The Answer to How much it Costs to Cruise

[Group9]

If we really wanted to figure this out, we would come up with an expense sheet, that we would all agree to fill out as accurately as possible every month. Then we would have some apples to apples comparisons to work with.

If we really wanted to figure this out ........

[Sailorman Ed]

winter 2012, 35 ft 1974 cat , 2 people Bahamas
1267 n. miles
food $1,181
meals out $506
Fuel (gas) $603
marinas & moorings $440
other $523 (cruising permit, laundry, internet, car rental)
$679.68/month
took all spares and lubricants w us, no $ spent on repairs on the trip (none in the subsequent 12 mo)
excludes low cost/high deductable catastrophic health insurance
excludes liability only insurance as part of home owner insurance
excludes $20/mo Sat phone bill
We had the time of our lives,
increasing the budget for next time to $1,500/mo for the 39 ft cat
Ed S/V Sea Castle

[centerline]

Originally Posted by Catamoron

Everybody wants to know how much it cost to live the sailing lifestyle, and up until we set sail back in December, we had no idea - just guesses. But now, after a full month of sailing and moving (we've gone from Key West to Georgetown so far) we finally have a good idea of exactly what it costs.

I've posted a pretty thorough list of everything we spent money on for the entire month of January - there isn't too many surprises and to be honest, once we get a better grasp on the cruising lifestyle, the cheaper we'll be able to do it. In fact, the only reason we even went to Nassau and docked there is because we had to put our dog to sleep (and I didn't include that expense either, but I did include all the other expenses of getting there and docking there.)

Catchin' Rays: How Much does it cost to Cruise for 1 month? Here's the answer

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Your expenses my vary.

the real difference that I see in even discussing the coat is in what we as individuals consider "cruising" to be and what is involved in it...

I have read the list you show in the link, and for what you spent, and what it was spent on, I interpret your time spent more as "marina hopping" rather than cruising... and there is nothing wrong with that, but marina hopping it IS more expensive.

and we each have our own individual ideas of what we feel we NEED for our comforts... some of us love being on the hook all the time, eating whatever we can throw together, where someone else cant get by without dropping a couple hundred a week on food and drink at the marina restaurants or nearby night clubs.... so everything we require to be comfortable during our cruising is all relative to what we are used to, and the monthly cruising costs are only relative to those wants, NOT our needs!.... if we were to count the dollars relative to our needs and what it takes to survive, the amount of money required to get by on would be much lower.

I have only cruised for only two weeks at a stretch, but have made many trips, and the costs so far are somewhat lower than 200 per week.... i just cant imagine it costing over $1000 per month to be a full time cruiser... even with the normal boat maintenance figured in. although this is on a sail boat, not a powerboat, so I have yet to use over 15 gallons of fuel per trip... to double or triple that per month would raise the cost, but still, not so much to be unaffordable, YET....

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by Catamoron

Everybody wants to know how much it cost to live the sailing lifestyle, and up until we set sail back in December, we had no idea - just guesses. But now, after a full month of sailing and moving (we've gone from Key West to Georgetown so far) we finally have a good idea of exactly what it costs.

I've posted a pretty thorough list of everything we spent money on for the entire month of January - there isn't too many surprises and to be honest, once we get a better grasp on the cruising lifestyle, the cheaper we'll be able to do it. In fact, the only reason we even went to Nassau and docked there is because we had to put our dog to sleep (and I didn't include that expense either, but I did include all the other expenses of getting there and docking there.)

Catchin' Rays: How Much does it cost to Cruise for 1 month? Here's the answer

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Your expenses my vary.

Who cares if you live on rice or beans or eat in every Yacht Club. Loosing your dog must have been awful. How sad.

[Zeb]

Thanks for the post Catamoron. It is helpful to see actual expenses. I'm sure everyone realizes this isn't a budget .... but your particular expenses. Keep it up and collect the data. Over time it will be more and more useful to those interested.

- Zeb

[Nadineon31]

Thanks to Catamoron for your generous info. I scan these posts daily as we are still dreaming and planning (read counting shekels) before we buy our boat and finally set off. "old salts" and people who have cruised for years on "next to nothing" quickly forget how it felt when they first set sail ... how it felt to flounder in a sea of unknowns. The detail is what helps and I am so grateful when I read posts from people who are generous with their information and take the time to share....we all need a helping hand especially in the beginning. So, Catamoron, I am headed over to your blog with my coffee and I know will be hanging out there looking for the next instalment. xx

[Bill4]

That's a very useful account of your expenses Catamoron. I am surprised by the amount you spent on fuel in one month. It's a sailing cat, right? Are you on a time limited cruise where you have to keep moving to see it all in the time you have? We love sailing, hate motoring, so can't imagine we will use that much fuel in one month but then we will not be under any time pressure to get anywhere unless there's a storm a comin'.

It would be really useful to see a few more months of your expenses to see how things average out over time but thanks for going public with what data you have so far

[Catamoron]

Originally Posted by Bill4

That's a very useful account of your expenses Catamoron. I am surprised by the amount you spent on fuel in one month. It's a sailing cat, right? Are you on a time limited cruise where you have to keep moving to see it all in the time you have? We love sailing, hate motoring, so can't imagine we will use that much fuel in one month but then we will not be under any time pressure to get anywhere unless there's a storm a comin'.

It would be really useful to see a few more months of your expenses to see how things average out over time but thanks for going public with what data you have so far

There is a groove that we are trying to find...you have to remember, when we set sail from Key West, we had about 3 hours of sailing experience. But the situation that we've been having is this - when you find a really smooth day to sail, the wind is usually not there, so we have 2 options: 1.) pass up on a really smooth day and wait on the wind, or 2.) motor-sail without the wind.

Also, there are certain times that (since we don't have much sailing experience, and we anchor a lot) we want to be anchored before the sun goes down and having never been to the particular spot before, we try and hurry up and get there so we can see in the daylight. Now after we visit the spot and mark our anchor, we would probably not be in such a hurry the next time because we know the lay out and where to go. Another thing is when we were at Norman's Cay and had to go to Nassau to put our dog to sleep - she was in pain and barely holding on....so we hauled ass to Nassau (it didn't matter how much fuel we used) because it was (to us) an emergency.

There was actually one time while we were anchored at Chub that we passed on a super calm day and waited until the next day before we set sail so we could have the wind to get us to Rose Island. Everybody else around us set sail (motor-sailed) away on the calm day and we waited for the wind. The next day, it was pretty rough at times, we had to fight through a couple of squalls and it was generally a little uncomfortable - but we full-on sailed for most of the trip. After that, I had kinda thought that if I had a smooth sea, then I'm leaving - to me, a calm motor-sail making 8 knots is a great day. Right now, I can afford the fuel, especially since it means we can make that kind of time.....but don't forget, fuel down here has been $4.90 per gallon and $4.69 per gallon.

Also, it is now the middle of February and we haven't spent a dime on fuel this month...mainly because we are anchored at Georgetown - although we do still run the generator about 2 hours everyday because of our massive energy demands - so February's fuel bill probably won't be near what January's was...but for us, if we're moving, then we're burning fuel - but here is how I figure it: every place except here in Georgetown where the local Exuma Market lets you fill water jugs for free, water costs about 45 cents per gallon. If we run our watermaker everytime we are motoring - we can make 14 gallons an hour and only burn 1 gallon an hour of fuel. So as long as we are making water while we are motoring, then the production of water pays for the fuel.

But to your other answer - no, we are under no time constraints and are in no hurry to get anywhere, we are just trying to stay safe and have good days of motor-sailing or sailing, without anything breaking and nobody getting hurt. The longer we sail and the more used to things we get, the better at all aspects of sailing we'll be.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

One month of numbers....well get another 11 months and it will be more meaningful.
Because I could provision up our boat to spend zero for the next 3 months.

Not sure about this. If its beer, Boatman61 and myself could make you reprovision in 3 or less days......

[Bill4]

Originally Posted by Catamoron

There is a groove that we are trying to find...you have to remember, when we set sail from Key West, we had about 3 hours of sailing experience...

Wow, I had no idea. Kudos to you for jumping in at the deep end. Your logic for motorsailing is sound but I bet you will get to a point where you hate to turn the iron donkey on

You probably know this already but... When motorsailing on a cat it can be beneficial to use only one engine for efficiency (2 engines don't push the boat at 2 x the speed of one) and if you use the leeward engine it will help to 'push' the boat into the wind, which helps reduce leeway through the water. This works best the closer to the wind you are. Although gentlemen don't sail to windward, or so I'm told

Really, really sorry to hear about your dog. We lost ours some years ago. Brokenhearted doesn't come close.

Very best wishes for your cruising adventures.

[JPA Cate]

A64pilot,

New engine today, probably around $18,000. Complete re-rig, including mast, running rigging, radar, antennas, etc., $25,000-$30,000. Of course, costs could be kept down by using a rebuilt, or possibly rebuilding the engine. Used masts are available. Your local rigger can tell you the cost for just the wire. Some replacements might have to wait, like the radar. And so on.

IMO, extremely unlikely to have two such events in same two years. Also, since cruising is a process, you'll find some of yours and your wife's ideas will change over time.

Ann

[a64pilot]

Ann,
I keep running the numbers over and over. Unless something catastrophic happens like losing the boat in a Hurricane, we will be fine, we weren't born with silver spoons in our mouth and for the most part live pretty frugally. We might could lose the boat actually, but sure hope we don't have to face that. Lord knows getting this one like I want her has become more work that I thought, I don't want to have to repeat that.

Geographic's like has been noted play a large part into costs, as well as the boat of course. Also how much actual cruising your doing as opposed to living on a boat in one location. But even then there seems to be a couple of major different divisions in cruisers. One will cruise for a set time or cruise until the kitty is used up and then return to work, and then there are the ones like us, when we cut the lines, returning to work really isn't much of an option based on our age and professions.

It does seems to come down to it will cost what you have to spend, which is sort of like living on land when I think of it.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[chuckr]

I guess from our perspective anything is better than nothing but one month does not make it if you really want to know what it costs out here.

If we were to look at one month, say last month we would have spent maybe $5,000 but $1,500 of that was for shoulder surgery, $2,800 for boat insurance and the rest eating ect. This month would be less but next month we will probably spend close to $3,000 as our plane tickets back to visit family will be about $1,000 each.

Some months are expensive, we blew out mainsail last year and had to get a new one in Croatia but the month after that was relatively inexpensive.

It is the long term that counts, so just keep track and put in everything.

[SURV69]

This discussion, like all the earlier cost of sailing/boat discussions are of interest ... "real", interest to so many boaters, while at the same time, almost worthless.

One cannot even begin to compare a 40' motoryacht to a 28' sailboat and a single frugal sailor to a person with almost all the money he/she could ever need, to sail.

Still, it's all good data ... it's just that the data, as good as it is is worthless the the majority of viewer.

To make this truly worthwhile, one would almost have to begin threads setting up various parameters, involving how big a boat ... how new a boat(a new boat might costs $2000 per year for insurance only), whether the sailor likes beans and rice, or caviar ... I could go on and on.

BUT as it is one of a frugal nature(like me), has to read through scads of 40'+ boats with no spending limits before I finally read the post that involves another single sailor, in a small sailboat, who's willing to forego many of the things that we consider frivilous.

Again ... I'm not denying that ALL the data given is good ... it is.

All the data given is very usable too...

But I venture to say the conglomerate postings of vastly different situations, leads to a sense of ... not being able to see the forest for the trees

Maybe a place to begin would be dividing up sailors with lots and lots of available money from ones with truly "fixed", incomes ... and sailors with really big boats(especially with BIG payments and BIG insurance bills), from those with more modest boats, with more modest(or none), boat payments and liability only insurance

Maybe just a breakdown of income only ...($0 to $12000) ...($12000 to $24000) ... and on and on.

At least then I would know I'm spending my time reading about other sailors who are roughly in my general situation ... or not.

[SURV69]

Group9:

I just saw your post, and I think you're right
Especially if there was a category(column) for the kind of lifestyle, one for how much available money, number of passengers and one for size of boat.

Then everyone could sort the fields how they see fit ... I know my first sorting would be the lifestyle column, then the boat size