Quote:
Originally Posted by SunDevil
I don't have one yet, but I'm interested in knowing why it couldn't be done very cheaply? To me it seems very possible, and very easy if you can figure out security (both crime and weather) and find quiet anchorages.
Is it the upfront cost or the type of people who are on catamarans vs sailboats? I live my life now buying the minimal amount of stuff, yet I purchase high quality things when I do. And I hate monthly and ongoing fees... Like I would rather spend $6,000 for a solar panel system than $40/month to the power company.
Are maintenance costs higher? I also worry about how much in marina fees I would incur traveling back and forth from Michigan to Florida and then entry fees in the North Caribbean...
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If you are worried about marina fees, your
budget is much higher than $500 / month. If you are seasonally traveling between the
Great Lakes and Florida, you will be transiting one of the
canal systems, further raising costs.
The hidden truth about cats is:
a. they are two boats in one.
b. they don't have the carrying capacity of a similar sized mono-hull
c. In squally
weather, they can be, and have been overwhelmed and turned upside down, where they stay.
d. They have difficult jerky motion at sea
e. They aren't as fast as reputed, and certainly not as fast on
passage as a ULDB mono
hull
f. Marina fees are between 150% and double those for a similar sized monohull
g. Haulage requires special faciities for those larger than 36 ft
loa, due to the beam, and costs more.
We have been over the multi-hull road several times. I recommend you go to pp 28-37 and read from there.
If you want something small, light and fast, get a sharpie, or build one.
But why?
My neighbors, here in Cocoa village have mono-hulls in the 32 ft range, and are paying $2k for them. Agreed, these are 30 year old boats, but these folks are on the
water
Now to outfitting:
Don't be like the transient I met last week. Had to leave the Rio Dulce to
refit the
boat back in Green Cove Springs. Had to
work for a year to pay for the
refit and refill the kitty. Why?
a. His
water heater press relief valve packed in, he doesn't speak spanish and didn't know that one off a domestic water
heater works just fine at a third of the cost.
b. His pressure water system packed in, and he needed to refurbish it. He doesn't know that hand pumps can be simply refurbished aboard.
c. His
watermaker packed in. He doesn't drink rain water, and didn't trust the locals to make him an awning with drains to fill his
tanks, in an area with torrential rainfall.
d. his
engine needed
work. He chose a model for which
parts are hard to get. Definitely not a
Perkins.
e. his
sails need work, dunno why, he never used them in the river, but he didn't trust the locals to
repair them.
f. he needed a bottom job. He didn't trust the local paints, and couldn't find enough friends to use the hand cranked railway just north of the river in
Belize.
On and on....
You too can splurge your life away.... or... learn to economize!
INDY