Tips for Keeping to a Low Budget ? (Circumnavigation)

[YourOldNemesis]

Things that haven't been discussed:

Water makers - you don't NEED one
In a circumnavigation the longest hop you HAVE to do is from the Galapagos to the Marqueses, we were VERY slow and it took us 27 days. There were 3 of us on board and we used 350 litres of water.
Before you go buying the hand-ones, have a go with one. When I did, I concluded they really were an emergency only item to be in the grab-bag. No good for day-to-day usage.

EPIRB - just get one and don't ever use it, ditto liferaft and fire extinguisher and flares

You can do it without an autopilot, but that's just cutting off your nose to spite your face. I would go with a mechanical one.

Storm sails and parachute anchor/drogue learn how to use them and hope you never have to.

Most people doing circumnavigations either have a Sat-phone (cheaper to buy, more expensive to use) or an SSB radio with a modem to send emails and get weather information.

You don't need any qualifications

You will need a budget for fixing stuff that breaks

You will need more than a year (the quickest people I know personally did it in 3 and even that was a rush!).

[Tia Bu]

Tiller pilots are much cheaper than autopilots (or wind vanes) for the same sea-keeping power. For the size boats you are talking about here, finding one with a tiller could save bucks. You can buy two strong tiller pilots (one for backup) for less than the price of an autopilot or wind vane.

[Mark1977]

As far as sat phones go, you don't have to hook them up. Aslong as you don't want to chat on them you can still make emergency calls from them i.e 911 from anywhere.

[mtlee]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Your figures, to me, don't add up.
Please remember that we have hundreds of similar threads of people trying to do the impossible. Sometimes I get a tad jaded and wonder what information isn't exposed in the post.

You appear to be making $140,000 over the 2 years before sailing and wanting to spend $40,000 on a boat and travel world wide... coming home $50,000 each richer.... (I take it your income cutts off when you leave? Its not like a pension etc?)

A nuclear submarine may well be able to lap the world with little nore than an acquiescant nod to the world outside, but thats just not so with long voyages in a sail boat.
The average yacht out there 'doing it' is probably about 40 feet... certainly not smaller.

The minimum time circumnavigation via the tropics is 18 months. Ours is the next shortes at 2.5 years and way fast...
The southern route around Cape Horne, the 5 capes takes less (within a year) but has anyone survived it in a 29 footer?

Why save so much money if the chances are so high that you will die?

The 5 Capes route isn't tourism - basically you will see a few towns, not explore the world, different cultures and girls, girls, girls.

So there's something amiss. I am not trying to be cynical, just a bit dejected today because of that piracy news

Mark

The people that discourage and tell me that we wont do it is the reason I was so hesitant to join and post for the past few months.

Mark, I am sure that you are a capable sailor, but it sounds like you underestimate what people can do. The numbers do add up, because we aren't going to spend 40 thousand on a boat, in fact the original post asks about boats in the 15k range, that could be fitted for another five. I've been looking at the links people have posted, but most of them are just simply beyond my price range. It's still ok, and appreciated though, because I know to watch for said boats if they drop into my range.

-Vito Dumas sailed around Cape Horn in 1942 in a 33 foot ketch, solo.
-Abby Sunderland sailed around Cape Horn recently in a 40 foot sloop, and that's a 16-year old girl.
-Jean du Sud rounded cape horn in a 30 foot Alberg...

Wasn't that first 16 year old boy to sail around the world in a 23' boat, using a sextant? And Earnest shackleton crossed how many thousands of miles of rough arctic seas in open boats? The list goes on, Jean du Sud and Vito Dumas didn't have weather reports either.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by mtlee

The people that discourage and tell me that we wont do it is the reason I was so hesitant to join and post for the past few months.

You have us wrong. We hope that you DO do it. But we hope you do it in a way that's safe and enjoyable! I was also on subs (was a nuc) and I can tell you there is WAY more personal space on it than on my 39' boat and being able to walk along a passageway on the sub makes any I can do on my sailboat seem like a major leg stretching.

If you search CF for related threads you should be able to spend a good solid read of reading.

[YourOldNemesis]

I can't comment on the other ones, but having read Shackleton's massive biography recently and visited his ship in Dundee, I can vouch for the fact that he made it through luck, rather than any kind of intelligent planning or guile.

When I was looking for a RTW boat I found a 46' that was overpriced at 20kUSD. I'm sure you'll find one eventually, I wouldn't go as small as you are talking about - there's no replacement for displacement. One of the most capable hulls I spent a rough night in was a Spencer 44 - she ploughed along quite happily downwind while the (surely inaccurate?) apparent wind read 45kts at some points on the route to Rarotonga. I reckon you could pick up a similar boat for not much money, or maybe a 37'?

[boatman61]

Most people base what can or cannot be done based on their needs and requirements.... MarkJ and some others budget for a nice hotel now and then, tourist trips and car hire, fancy cheeses and wines and restaurants on the front line.... so your budget is totally inadequate....
I suggest you check out 1/ the ages of detractors, 2/ the types of boat they own.
This will give you an indication as to the income bracket/expectations of their cruising lifestyle and their hardship tolerance levels.
If you don't mind eating in Rib Shacks and from street vendors you'll live very cheaply and eat well in the Caribbean, if you don't mind sitting with the natives in public transport you'll get around very cheaply... and you'll have a deeper experience of the places you visit.... this applies world wide.
Now this post will prompt responses re Dehli Belly/Mexican Shuffle etc and needlessly exposing yourself to danger..... but thats what travel/lifes about.
Only this morning on Sky there was a report of a gas leak in a house that went bang... a guy in his bed 3 houses away had the ceiling fall on his head....
Go Figure.... nowheres really safe and nothing is secure.... GO FOR IT.
Even if you do not get all the way round you should have a ball trying....
Bet MarkJ's expense has more than halved now he's solo....

[Anomaly]

Originally Posted by mtlee

The people that discourage and tell me that we wont do it is the reason I was so hesitant to join and post for the past few months.


-Vito Dumas sailed around Cape Horn in 1942 in a 33 foot ketch, solo.
-Abby Sunderland sailed around Cape Horn recently in a 40 foot sloop, and that's a 16-year old girl.
-Jean du Sud rounded cape horn in a 30 foot Alberg...

.

Bully to you for your reading list!

Vito Dumas... that was quite a read. AND, don't forget John Guzzwell in a 23' he built himself to a Laurent Giles design--- read "Trekka round the World". Speaking of Laurent Giles' designs, can you find a Vertue (!!) (25'-- see an account of a Horn rounding (by Americans no less--- don't they need 40'? in "My Old Man and the Sea" by David Hayes) in need of some mild TLC in your price range?)

Of all these reads, so far (for me) the most inspirational and instructive (and "sweet") is that of Yves Gelinas in his Alberg 30 "Jean de Sud". Note that now that he has achieved fame and fortune (relatively), he still has just that boat and up until the past year or so, still makes ocean crossings in it.

You might find more kindred spirits associated with the Jester Challenge than on this list. Be prudent, be as safe as you can be, but don't let go of your dream. I think there are a LOT of "plastic classics" out there that COULD work for you. You just have to be diligent and patient in hunting down one that is both up to the task AND suits your budget. They are out there.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by mtlee

-Abby Sunderland sailed around Cape Horn recently in a 40 foot sloop, and that's a 16-year old girl.
.

She didn't get anywhere near the Horn. She broke the boat and nearly killed herself in the southern ocean.
Her boat was designed for that area but she still had to have her butt hauled out of there by a rescue mission.

Your original posts said "25k for the boat, and 15k for the year at sea for two of us." $25,000 plus $15,000 = $40,000

Would Shackelton have done the trip on his own volition?

You also say: " are pretty much at zero experience. ...... We were thinking something like a 29' cal would be adequate. "
How would someone with pretty much zero experience know if a 29 foot boat is capable of Cape Horn? Of the Cape of Storms? Or their specific dangers?

A Swan 57 pitchpoled off Cape Aghulus with a pro crew on board killing one and you want to splash in the same spot on a 29 footer with no experience?


So my advice is not discouragement. Its sane comments to be dismissed at your peril.



Mark

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by boatman61

If you don't mind eating in Rib Shacks and from street vendors you'll live very cheaply and eat well in the Caribbean,

The Cape Horn Rib Shack closed due to poor tipping by the crusing fraternity!

Originally Posted by boatman61

Bet MarkJ's expense has more than halved now he's solo....

Ain't that the truth!

[boatman61]

Now this is where arrogance and stupidity come in....
I've a Swan so I'll just poodle round the Cape non-stop.... Duhhh Stoopid...
Even I'm not that dumb...
Even if I was on a delivery I'd still harbour hop round there from Langebaan to East London and beyond.... most harbours/ports are an easy daysail away if you are prepared to wait for the right window... its the cocky ones who come to grief.
Your CRUISING..... why rush headlong into grief...
If everyone read and believed the tales about the Biscay no one would cross it today.... yet we do regularly and survive...
Apart from the stoopid.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

The Cape Horn Rib Shack closed due to poor tipping by the crusing fraternity!

Who tips in Rib Shacks.... man.. no wonder your expenses are high..

[gonesail]

you might be able to sneak up on cape horn using inland waterways but you better carry a lot of stout line and a couple of big anchors along with good storm sails. i would go for a boat around 35 feet at minimum .. as stout and heavy as you can afford. you guys have a plan and that's a good start. a lot can happen in 2 years and you may change direction. maybe you just sail to the caribbean. read the books by hal roth. enjoy the rib shack when you find it.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Bet MarkJ's expense has more than halved now he's solo....

But will double when he finds a Laundromat

[Brent Swain]

People have been doing that great Canadian invention, the solo circumnavigation, long before there were any SSB's, watermakers, radios, GPS, boat electrics, etc etc. People were trying to discourage them then, and always will be.It may just be the politics of envy, or a futile attempt to justify their own excuses for not having the huevos to step off the security illusions of the treadmill.
It is a given that some will try to discourage you. Ignore them, with the contempt they deserve. Go for it.

It's NEVER too late to have a happy childhood.