Cruising a financially efficient way to see the world?

[JulieMac]

I'll pose the question to those with voyaging experience. In comparison to "normal" means of travel (plane/hotels/cruise lines), how does owning and sailing your own boat compare?

Does it come down to the length of time you intend to travel? Does the number of places and distance factor?

[robert sailor]

I've come to believe that cruising is the most expensive way in the world to travel 3rd class but we love it. R

[atoll]

financial efficiency all comes down to the time you want to spend fixing your boat!

this in turn is governed by the level of your expertise,tools at your disposal and materials available.

food,gas,cruising fees/visas are constants.

best advise is to have the most simple boat possible, if you can't fixit yourself,otherwise you will end up having to pay those that have the skills and resources that can.

moral of the story...... boats break ..million dollar boats break, just costs exponetionally more to fix them.......

[JulieMac]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

I've come to believe that cruising is the most expensive way in the world to travel 3rd class but we love it. R

Ha! That's cute.

Guess I'm looking at it from the standpoint of going port to port in the Med, seeing some of the most interesting places in the world.

We'd have our "home" with us, we'll drop the anchor and head off to see some ruins. Top the day off with a glass of wine in some non-descript street café.

That's what holds my interest!

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by JulieMac

Ha! That's cute.

Guess I'm looking at it from the standpoint of going port to port in the Med, seeing some of the most interesting places in the world.

We'd have our "home" with us, we'll drop the anchor and head off to see some ruins. Top the day off with a glass of wine in some non-descript street café.

That's what holds my interest!

Well I don't want to stomp all over your dream but many people are doing exactly what you described AND they can do it year after year and not see it all. So if that is your dream its going to be easy to make it come true However even though I'm in your camp and love touring cities and ancient ruins you do eventually get a bit ruined out. We also found that the best ruins are in Turkey because way back when it was Greece, remember that? Anyways we found a great option was to winter in Kusadası and take cheap flights all over Turkey and if you like Bulgaria do it to. Its hard to get tired of that lifestyle as long as you take a breather here and there. The wine is cheap BUT it is also good and the food is to die for and it is also cheap. The sailing generally is the shits compared to the Caribbean or South Pacific but that's really not what the Med is all about. There are areas that you can sail most days but not that many. There are loads of people there in high season and more boats than you have ever seen in your life but its still a cool place. Keep dreaming, you'll probably make it happen!:

[thinwater]

If you want to go places, fly.

If you want to be places, cruise, drive, bicycle, or walk.

[Keb]

Originally Posted by JulieMac

I'll pose the question to those with voyaging experience. In comparison to "normal" means of travel (plane/hotels/cruise lines), how does owning and sailing your own boat compare?

Does it come down to the length of time you intend to travel? Does the number of places and distance factor?

Traveling "normally" is living out of a suitcase or backpack and can get old pretty fast if you are constantly moving so you can see the most possible. But do you really feel the essence of where you are? It's like being a perpetual tourist in my view. If you want to visit the most countries possible then air travel is the way to go if your time is limited. And you are catered to for the most part, but that certainly has a cost unless you go the hostel route which there isn't much catering to.

If you have an open ended schedule then cruising would seem to fit better if you want to "smell the roses" in each port and just move along when you feel like it. You are traveling and taking your home with you w/o all of the packing and unpacking. But since it is your home, you must maintain it which is a serious responsibility.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by JulieMac

I'll pose the question to those with voyaging experience. In comparison to "normal" means of travel (plane/hotels/cruise lines), how does owning and sailing your own boat compare?

Does it come down to the length of time you intend to travel? Does the number of places and distance factor?

With the price of airfares now flying is the cheapest way to get places.

However I find that hotels are still quite expensive unless you are willing to go less than 4-5 star.

The advantage of the boat is that it is a movable hotel room. It just moves really slowly.

Let's say you wanted to see the 3 main cruising grounds - the Med, Asia and Bahamas/Caribbean/LATAM.

I think there is a case to buy the boat in the med - sail for a couple of years and sell it on. by a boat in Asia, sail a couple years and sell it on. Finally buy a boat in the Caribbean/Florida and sell it on. Where you start depends on where you start - i.e. Americans should start in Florida/Caribbean - close to home where one can learn the cruising lifestyle in a predominantly familiar environment. Europeans in the Med etc...

I think too many people get hung up and the "perfect" boat - either building it or buying it. With $80k in the "boat buying fund" I bet I could buy a boat in each location (35-45 feet), sell it on for the price of the boat, or a little wear and tear depreciation and have a great time.


The target boat is a cruising couple ready to hang it up. They are motivated to sell and they are living on the boat already so why can't you just step aboard and assume their "problems" - every boat has a list and too many folks think the list has to be zeroed out before thy leave the dock - not true....

My brother bought a 45 foot ferro in Asia for ~$20k and has been living on it for 3 years. He has invested a fair amount and works on it at least 1 day a week but all up it has been cheaper than rent back home. i.e. he could sink the boat and still be ahead.

[2Hulls]

Originally Posted by thinwater

If you want to go places, fly.

If you want to be places, cruise, drive, bicycle, or walk.

That's a good way to put it.

It depends on your definition of "world" and accessibility by other means.

I would say that cruising is the CHEAPEST way to see most of the coastal world, but it's not cheap, and you have to intentionally go to the places of the world not accessible to anyone else without spending even MORE money to get there.

2 Hulls Dave

[sailorboy1]

I only got into sailing to cruise/travel, so the answer better be that yes it is a an inexpensive way to do it.

[JPA Cate]

Cruising on your own boat means that you have your home with you. I think it's the slowest way to travel 4th class, but what's one class amongst friends? ;-)

Having your own home with you means that you imprint your own personalities on your space, so it is very different from hotel & restaurant travel. After a while, all hotels seem the same: a bed, a toilet nearby, hopefully clean, but not-home. Your own boat gives you a sanctuary in which to recover after the energies spent in conversing in language not your native one, and being in foreign cultures with different customs can be both fun and tiring at the same time.

With your boat, you can stay in places and for a little effort, play the seasons and go back to where you want to visit. But most of us avoid the high latitudes. That part gets trickier, so part of your answer lies in how long you want to spend in which places.

I bet you could get on line with a list and an itinerary and get an idea of those costs. If you really love traveling, it could mount up pretty fast. It also depends partly on how new and what size you want your boat to be. In our case, our boat is the only home we have, so we don't have outlays for maintenance, except for the boat.

Ann

[boatman61]

Cruising is the water borne version of camper vanning..
drive/sail till you get somewhere you fancy stopping then you park/anchor up for a few days/weeks/months depending on what happens while your there..
When it gets boring you move on..
VW or Winnebago it matters not.. there's fresh faces and graces over the horizon..

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Cruising is the water borne version of camper vanning..
drive/sail till you get somewhere you fancy stopping then you park/anchor up for a few days/weeks/months depending on what happens while your there..
When it gets boring you move on..
VW or Winnebago it matters not.. there's fresh faces and graces over the horizon..

I won't let my wife read this Boatie as she has already made it clear if I bring up the word RV she will be packing her bags...lol

[Julie Mor]

When I think about all the times I've flown somewhere, stayed in a motel, rented a car, eaten out for every meal (except when the hotel/motel offers a decent breakfast, included), all I see is money flying out of my pocket.

My longest sailing cruise is only a month. So I don't have much to go on. As far as cost, I never remember any of the trips I've made in a sailboat as being as costly as the above.

[Kenomac]

My wife figured this out last season. The minimal cost for us to live in an inexpensive hotel ($130 per night or less) and eat in cheap restaurants or prepare our own food would be approximately $40,000 for five months excluding all travel and transportation costs.

On our boat, we spend less than $1500 per month on everything, diesel, food and local transportation. We do have the addition cost of the boat itself and the 7 month storage fee of $6000 plus any maintenance costs to incure. We can certainly spend more on the boat if we choose to do so, but we prefer to prepare most meals ourselves, anchor 99 percent of the time, and travel via wind power as much as possible.


I know you're looking at an Oyster 45 (oops, wrong Julie). Hotels vs yachts, not the same thing. Compare your past hotel experiences with this video, click on the link to watch on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlAvUrO3HBw