8 years of cost data

[robert sailor]

Chuck, you motivated me to check our spread sheets from past years cruising. I mentioned in an earlier thread that costs for boat upkeep and replacement were tied into how much refitting you did before you left and the type of cruising you were doing as well as how long you were out there. Our average cruising expenses every month are $3850.00, our average boat maintenance and replacement expenses are $1880.00 per month, this reflects that we are outfitting and maintaining as we go and includes some very big ticket items such as a new Awlgrip paint job and a brand new Beta diesel and folding prop as well as small stuff like watermaker,autopilot,new chain,new canvas,solent stay,new hot water tank, new upholstery, new dingy/outboard etc. With less than 4 years to spread these costs out our monthly average is going to be very high, but when we hit 8 years as you have our average will have fallen substantially. Right now we average less than $1000.00 per month and I don't expect that to rise very much over the coming years. Our cruising costs include every penny we spend and that includes our travelling when we are not on the boat and we travel allot both inside countries we are visiting as well as back home. And for those interested our boat maintenance and replacement costs on our first year were 62% of our total cruising expenses and last year they were 13% . Our boat is kept in immaculate condition and many people think it's near new, it's our home and we like to keep it that way although it's not cheap.
Thanks for posting your detailed expenses Chuck, it's a real service to those getting ready to go. R

[a64pilot]

Robert, the $3850 includes the $1,880 maintenance?

[dannc]

This is really good information, both in the spreadsheet and in the discussion. Thank you.

Originally Posted by chuckr

this month I am going to see the dermatologist in Izmir and I have seen her before and she is as good as anyone in the usa - and probably a bit more through as she takes her time to not just look at what I think are a problem but goes over the entire body looking for anything out of the ordinary - try to get a doc in the usa tell you no just take your time we want to make sure and I have time
hope this helps

Yeah, getting a doctor in the US to spend time is very hard since they have to move through the patients. When my wife was pregnant she had a condition that needed to be discussed with the delivery doctor. We were making the rounds at the office and the doctor seeing her was late, in a hurry, and blew off what we were trying to tell him.

I was standing and when it was obvious the doctor was not really paying attention, I said something to him with some adult verbage and set down. At which point he realized he needed to pay attention so he sat down and we had the required conversation. I really should not have to show my a...ss, as my mother in law would say, to get a doctor to listen.

Unfortunately, we have had to see too many doctors, and too many were just incompetent. What we have experienced is unreal....

Anyway, there are good doctors in the US, one just has to find them. . I just went to the dermatologist and he actually spent quite a bit of time looking at my skin and checking things out. We actually chatted about various things as well. Not often does this happen with a doctor.

Great info.
Dan

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Robert, the $3850 includes the $1,880 maintenance?

Yes it does.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Yes it does.

Good, cause if it didn't I was going to start sweating again.
Where are your normal cruising grounds, or are you travelling?

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Good, cause if it didn't I was going to start sweating again.
Where are your normal cruising grounds, or are you travelling?

We started in Greece, then spent a season in Turkey, stayed same place as Chuck. Did two seasons in the Med, up the Med to Gibraltar, Canaries, then crossed over to St. Maarten. Sailed the Eastern Caribbean and hurricane season in Grenada then sailed to Trinidad, then a couple of Venezuela Islands, the ABC's then to Colombia, San Blas Islands, Panama, San Andreas,Providencia and then to the Bay Islands in Honduras . From there to Belize and then to Guatamala for hurricane season. So that's pretty close to 10,000 miles when it's all said and done. This year is going to be an ultra short season as we are going to fly to New Zealand and then home for a bit and then to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for a few months as a boat break. Just trying to make up our minds whether we then head back to the South Pacific or ???? R

[a64pilot]

So costs have sort of stayed static? I would have thought they would be pretty variable, I had even thought we would have to avoid the high price locations, although I dont usually like them anyway.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

So costs have sort of stayed static? I would have thought they would be pretty variable, I had even thought we would have to avoid the high price locations, although I dont usually like them anyway.

No anything but static, I just gave a running average over 42-1/2 months. 6-1/2 months in 2013 was $33,100 2014 was $58,150 2015 was $44,800 2016 was 33,140. These are total cruising costs. Boat stuff, 6.5 months 2013 $19,325 2014 $35,680 2015 $20,500 2016 $4,540 The other costs which include everything else were 2013 $13,875 2014 $22,470 2015 $24,300 2016 $28,600 (2016 includes return ticket for family member to Guatemala and tickets to NZ as well as Thailand return to Vancouver as well as return tickets to Guatemala. If you took all the prepaid flight tickets off this past year has been our cheapest by a long shot.

[sailorboy1]

Good job Chuck!

I've never seen a $1500 or less cruiser (a person who lives on their boat and moves regularly from place to place that isn't just down the harbor) post a detailed cost list.

[zeilersailor]

Originally Posted by chuckr

Sure -- boat parts are what you may call depreciable items - such things as a water pump, copper for the ssb, fan, batteries, ect

Boat repair is bottom painting, fixing broken stuff, overall of the prop or windlass and includes the labor for that - I am getting a bit long in the tooth and last year we hired someone to help sand the boat and paint so that went into the repair cost

boat supplies are disposable items like wax, varnish, soap, wd40, dry lub ect

hope this helps

Thanks a lot Chuck

[Recy]

Very interesting to read about the costs during longtime cruising.
I saw you have had a lot of alternator problems what kind of alternator is it, have you solved the problems?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Good job Chuck!

I've never seen a $1500 or less cruiser (a person who lives on their boat and moves regularly from place to place that isn't just down the harbor) post a detailed cost list.

I don't understand, only year he was less than $3K was 09?

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Recy

Very interesting to read about the costs during longtime cruising.
I saw you have had a lot of alternator problems what kind of alternator is it, have you solved the problems?

it ended up we blew a battery isolator and did not know it but knew we had electrical problems -- we thought it was the alternator and took it in to an island in the carib and had it worked on and they guy brought it out and hooked it up backward and blew it -
we have had it rebuilt a couple of times and trying to get it to work - it was a 150amp that we loved but had enough of it for a while. we switched to an 80 amp spare we carried with a internal regulator for the time being - I am thinking of having and electrician come over and put the 150 back on with a new regulator but not sure yet

and we got a really hi tech regulator from Sterling Power while we were in Granada and tried to get it to work but we were moving a lot and just could not get it to work - had a Jeanneau dealer in Martinique try to get it to work as well as a guy in Tunisia, Italy and Turkey and none could and finally a guy in Turkey said the thing is just bad and it tried to get a new one and they said nope to long since purchase - no more Sterling for me - but we will try to find a new one and bench test all before installing -

And we do carry a spare 80amp in case the current one has issues

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I don't understand, only year he was less than $3K was 09?

I think he was talking about all those folks who say they can be full time cruisers on 1500 a month and never ever have a long term cost breakdown like he and I are providing

[Building Wharrams]

Thank you very much Chuck.