Make Money While Cruising - List

[Greaser-Girl]

My five cents......I'm on a 65" three masted, "iron" Colvin Junk. Water maker, diesel cooker, bow thruster , my floating sailing home (single handed) . Ten years back, it was easy. Twenty years back is was dead easy to run money. I did sewing, jewelry, photo-video, scuba, did meals, throwing "illegal alien"parties. I'm on an "alien" boat. "Can it it sail?" Oh, Chinese did id back in time, nobody likes to know. Running money from a boat today? Within "the community" you get a meal, maybe friends. Today anybody makes photos, clips, video with a smart phone. I do fishing, some herbs, veggies, plants only for me. I'm 49 retired......It is a hard living, very hard. Being free on the ocean, no money can buy it. I do have a Chinese passport too, going there, their lagoons, with my junk, a dream. Will I change? If heaven comes down, a boat is the place to be. Thank you, merci, gracias

[boatman61]

Welcome to CF GG.. great 1st post..

[Greaser-Girl]

Originally Posted by makobuilders

In any case, two really good ideas previously mentioned are: (1) offer scuba classes (if you're an instructor). Doing so from your boat is unique and marketable; and (2) adventure charters, if you boat is setup for it.

Scuba classes around the Chinese see are plenty, Cheap. Adventure charters, you need a license. Most time motoring, Chartering I did too. Cooking not the problem. Being bar keeper with a fridge full of %%% is not easy on a sailboat. Galley no problem, fridge full of high % not easy on a sailboat (customs). On my boat, eight or ten guests no problem. Three heads, lots of space. My space, a bath tube, is totally separated, With Asian people it can be loud. Most are not used to do private charter. Ten years ago even retired people liked "bare foot" sailing. Today they ask :you got a satellite dish for TV ? Younger people ask, you got "Internet"? I do have radar, gps, ais transponder, navigation on a PC, on an Android tab, fish finder. My electric keyboard, walking foot sewing machine, smallish K4 video, computer to edit.
Most time I do mooring. 65" big fat junk in a marina is not cheap !! 15HP Dingy. An electric three wheel bicycle going shopping. Guess what. Sailing, chartering I do have no fixed prices anymore. They throw in a box the first day, (they got an idea, we've have discussed) Leaving, most throw in again. They have to work, cleaning, cooking, a bit frolicking the boat Only mineral water, anything else I do not provide. I'm sailing to remote areas. They know it can take longer, be a bit rough. Sunbathing, relaxing (going back in time..not really) Sometimes it works. That is the magic. No trading, stock exchange. I'm sailing, my guest too like to escape the "fast world". Keep it simple, you are a genius ( Mingus....Jazz)

[BionicT]

I've spent the last couple of weeks slowly going through this thread. Pretty interesting.

The 2 best ideas I have heard that are legal, still allow cruising (rather than stopping for extended periods of time) and provide a steady income are:

1. Running a social/information-based website such as cruisersforum.com, activecaptain.com, catamaranguru.com, etc. A lot of effort to set up but, once done, I suspect they can be maintained while cruising. I use all of them. Kudos to those cruisers.

2. Cruising Youtube channels linked to Patreon.com. When I first heard the idea of Patreon I thought it was crazy. Who would donate when the videos are free on YouTube anyway? Then I found that I really enjoyed some of the videos, found them extremely educational, and respected the hard work that went into making them. I currently donate $5/video to S/V Delos, WickedSalty, and Sailing La Vagabonde (after watching dozens for free initially). I find that they are really useful for getting behind the scenes and intimate insight into what it is like to cruise that can't be gleaned from books and blogs.

I did some number crunching. These sites average a little less than 3 videos/month or about 32/year. S/V Delos and Sailing La Vagabonde have about 1000 Patreons donating an average of $6/each. That is about $6000/video or pushing $200,000/yr. WickedSalty is younger and newer but they still get $500/video or pushing $20,000/yr. This is some serious money for the kitty! Plus they get whatever one gets from having 100,000's of YouTube hits.

I hope it isn't taboo to give these numbers away. I really respect and support these cruisers and their efforts. I imagine it requires taking constant footage and dozens of hours of editing/sound mixing to get these videos to such high quality. Still I'd rather be stuck editing footage on a yacht overlooking a tropical paradise than being stuck in an office.

The cool part of both of these business models is that they are scalable. Both have subscribers/patreons that are growing in number with minimal extra effort.

It is hard to instantly compete with these established cruisers. I think there is lots of room to add to this model by focusing on specific demographics like singles/families cruising, young/old cruising, rich/poor cruisers, straight/gay etc.

BionicT

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by BionicT

(...)

I hope it isn't taboo to give these numbers away.

(...)

It is not a taboo to talk about information that is publicly available.

Plenty of books at Amazon that discuss and teach how to create or join financial schemes.

They are (the books) probably much better way to make some money than the schemes though ...

Plenty of people buy dieting books, everybody gets fatter, the authors get richer ...

Etc.

?

b.

[nuccifilms]

not sure why this isn't mentioned, but airbnb charter cruising seems like it's tailor made for cruising side income, that's now ready to take off. correct?

[mako]

Originally Posted by nuccifilms

not sure why this isn't mentioned, but airbnb charter cruising seems like it's tailor made for cruising side income, that's now ready to take off. correct?

You hit on an upcoming idea .

AirBnB (and other sites) are taking off worldwide. We've rented apartments in Vietnam, Atlanta, Italy....etc. using just the AB website alone. If you take a look you'll find some boats listed as well.

Best part is that most of them are NOT charters - simply just "hotel rooms" being offered per night. So you keep your boat tied to the dock in a nice touristy area and just rent it out nightly. There's even a guy in the Keys who keeps his houseboat moored out in the water and the guest have to use the dingy to get to shore.

Of course if you're a full time live aboard or if your boat is a very personal attachment, not just a vacation destination, then that's another matter.

For those who are cruising worldwide then the charter idea is better. The local regulations may make it better to work below the radar however.

I used to run charters on my 65' Burger and also would rent it out nightly, but usually the guest wanted it brought down to Newport Beach. Guest dockage was built into the cost. Back then I used local brokers, but nowadays the internet is the greatest resource available.

[magentawave]

Originally Posted by nuccifilms

not sure why this isn't mentioned, but airbnb charter cruising seems like it's tailor made for cruising side income, that's now ready to take off. correct?

I suspect that's what Sailing La Vagabonde will do when they take delivery of their new 45' Outremer cat. Rent out the two cabins in the port hull and that's some pretty good money.

[Olly75]

Hi all

Wow, just spent a few hours on a rainy Friday reading this thread, and found it amazingly useful!

I think my first conclusion is that to make a living you either have to be able to provide a very small niche service (there was a post about thirty pages back on becoming an expert in a very small field) or be willing to do a number of different things when/if an opportunity presents itself. After all, any cash is good cash.......

Anyway, been a good read and thanks to all who posted. I'm now away to think about my future

[geoleo]

my 2 pennies:: went from Tampa to Rio Dulce via Belize 10 years ago on my old 35' wood ketch. Spent 3 months in Rio. Place was full of broke cruisers who thought they could make a living afloat doing odd jobs for other cruisers . However they wanted first world wages in a third world country.....sigh

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by geoleo

in Rio. Place was full of broke cruisers
..sigh

Have read that many a time over the years.

[Gloryhound]

How about a floating Tiki bar anchored off of popular sailing destinations where services generally are not available.

People float on over and dock with your boat come on board for drinks and a burger. Probably want to do this on a Catamaran though.

[Sav]

Just joined the forum... my 1st post here.
I've been driving around Australia in an old campervan and while in Darwin I got talked into training greyhounds (to race). Long story short ... I have won a bit backing my dogs lately and instead of losing it back to the bookies, I bought a 32' yacht in an eBay auction.
Full length keel, heavy built in fiberglass about the late 1980's.
I intend to live aboard while upgrading it, and financing things by continuing my greyhound training which nets me about $600 a week on top of my old age pension.
As for financing my cruising later on, I will have my pension anywhere I go in the world, apart from that... I will read this forum.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by Sav

Just joined the forum... my 1st post here.
I've been driving around Australia in an old campervan and while in Darwin I got talked into training greyhounds (to race). Long story short ... I have won a bit backing my dogs lately and instead of losing it back to the bookies, I bought a 32' yacht in an eBay auction.
Full length keel, heavy built in fiberglass about the late 1980's.
I intend to live aboard while upgrading it, and financing things by continuing my greyhound training which nets me about $600 a week on top of my old age pension.
As for financing my cruising later on, I will have my pension anywhere I go in the world, apart from that... I will read this forum.

That's a unique one for earning coin. I gather that you don't take work (dogs) home with you? Meaning on the boat.

[Sav]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

I gather that you don't take work (dogs) home with you? Meaning on the boat.

HaHahaaaaa... nope. Not all 19 of them anyways!