Cost of Cruising

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

After reading four pages of this thread, I have no idea what you folks are discussing. Doesn't make a bit of sense... complete gibberish. Some woman crappin' over the side, $500 for halyards, lifelines????

Yep, it has deteriorated a bit, but the part about crapping over the side had to do with having a proper head. The kids in the video "Hold Fast" didn't have one so one of the young girls basically sat over the lifelines and "made her deposit" as she said. She did have nice teeth though!

The $500.00 halyards were what one guy spent whereas others found ways to get them cheaper. I even cleaned up some ancient halyards from when I bought my old boat buy soaking them in the bathtub and still use them. I was thinking that I had spent enough halyards, sails, shackles, etc over the years

Just standard CF stuff concerning sailing/cruising. Some do it on the cheap, while others like to keep their boats in showroom condition. It's all good.

It could even be that some feel safer with a clean boat with mostly all new stuff. Some like to take a shower with a real shower head rather than dumping gallon jugs of water over themselves as some of us still do.

It's all about the adventure. Some want to live on their boats 24/7 being at the dock much of the time whereas others only stay on their boats maybe a week or so at a time plus weekends but are sailing, paddling (kayaks etc), or hiking most of that time while being on the hook. Some are sailing from Marina to marina. It all totally up to them.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

- diesel oil ($15 every 150 hours)
- oil and fuel filters ($30 every 300 hours)
- water heater ($500 every 14-years)
- prop, shaft, strut zincs ($100 every year)
- propane ($120 a year)
- heating element in stove ($90 every 14 years)
- pressure switch on water pump ($38 every 3-years)
- light bulbs ($25 a year)

Tacoma - $25 bucks a year for light bulbs? You must have more money than Uncle Scrooge!

Switch to LED bulbs - they'll last for years and years (more expensive up front though).

There - just helped you make a major reduction in your cruising budget $25 bucks should buy you a couple of bottles of wine to have with dinner - enjoy

[IdoraKeeper]

Boat cost is typically 12 boat bucks per year unless there is a major issue at hand. Those are usually induced by upgrades (more toys). Generally I look at it like Boatman. I'm gonna do it anyway so hang the cost. She's worth it.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

My only point is there is not one cost of cruising, but many. Some spend $10K a year. Others spend far less then a thousand. There is no right or wrong to it. It takes what your willing to spend and the time your willing to give to the project(s).

It's based on the type and size of the boat and how many systems there are on the boat. The more systems and less time you have to do the work yourself, the more its going to cost.

On the other end of the spectrum, the folks that liveaboard /cruise full time with a tiny budget, do far more work themselves, really all of it, and that does lower the costs a bit.

My earlier examples was not to cast stones, but to give examples of how I myself reduce maintenance costs by careful shopping. Of course most here have pretty deep pockets, so there is less need or desire to save funds. Thats totally fine too.
.
My pockets are very shallow, so I have to cut out luxuries like a new custom set of sails and I have had to learn to do everything myself. From going up the stick, to sanding and painted the bottom (right at the top of the jobs I hate), doing electrical and plumbing repairs to a complete diesel overhaul. Had I the money to pay for the diesel repair, it would have been a $6-$10K project at the very least. The cost was $1200 with crazy blonde cat lady labor, and a small bit of my sanity... Perhaps more then a small bit .

That really works well as long as you are in a place where you can do that. Try being in Brindisi Italy and losing your alternator and they do not have any that fit your boat and you have to have one flown in as your schengren days are getting short and the winter winds are beginning to set in. Or trying to find fuel filters in Cartagena Spain which are twice the cost of those in the USA.

It depends a bit on where you are and what you can and can not get. On a really early forum a woman who was going out to the caribbean asked what she should back in her 2 bags as they were flying down to pick up their boats and I replied boat parts. She ripped me for that but other women who had been out defended me to no end. We only visit the USA for about 2-3 weeks a year and stock up on boat parts as best we can but sometimes stuff breaks and you do not have a spare and have to source it locally and depending on where you are it can get very expensive.

Trying getting an inexpensive car for the boom on an inmast sailing main in Gibralter.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by chuckr

Trying getting an inexpensive car for the boom on an inmast sailing main in Gibralter.

Did the early Polynesians have boom cars?

As you know, sometimes you have to rig something.

When I was a kid changing the plugs in one of my cars, sometimes I needed a universal to get that far plug out. The one next to the firewall.

(but) being somewhat cheap as I am, I wouldn't go buy one. I'd keep screwing around with the crappy tools I had until I'd finally got it out. Usually with an old socket and vice grips.

Sometimes it gets the old brain working solving these problems. You should read about some of the things Stephen Callahan did to survive the 76 days he drifted 1800 miles across the Atlantic in his book Adrift.

Steven Callahan : People.com

Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by carstenb

Tacoma - $25 bucks a year for light bulbs? You must have more money than Uncle Scrooge!

Switch to LED bulbs - they'll last for years and years (more expensive up front though).

There - just helped you make a major reduction in your cruising budget $25 bucks should buy you a couple of bottles of wine to have with dinner - enjoy

has this been anyone elses's experience, too? Because I am finding that the LED bulbs don't live up to this hype at all. The little elements start failing almost immediately on some of them. I'm sure some of them last a few years, but then so do the old incandescents and the cost of replacement is no comparison.

The LEDs do use a lot less energy and produce less heat. That's the pros.
They cost way too much, put out annoying light, and don't last as long as they claim, which are cons. I guess they claim these hundreds of thousaands of hours of life, in an attempt to justify the cost. All of the interior lights on our boat were replaced in 2012.

I'm in the process of replaceing them again right now, at a cost of around eight bucks each. I bought 20 new LED bulbs x 8 bucks, so is $ 160 for light bulbs every two years sounding reasonable to save.....what? I don't think I burned any more diesel when I had incandescent bulbs.

[a64pilot]

Which LED's have you gotten, the cheaper one I have bought off of Ebay do exactly that, plus some were even reverse polarity, but the warm white Marine Beams light color is the same as an incandescent, but it will be a few years before II can speak to the life span (I hope)

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Did the early Polynesians have boom cars?

As you know, sometimes you have to rig something.

When I was a kid changing the plugs in one of my cars, sometimes I needed a universal to get that far plug out. The one next to the firewall.

(but) being somewhat cheap as I am, I wouldn't go buy one. I'd keep screwing around with the crappy tools I had until I'd finally got it out. Usually with an old socket and vice grips.

Sometimes it gets the old brain working solving these problems. You should read about some of the things Stephen Callahan did to survive the 76 days he drifted 1800 miles across the Atlantic in his book Adrift.

Steven Callahan : People.com




Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

I knew i should have not posted again.

So what you are saying that if something breaks and we sail into a port, just skip going to a chandlery and getting a proper item to fix it just jerry rig something and then go ahead and sail from port to port in the med and hope it holds or constantly fix it.


I mean after all we just sailed a bit over 3,000nm this past summer and that does not include the 1,000 or so nm from Gib up the coast of Spain to the Balerics to Sardina to Tunisia.


You got to be kidding and how many miles did your sail with a broken mailsail last year?? You need to think before saying something like that again.

[Group9]

People who shouldn't cruise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwOi4D9lPig

[boatman61]

Thomm... there's folks who like simple lash and go boats like Wharrams..
Then there's the next lot into the boats from the 50's-70's... these were pretty simple as well and just carrying a couple of spare blocks and string could hold your boat together till you get somewhere for any bits.. or replacement spare blocks
Then along came the 80's, a new breed and large scale production and more expensive and sophisticated gear which cannot be worked around.. bit like the route cars have gone.. A/C, and all the comforts of shore life...

Then there's Weavis...

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Thomm... there's folks who like simple lash and go boats like Wharrams..
Then there's the next lot into the boats from the 50's-70's... these were pretty simple as well and just carrying a couple of spare blocks and string could hold your boat together till you get somewhere for any bits.. or replacement spare blocks
Then along came the 80's, a new breed and large scale production and more expensive and sophisticated gear which cannot be worked around.. bit like the route cars have gone.. A/C, and all the comforts of shore life...

Then there's Weavis...

Okay, Thanks for the info.

I wasn't suggesting jury rigging something as a permenant fix (for him). Just something to get in with where you can purchase the parts you need. I thought he said something about the cars not being available at his present location.

I do like the simple methods though. I opened a thread on lifelines and said I might just tie on some rope until I decide whether or not I want to replace the wire lifelines and hardware. Some thought bad idea, but this is my first boat that actually had lifelines. The "rope" would be something just below the level of Dyneema/Spectra.

A guy recently told me I needed to "pin" my floating gooseneck when I complained about it going too low at times. I hated to pin it so I put some line around the mast at the place I wanted the low point to be. The white/red line.

I'm still trying to figure out if I want to be a cruiser when I grow up.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by JK n Smitty

Yes, when compared to those who can and will do those tasks themselves. It doesn't mean you have to be an expert. Just willing to put the time in to learn and try. And to be honest it has never been easier with online manuals, youtube videos, forums with experts you can ask for help.

Not trying to insult. Just trying to point out some info.

Fair winds,

Jesse

In most cases a motivated cruiser can save big and DIY most work on a boat. I hire out very little of my boat work. However, there are some things even the best DIY cannot or should not do. Maybe it will involve special tools and equipment, huge labor to do by hand vs by machine or require some very special skills that don't come from a manual.

Making sails and rebuilding injectors are a couple of examples that would fall into one of these categories.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by oldragbaggers

Thomm, maybe it's just me but I don't think this video, while slightly entertaining, would serve as an enticement to the sailing life for anyone accustomed to even a marginal standard of civilized living (and basic sanitation). The narrator said it himself, they lived in squalor.

And I agree with ZBOSS....they should have been arrested for trespassing on that yacht. The fact that they used his dingy crane to raise their mast, without permission, knowing full well they could have damaged or destroyed it tells me that they have no respect for the property or rights of others. It was criminal and not to be held up as an example of "how you get things done on the cheap."

I hope that non-sailors who watch this don't walk away with the idea that all sailors conduct themselves this way.

As an aside, I'm just curious how they came up with the proper paperwork to clear in and out of other countries when they said they had no title, no registration, no insurance.

Thank you. This video seems to pop up every so often and my feelings are exactly the same. If they had come onto my boat using my equipment to fix their boat I would have had them arrested. They also strongly imply that a lot of the materials they used were "borrowed" from various places.

These are exactly the kind of boaters that give the rest of us a bad name.

[JK n Smitty]

Originally Posted by skipmac

In most cases a motivated cruiser can save big and DIY most work on a boat. I hire out very little of my boat work. However, there are some things even the best DIY cannot or should not do. Maybe it will involve special tools and equipment, huge labor to do by hand vs by machine or require some very special skills that don't come from a manual.

Making sails and rebuilding injectors are a couple of examples that would fall into one of these categories.

Not trying to argue or insult. Sure there maybe times that paying for the task may be more practical and possibly more cost effective. But some of your examples are not that difficult.

I am now up to 4 fuel pump tear downs and rebuilds. None on my own boat, just helping others. On the first one I was just assisting a friend on the dock that's a heavy equipment diesel mechanic. It was a great opportunity to learn from someone who knew what they are doing so I burnt a saturday that I could have been out sailing learning something to help me cruise. Wasn't that difficult so when some other friends had issues I helped them. I've cleaned and serviced injectors. Again, not that difficult. Hell even just buying new ones and putting them in yourself is cheaper than paying someone to service them.

My Catalina owner's club just had a canvas seminar in October. This was brought on by two owners that busted out sewing machines and fixed their sails in mid cruise. Great skill that will save a lot of money. Doesn't mean I would sew my own sail from scratch. Not practical since there are some decent quality sails for good prices available. But when you see professionals charging $200-400 to restitch the UV shield on a furling genny, its difficult to keep up that kind of maintenance budget. Especially when you could easily do that work yourself.

As far as things having a huge labor side, sure that is true. But if you are cruising as a lifestyle, that is just part of the experience. You could pay some yard thousands to strip your hull of old paint, apply bottom coat and fresh anti-foul paint. Or you could spend a fraction of that and a week and do it yourself.

Specialty tools, well I guess I have a different opinion. If there is a specialty tool that is needed to work on my boat, I think it is probably worth having on board. Or I find a way to do the same task with what I have. I also find that you can usually find someone nearby that has the tool and will let you borrow it. I can't really think of any specialty tools that are that big of a deal to get a hold of.

There are really very few things I don't think a DIYer could tackle. Especially if they take the time to learn how to do it correctly and learn how to solicit advice. The Fatty Goodlander story about fixing Wild Card comes to mind.

I would guess this difference in our mindsets is a big part of the reasons it is so difficult to address the OP's initial post in this thread. How can you provide one "cost of cruising" estimate with so many different approaches.

[thomm225]

Since my "name" is associated with the above post I feel I must point out that I do not condone everything those kids in the video Hold Fast did.

I was simply saying there are different ways to cruise, and you don't have to spend tons to do it. I use sailing as a getaway also. I live somewhat primitive during my 2-6 day "cruises."

I'm still trying to figure out if I can adjust to the slow lifestyle of cruising or whether I need to choose another hobby/lifestyle.

Also, as I remember it using that crane was the "rich, older guys" idea that they had bought their $1,000.00 boat from.