Cruising on $500 per Month . . .

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by zeehag

i hear it helps to have a temp import permit for boat so parts and items new and used can be transported/received for boat.

If you have a permit are the goods duty free?its free trade after all...how you doing?...DVC

[NorthPacific]

I have had Nasa gear. Less than impressed. DId not work long. Found Nasa less than fair in my dealings with them.

[NorthPacific]

Mac just been looking at the asking price for secondhand sails as compared to new ones! Higher than I thought. If you reckon most people only get rid of a sail when it starts to stop working as well as it did......

Need to look careful like. Still 4-600 is better than 12-1400

[MacG]

@NorthPacific

What kind of sails you are looking for? If you mail sizes I can look around. Sails are quit often offered against good prices.
I talk about people ordering wrong sizes or sailmakers making mistakes and have to take back not fitting cloth. It happens more often than you are aware of.

[NorthPacific]

Looking up measurements now.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

If you have a permit are the goods duty free?its free trade after all...how you doing?...DVC

no added taxes. don't know about expedited delivery, but i guess i will find out soon enough......

i am fine..got a cough from hell, but this, too, shall pass.....weather is about 10 degrees warmer than coldest i found in sd.... liking it-- but is time to think about relocating to slightly warmwer and more southerly areas...onward ever onward......

[osirissail]

Duty free and "Ship in Transit" are a little more involved that thought by most folks. "Free Trade" is also only half the story. What they do is lower or remove the "customs duties" but there are plenty of other fees like import licenses, broker paperwork fees, taxes on shipping costs, drayage and insurance costs and a half dozen other less than official fees for getting your stuff processed through the official system in less than a lifetime.

Countries like Grenada observe "Boat in transit" but have a raft of associated fees that add about $40 to $80 to a shipment even when no Customs duties are assessed. The "associated" fees vary from country to country. So bringing in a big dollar item make the associated fees just a small percentage of the value, but for a small item they can be more than the cost of the item. So shopping in the local boat stores for small stuff becomes a better deal even with their higher prices.

[goprisko]

Sails:

For many years, good bargains could be had from Bacon & Associates in Annapolis, MD by those in the eastern US. Bacon receives many sails from racing boats, often after just a few years of use. However, the majority of sails in inventory matches the majority of boats, which generally average around 30 Ft or so.

To order sails you need the following measurements:

Jib - length of jib stay less 2-3 ft and perpendicular distance from clew to jib stay.

Staysail - length of staysail stay less 2-3 ft and perpendicular distance from clew to jib stay

Main - luff and foot

For mains you need to determine the amount of roach, battens or not

For foresails, battens or not, leech lines etc.

Popular boats have larger inventories of sails to choose from. Custom boats much less so.

Bacon is not the only second hand broker of sails, there are others, and I encourage you to find them.

It is necessary for you to predetermine refit locations when cruising. Panama is good, HongKong excellent. New Zealand and Australia are excellent. Florida and Maryland are excellent.

Tahiti and New Caledonia are good. I replaced my drifter in Papeete and also the water closet. I got my LAVAC in Papeete for 2/3 the US price, for example.

Central America and much of South America not so good. Argentina has a boat building industry, but it's small.

Phillippines has some boat yards, but everything is imported. Singapore is quite good, Malasia is good.

It is necessary to make enquiries before embarking upon major work. But bargains can be had. We hauled and primed the bottom and CB trunks in Carriacou 2 weeks on the hard, 3 lifts a 45 ft boat for $500.

But we brought everything with us.

You can sew your own sails. We made a complete suit of 5, main two yankees and two staysails for $3000 total, including the sewing machine, hardware, sail cloth, thread and needles. This in HongKong.

To design sails you need a copy of Marchai's book "Sail Design and Theory" and the program SailCut.

Regarding AIS and other electronic gizmos. Nearly 3 pages was spent on this device. Certainly, if you are cruising New York Harbor, you need it. But why bother? Long Island, Block Island, Chesapeake Bay, the Carolina sounds, Florida Sounds, Bahamas, West Indies, South Atlantic, South Pacific, the China Seas, Lumbok Strait, Malacca Strait, Andaman Sea, Phillippine Sea, Indian Ocean and other places have much less shipping. Your AIS broadcasts your position and heading to friend and foe alike. It lets other ship's know where you are and the pirates off Venezuela and in the Arabian Sea too. There is absolutely no substitute for a good lookout. AIS will not tell you of the presence of fishing boats in Asia. They don't have electricity, much less radios, much less AIS, but they are generally strongly built boats about 35 ft long, hitting one could ruin your day. Unlit barges likewise don't have AIS, hitting one will definitely ruin your day.

It's about time we got back to discussions regarding the following:

Sailing on and off anchor or mooring
Sail design and theory
Reefing strategies
How to trim sails
Line sizes for sheets, halyards and rodes
Dinghies
Provisioning
Coastwise piloting

and there are many others..

The AIS device costs about the same as a good used sextant. Someone quipped that sextants were too expensive, yet opined he needed AIS. First, you navigate, then you keep a sharp lookout, remembering that tonnage rules, and discretion is the better part of valor.

Here we discuss the basics. Electronics are not part of the basics, they are luxuries.

INDY

[callmecrazy]

Originally Posted by goprisko

The AIS device costs about the same as a good used sextant. Someone quipped that sextants were too expensive, yet opined he needed AIS. First, you navigate, then you keep a sharp lookout, remembering that tonnage rules, and discretion is the better part of valor.

Here we discuss the basics. Electronics are not part of the basics, they are luxuries.

INDY

Lets be clear here.

I said sextants are more expensive than a GPS, and they are. Even used.

And I never said I "needed" AIS. I've never consider it, or claimed it to be a navigational aid. Its a simple device that gives a warning when a transmitting vessel is in the area. That is all. The cheap ones, which we were discussing, do not transmit your position. For $150, I said, I think it's worth having on MY boat. That is all.

If you're going to be twisting peoples words and making claims that others opinions are not welcome in this thread, the arguments will continue.

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by NorthPacific

probably about 600 miles north and about 1100 driving miles. But if we have achance may head south this summer. Couple of stores in Vancouver and Sydney on the Island but all a bit of a trek. Does this store in Bellingham have a website?

No website, they are just like a pawn shop with tons of old stuff- and I mean like 20 dingys, lots of props, mechanical everything a trawler or sailboat everything can imagine, even old sails. What a used head? They have a dozen. Perhaps some of us could look for some of you when we go in the shop (which, when I am there, seems like at least once a week)

[BlueH20]

Nice thread here, It would be nice if there were more posts from People actually doing it on 500 a month, or even near that, I have Been practicing for my cruise by living in a 24' RV for the last 4 yrs, on 400 per mo, almost got it to 350 then the Beer prices went up, I will start prepping my Boat in a few months and plan on leaving next spring.

I sure would like to hear more on food stowage and preparation, I love fresh bread but baking just isnt my thing, Should I look for a first Mate? I do love flying solo tho,

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by BlueH20

Nice thread here, It would be nice if there were more posts from People actually doing it on 500 a month, or even near that,. . .

I sure would like to hear more on food stowage and preparation, I love fresh bread but baking just isnt my thing, Should I look for a first Mate? I do love flying solo tho,

See the recent post #2754 in this thread and the comments after it.

A successful minimalist budget cruiser pretty much does "everything" themselves - cook, clean, bake bread, fix the engine, fix the boat, etc., etc. I really don't think on that budget you can afford to hire technicians/mechanics or support another person or buy anything that you can learn to do yourself.

Just find a kind old lady cruiser to show how to bake bread, when she teaches you the "tricks" all of a sudden it becomes fun and easy - time consuming, but easy. The downside is that the bread is so good, you eat it too fast and then it is gone.

[sic5y360]

Originally Posted by BlueH20

I sure would like to hear more on food stowage and preparation, I love fresh bread but baking just isnt my thing, Should I look for a first Mate? I do love flying solo tho,

I absolutely love to bake bread. Unfortunately I had to stop or we would be eating way too much fresh bread. I cannot imagine not finding that activity enjoyable. Baking bread takes a few minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.

[BlueH20]

Thanks for the link osirissail I do have a reserve in my budget, so times that I am on passage or places where there is nothing to spend money on I will be adding over 2k a month to the kitty, I just enjoy getting the most for the least =)

Has anyone tried baking bread in a solar oven? Im trying to avoid having a oven as I really have never used the one in the RV in 4 yrs, I will have a small microwave and a two burner stove, Maybe I should rethink that but my experience tells me I could use the space for better things, A solar oven will fold flat and be light as well as give me a reason to kickback on the deck. Now I know how to do that =) Just not sure if I will get bread out of it?

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by BlueH20

Has anyone tried baking bread in a solar oven? Im trying to avoid having a oven as I really have never used the one in the RV in 4 yrs, I will have a small microwave and a two burner stove, Maybe I should rethink that but my experience tells me I could use the space for better things, A solar oven will fold flat and be light as well as give me a reason to kickback on the deck. Now I know how to do that =) Just not sure if I will get bread out of it?

I've seen mention that bread can be made in a Pressure cooker - giving that a go is on my "To do" list.