had a handheld
garmin and
navionics on an
ipad. No
Ais, no
radar. No
steering sometimes too, but thats another story.
The fact is, many people have and do sail around the world on small boats and these neednt cost a fortune.