Possibilities Of Living Aboard On $800 Or Less

[Broken-Sailor]

Originally Posted by Scot McPherson

If you build your own, you could build in a small hold for the scooter next to the engine room, and rig the main boom with block and tackle to use as a davit, hoist the scooter,
Swing it over to the dock and let it down.

You will want to learn how to so this properly. The boat will lean over more and more as the scooter swings out away from centerline, but if you figure it out, it'll be the easiest way to transport it safely, and below decks out of the salt.

I guess that would work out better than what I was thinking. I was thinking more in the line of some type of ramp system and a small removable hanger type cover like they use for covering small helicopters on the bigger yachts but a smaller version. I am still looking into the build option. One plan I looked at was too small for my needs but I noticed that it called for 28 sheets of 3/8 in of treated marine grade plywood. At the prices I saw for that size locally it will take me a year to buy all of the plywood I need for the smaller boat. If things go as planned right now, with in a few months my rent will cut in about half of what it is now. This will allow me to save more per month. I guess if I sold some of my photos to raise the money for the boat the government would call that working and I would lose my disability. I'll figure something out I always do when I put my mind to it.

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

It is doable allright. I am a walking proof. And we are a couple. If a couple can live for 800, a single should be allright able to do the same.

But start with how much berthing will cost you in your area. How much you pay for your berth or for your anchorage will greatly influence how much of that 800 will be left for boat maintenance.

Once you deduct maintenance and running costs, you will know how much is left for soap, books and, finally, food.

Others do it. No proof you can. Try and see if that's what you want.

To completely piss off any naysayers, we sailed a rtw 2003-2007 and last season we made a trip to the West Indies and back.

b.

You went around the world on $800 a month, including boat maintenance?

That's pretty interesting. Did you post your budget anywhere?

[Broken-Sailor]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Can take years to build one. Unless you have a free place to do the work you can spend thousands on rent.

It would take me years ether way. Saving up to buy a boat or buying the supplies a little each month and building till I ran out of supplies for the month. As for space we have 30 acres here at the house, 70+ acres at our place on the lake, not sure how much is left after we sold the lots we have sold so far, we started with 97 acres, and then we have the other house with two acres of land there. Since we have a small trailer sitting on the property near the lake and that is where the lowboy is at too it would make since to build it there. In fact one of the guys we sold a few lots to has a large shop right next to one of the areas we cleared out where to get to the small pond that is there. He plans on making it allot bigger and make it into a small private lake. Till then there is that cleared flat area next to the guys shop which he has told me and my Dad we can use it when ever we want. It is a fully equipped wood working shop tat he built first, he then built his cabin out of cedar just him and his wife with some help from his son. Yes I would rather have the money to buy a ready made boat and start sailing, but unless I come into a large some of money before I get a boat, I'll be stuck on a lake LEARNING AT THE HELM on the Yacht clubs boat once a week if I can get back and forth to Nashville that often and the weather permits me to do it. Fixing to call them here in a few minutes to find out the total cost of the program and the membership. I'll keep you all updated on that as soon as I find out myself.

[Scot McPherson]

One of the reasons why it's SOOO expensive to build your own is everyone convinces you that you need bronze fittings everywhere, specially selected rare species if trees, a lead shoe keel, an aluminum mast, and as broken sailor just now mentioned, marine grade pressure treated plywood...no you don't to any of those.

You don't need all that...

You aren't putting bare plywood in the water. Regular plywood, so long as it's solid core, and you use the right number of layers for your displacement will handle the sea water just fine. If you are going to be in the tropics, sheath it with glass so you don't get worm damage.

Building a sailboat will cost more than buying a used one, but the difference is you can build it at your own pace, whether that pace is fiscally constrained or time constrained or whatever. A little at a time and go ahead and let it take a couple years if you need it.

Sounds like you'd need a couple years to save up enough money to buy a used one and fix it up too, so might as well build the boat that was designed and built for YOU.

[onestepcsy37]

FWIW, I have a wifi hotspot that costs $20 for 1 gig for 30 days. Its enough for email, cruisersforum, etc., and skype phone calls. I also use an AT&T Go phone which is 10 cents a minute. Phone itself is $15.

[sailorboy1]

In the end if you haven't sailed much or spend much time trying to live on a boat, whatever boat you get is going to be wrong. So just one that you think will work for you are go and do it. Then make a list of what is wrong with you boat and how much money you are willing to spend to "fix" and get a different boat.

Then start the above all over.

If you have $800/mo to spend you will probably find a way to do it for $801/mo. If you have $3000/mo budget it will become $3010/mo to do (because you will have a bigger boat it doesn't scale). The most interesting things about budget type threads is what people include or leave out of the budget.

[Scot McPherson]

Now I know we are talking about a budget, but something comes to mind...if you want to earmark a slice of that budget, purchase a hotspot plan with unlimited bandwidth. It is more expensive than not subscribing, BUT if you USE IT, I mean for everything...net,TV,movies,phone, Skype video, etc etc. the. It can be the more reasonable way to go if you consider you pipe all your services through that one subscription....it really depends on what your needs are...

[Greenhand]

Originally Posted by Scot McPherson

Now I know we are talking about a budget, but something comes to mind...if you want to earmark a slice of that budget, purchase a hotspot plan with unlimited bandwidth. It is more expensive than not subscribing, BUT if you USE IT, I mean for everything...net,TV,movies,phone, Skype video, etc etc. the. It can be the more reasonable way to go if you consider you pipe all your services through that one subscription....it really depends on what your needs are...

Where, pray tell, does one find one of these?

All the plans I have found throttle back after as little as 1GB, with options to pay for more. But I have not seen unlimited 4G (which is what you would need for streaming TV and movies).

[Broken-Sailor]

Okay stupid question, one of the designs I was reading about state it is a "Minimal bluewater liveaboard", what exactly does this suppose to mean? Is it that it is has the minimum requirement for blue water sailing, or does it mean keep your blue water sailing to a minimum? The design in question is a Phil Bolger & Friends AS-29 (Advanced Sharpie) 29'6"x7'10"x1'1"

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Broken-Sailor

Okay stupid question, one of the designs I was reading about state it is a "Minimal bluewater liveaboard", what exactly does this suppose to mean?

No...not really a stupid question...it's just a stupid saying! There isn't a term filled with more BS than "blue water boat", except maybe "my anchor is better". But every newbi gets sucked into the terminology....just do a site search, strap on your seat belt and enjoy...you will see what I mean....

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Broken-Sailor

................ "Minimal bluewater liveaboard", what exactly does this suppose to mean? .........

These words are marketing descriptors and have no use to a buyer. I suggest that you determine a list of criteria. (keel design, draft, layout, rig, hull material, engine type, LOA, price, boat location ....) Use this rubric to filter your search and then look for quality among those that fit your search.

[Scot McPherson]

Well, In the case of this designer, who happens to no longer be with us, it isn't marketing at. He sold his plans for far less than the rest of the designing world. His plans range from $35-$300(I think) rather than other designers whose plans can be as expensive as ranging between $300 and $6000. Phil bolger designed boats for the joy of it, and getting people out in boats and enjoying them was his biggest wish. He made his money on government contracts designing fleets of boats for special uses, like sustainable fishing fleets, mine sweepers, LST Transports.

Now as far as the AS series of sailboats, I personally wouldn't call any of the blue water designs, but I know people who have sailed them across the Atlantic. I think Phil's reference to blue water in this case meant sailing across to the Bahamas would be safe enough, but I would still be very cautious about doing so. By blue water he really just meant "not protected waters".

[Scot McPherson]

I should mention you can still get his plans, some of them from instantboats.com and some directly from his widow who is also an active designer.

[Scot McPherson]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

Where, pray tell, does one find one of these?

All the plans I have found throttle back after as little as 1GB, with options to pay for more. But I have not seen unlimited 4G (which is what you would need for streaming TV and movies).

Ok so I did some more research, and you are right, the "claims" of unlimited are not, even when it says so. Read the fine print and most of these choke you back to 2g (EDGE) speeds after you use your limit of 3G/4g data rates.

However, 2G EDGE has a bandwidth of 156k (or something close to that) with a real world availability of 140k of that being usable. That is enough to stream video. It might not be HD quality, but that bandwidth is more the TELCO ISDN PRI bandwidths which stream video just fine. Yes the quality will suffer a bit, but hey, it's still doable...most video services detect your bandwidth and adjust picture compression to better match what you have available.

Plus, we aren't really supposed to be couch potatoes being sailors. Most of our time should be out on the water or visiting a new port. For this, I think the high speed limits should be more than enough for the occasional movie date night...

And most of the video services allow you to manually select a lower grade of video, which for many of us isn't very noticeable unless you side by side compare. That will lengthen the amount of viewing time.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Scot McPherson

Well, In the case of this designer, who happens to no longer be with us, it isn't marketing at. ..............................

Maybe I did not present my intent clearly. I had no cause to malign the designer. I simply wanted to point out that the terms "minimal, blue water & liveaboard" provide no objective information and have no use to a critical buyer who has other tools to evaluate a boat.