cost of insurance for like 60 foot sailboat we love to cruise around the world

[Tammy44]

hello everyone good morning

my husband and I are talking about going to sailing classes and buying sailing boat i would love it to be 60 feet since we would and dream to sail around the world........I love to take pic and have wonderful camera equipment to take pics and do some writing

i hear insurance is pricey for cruising around world with a 60 ft sailboat...

we are planing to sell our home and buy a use sailboat either in florida or anywhere where there no property taxes on the sail boat ...we do not mind paying registration on the sail boat....but we live in connecticut and taxes are very high here......to high....

once my husband retires we will be living on about 3300 a month.......

i keep wondering if we can really sail around the world on that much money

i love to see the world....and take tons of pics as well

our plans is buying a used sail boat not new sail boat....

i do not mind payments on the sailboat but we like to buy it outright

reason i am thinking 60 ft is becouse we will be living on for many years....


so my question is getting insurance for sailing around the world

and one more question where is best area for sailing classes on the east coast

[a64pilot]

Once you re-evaluate that 60 ft thing, I think you can do it easily on $3,300, or at least I hope so.

[St. Elsewhere]

Insurance costs will depend on the value of the boat, and other factors. Expect to be in the $5,000 to $10,000 per year range.

[boatman61]

Cost of insurance will hang on quite a few factors..
Value of the boat..
Size of the boat..
Experience of owner/s..
Qualifications held..
Area/s to be cruised..
Certain restrictions may also apply.. if you sail just two up its likely your insurance will only be valid for the first 200miles of the crossing.. and only kicking back in once your within 200miles of a landfall..
Also, certain area's will not be covered due to political/piracy reasons.. check with the insurer for WW restrictions/caveats..
I would recommend you talk to Panteanius..

[sailorboy1]

I think world cruising for newbie couple on a 60' boat on $3300/mo will be a hell of a challenge.

How about dialing it down to a big boat of say 45'?

But far as insurance goes if you are talking full coverage it probably is going to cost 2-3% or the boat insured valve per year for no experienced couple (if you can even find it).

[andreas.mehlin]

Had my 38ft catamaran insured last year at Pantaenius.
Insurance value: 150k USD

For Caribbean we paid about 2500 USD/yr
For Pacific we needed word coverage, that was about 5000 USD/yr.
When we got to Australia it was about 3000 USD/yr

Still don't get it why Australia was more expensive than Caribbean.

Have good things to say about Pantaenius! We lost a rudder and had some other damages. Not to many questions about it. They paid us for the repairs.

This was thru the Swedish office so prices might be a little different depending what office you deal with.

Some friends we met paid about 2500 for world coverage thr topsail insurance.

[skipmac]

Hi Tammy and welcome to the forum. Have lived in CT and FL and yes it is much cheaper to own and keep a boat in Florida.

You have gotten some good information already but let me add my own comments.

1. 60' boat. This is a pretty large sailboat. You may want that much room compared to your current house but you also have to consider the other aspects. If just the two of you a 60' boat is a lot to handle. Yes there are a lot of couples that do sail boats that size and larger but it would be a good idea to start a little smaller before jumping in that deep. Also many of the costs of owning a boat will be more, a lot more, for a bigger boat. Roughly costs for parts, sails, rigging maintenance, docking, etc on a 60' boat will be double that for a 40' boat. You might want to check out boats in the 40-50' range.

2. Living on $3,300/month. Very doable but again would be easier on a smaller boat. If you don't stay in expensive marinas every night but instead anchor out (free in most places) your day to day costs will be about the same as living in a house. What you need to allow for is the occasional big expense. Every 3-10 years, depending on how much you sail the boat, you will need new sails. For my 42' boat those are about $3000 each. For a 60' boat at least $6000 each. Every 5-10 years new rigging $3000-$10,000. Engine is hard to say. How often do you have to put a new engine in a car? With luck almost never. Same with a boat but if you do figure $15-25,000.

3. Insurance. Depends on whether you want liability only (which is required in many countries) or if you want full coverage. Again, costs will depends on the size/value of the boat. For a 45' boat for full coverage world wide could be $5-$10,000/year. Liability a fraction of that.

[djmarchand]

Rethink the 60' boat idea. At that size you really need more than a husband and wife to crew it. I ran in to a restored 65' William Fife sailboat in Newport, RI. The owners would pick up one or two crew along the way but never sailed it offshore with just the two of them.

I have lived aboard on 37-43' boats and believe that any more than 45' is just a waste. Even though you may think you can live on the hook, there are times that you will stay in a marina or pick up a mooring. Marina fees for big boats are astronomical. And most mooring fields will not accommodate a 60' boat. Plus haulout and bottom jobs go up significantly for that size boat.

David

[Jaden44]

Good on you. Follow you dream but first stick to your game plan. May I suggest that you sign up as intended for those sailing classes. I suggest that the wife signs up for a ladies only class with a female instructor. Plan to enrol for more than just a basic crew course and plan to progress to skipper’s level BEFORE you purchase your boat.
Treat each class as a try-before-you buy adventure. Test your personal stamina and mental limits. Experience the thrill of sailing with a competent instructor on good weather days but you must also accept the challenge of sailing in foul weather, a storm or two, and of course experience those long dark night watches when night sailing.. You may find that the dream and the reality of sailing and navigating those long distances are very very different.
Sail training classes will enable you to learn the basic skills of berthing a much small sail training boat. You then have the opportunity to evaluate your personal skills and make an informed decision of what would be the largest boat that you (a couple) are physically able to handle not withstanding you personal skills to operate and maintain the various ships systems. Have you ever watched the berthing of 50-60 foot something sail boat? An experienced skipper can make it look all too easy – but for the in-experienced skipper, it can be a nightmare that ends with costly insurance claims to resolve afterwards and lots of unhappy people.
I guarantee that after completing skipper level sail training, you’ll appreciate that the cost was money well spent, because it will have enable you to make rational decisions about the size and type of boat that will best fit your follow on dream plan. You may even decide to just keep the house and ring the yacht charter company when you feel the need to go sailing.

[Tammy44]

hi i wanted to thank everyone for your comments......we are going to be selling our home here in conn for sure......we cant stay in ct after he retire since it cost allot of money to live in our state .....my husband was saying we can enjoy sailing and i could take pics around the world.......it was either learn to sail and buy a sail boat or buy rv and travel around us and take tons of pic as well.......i know i say 60 foot sailboat but we for me as a wife i would love to have small washer and dryer on the sailboat......plus my husband and i just would like to comforable as much as possable on a sailboat.....my dream is to take 3d pics of light houses around the world.......since i been raising young man with autism who now in a group home it time for mom and dad to follow some of there own dreams.....my son could not ever handle leaving us and travel like we would love to travel someday.......so yes it is a dream to learn to sail and own a sailboat and travel around the world.....there is so much i love to see.....taking pics is my passion and taking 3d pics for me will be great step for me to take as well.......

[tomfl]

I still can't figure out why so many folks advise noobies to sign up for ASA (or equivalent) sailing classes.

My advice is to go to this web site and find a yacht club close to where you live.

club

You should be able to find one you can join for a year (as an associate/kinda but not really member with no boat) for the cost of a single class you may well have to travel to take and hope the weather is good. Every yacht club I know of has a fleet of day sailers and offers lessons on them. Not to mention club members are willing to take folks out for a day sail, or as crew for a race, or an over nighter and provide a taste of what sailing is like.

As an aside if you are a half decent photographer you should be very popular with boat owners who always want good pix of their boat in action. You should easily be able to get a couple of owners to take you out a couple of times on different boats and and provide images of their boats in action as payment, maybe even pick up a couple of dollars on the side. Check out what good images of boats in action go for and you may be in for a shock.

[hellosailor]

Tammy, dreams are great but I'd worry first about taking the sailing classes, see how you like sailboats and sailing, get your feet wet (so to speak) for a year or two and THEN worry about the totally different costs of what you may or may not have refocused on.

60' is a lot of boat. Maybe it is for you, maybe it is radically not for you.

Buy a copy of SAIL magazine (or try to subscribe online, they had a $10 special for two full years) and look in the back for sailing schools. Plenty in CT and City Island and you might even choose to take a one-week program in Annapolis or Florida and get basic and intermediate certifications all at once. Most of the schools will be ASA (American Sailing Assn) certified these days and many have been in business 30+ years which means they're still doing something right.

Learn to sail, now, fast, and find the local yacht clubs and volunteer to crew on the evening and weekend races that are starting this week for this summer. People always need crew. If you know the basics, that's enough to start as rail meat and you will learn something from the differences in every skipper, crew, and boat, even if you never have any plans to race boats. Racing skills do transfer over to cruising, and you can't beat the exposure or the cost.

From there, either hook up for some offshore sailing or do a charter once you've gotten some experience. You may find after a week on the water that sailing around the world isn't so attractive anymore. Or, that you want to do it differently. And perhaps much sooner.(G)

But grab that magazine or one of the competitors, make some calls and try to get started now. Classes usually book up full pretty quickly in the start of the summer.

[Capt Phil]

If you had a few decades of offshore experience behind you and could do most of the repair/maintenance work yourselves, I'd say go for it. But 60 feet for a couple of newbies is a pretty far stretch IMHO.
We had a 49 footer but I had spent most of my life aboard commercially. We had to give it up due to age and health issues catching up with me. While getting old isn't for sissies, we hung in and moved to a 54 foot powerboat that we lived aboard and cruised for another 7 or so years. I felt confident in sailing and cruising larger boats but without my back ground and experience, we would have been in a lot of trouble. Unless you are prepared to have someone younger and experienced aboard to do the grunt work, maintenance, stand watches, etc, I would suggest charter a bit, get some sea miles under you and learn about maintaining a vessel of about 40 feet before jumping into the deep end. Good luck.. Phil

[alexxx]

great posts by the way !! it all helps me to make up my mind too !

[dohenyboy]

I didn't have as much money as others, so I got private lessons at $40 per hour. Cost me a few hundred bucks and was very cost and time effective. If you take them as a couple then you can be taught how to work together. Just find the right person. Not everyone is a good teacher.
When you get a big boat, you have more things to break down. More headaches and more costs. Costs increase in an exponential manner, not linearally, as length increases. You could buy a decent used 30 foot sailboat from $15,000 to $60,000. 60 feet add another zero to those numbers