Tips and tricks for minimalist cruising

[Na Mara]

My wife and I are getting into the whole minimalism thing and as on land, so at sea. Thus we are actively looking for ways to do with less aboard and I thought maybe others here have some good ideas for us.

To get the ball rolling we have a few things we do.

1 merino wool clothing: we discovered this wonderful material a while ago. I’m a big guy who sweats when hot or exerting myself. On a warm day sailing I used to go through at least 3 T-shirts, 1-2 pairs of underwear, 1 pair of socks a day. That created a mountain of laundry that forced us into port every week or so to use a launderette. It was so bad I even tried to figure out where I could put a washing machine on board.

Then we discovered merino wool and it changed our lives. Merino wool does not smell of BO after you sweat into it. This means that a single T-shirt can be worn hard for a week or two without committing any olfactory sins against fellow crew. Underwear last for a couple of days. This drastically reduces the amount of laundry onboard to the extent that it can easily be done by hand. Only when bedding needs cleaning do we need to visit a launderette these days.

2 Stanley thermos mugs. One of these will keep a large mug of coffee, tea or juice hot for hours, and cold drinks cold for an hour or so. After bringing one of these onboard for each crew person we went from boiling a kettle 4-5 times a day to boiling it twice. This drastically reduced our gas usage aboard (by something like a third). We also reduced the amount of water we were chilling in the fridge and so a little electricity consumption there. The mugs are also excellent as you can carry them in your pocket without them leaking: a great feature when sailing.

3 chrome book and or pad instead of laptop: they use about half the power.

[Joh.Ghurt]

My biggest trick:
Use what you have and don't lust after the so called Must-Haves.

So your boat doesn't have a chart-plotter at the helm? Go sailing without it, don't buy that new fancy networked wonder thingy.

You'd also be surprised for how long you provision with only minimal refrigeration space. Our grandparents (or today probably great-great-grandparents) didn't have freezers and still managed to survive. It's fun and very satisfying to learn again the solutions that worked well then. We have become prisoners of our toys.

Another trick for warm areas:
Clothing you don't wear doesn't get stinky

One for social gatherings:
Only people matter.

After moving on board, I learned I had most fun with gathering in some cockpit or some BBQ on a random beach. Compared to this, hanging out the whole evening in a bar or outings to fancy restaurants paled. It's a lot more satisfying to make such gatherings happen instead of just consuming at the latest must-be-seen location. In the end it's the shared laughter and joy that makes everyone's life good.

Last one for now:
Recalibrate your tastes

For not hard to guess reasons I had to reduce my intake of Soft-drinks (mostly Coca Cola) and sweet snacks. After a little while I found out that various herbal infusions drunk lukewarm work nicely enough instead. Sure, they don't even come close in taste, but most of the time the taste of my favourite soft-drink wasn't that relevant in reality. While I still treat myself to a can of Coca Cola from time to time and enjoy it very much, the need to quaff one or two large bottles every day is gone without me having the impression I'm missing out on life.

[goboatingnow]

“ A box in middle of road was luxury for us “

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE

[Na Mara]

Funny as Monty python is, Minimalism and Asceticism are two different philosophies.

Minimalism is about having fewer possessions but does not imply deliberate impoverishment or the idealization of poverty. Indeed, a minimalist lifestyle is often a luxurious one where one ruthlessly focuses on quality over quantity. One weeds out what is superfluous to a high living standard to better enjoy what best supports such a lifestyle..

Asceticism is about deliberate impoverishment and does hold the paupers life as an ideal. It’s about doing without all but the most essential necessities in life. I’m not an ascetic and I don’t advocate that lifestyle. Minimalism, on the otherhand is worthwhile. In the boating world it has a close analogue in the KISS philosophy.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Na Mara, where would you place the approach "Repair before Replace"?
Minimalism, Ascetisism or something else again?

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by Joh.Ghurt

Na Mara, where would you place the approach "Repair before Replace"?
Minimalism, Ascetisism or something else again?

It depends on your motivation. If it’s about conserving a historic craft and its systems then it’s conservationist. If it about minimising our impact on the planet then it’s environmentalist. If it’s about being self-reliant then perhaps survivalist. If it’s about sticking with a quality old system over going with the newest dodad, then it’s a bit minimalist. I guess it depends on why you are repairing rather than replacing.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Na Mara

Funny as Monty python is, Minimalism and Asceticism are two different philosophies.

Minimalism is about having fewer possessions but does not imply deliberate impoverishment or the idealization of poverty. Indeed, a minimalist lifestyle is often a luxurious one where one ruthlessly focuses on quality over quantity. One weeds out what is superfluous to a high living standard to better enjoy what best supports such a lifestyle..

Asceticism is about deliberate impoverishment and does hold the paupers life as an ideal. It’s about doing without all but the most essential necessities in life. I’m not an ascetic and I don’t advocate that lifestyle. Minimalism, on the otherhand is worthwhile. In the boating world it has a close analogue in the KISS philosophy.

Yes but the OP sounds like more akin to Asceticism because the goal is reducing cost.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by Na Mara

I guess it depends on why you are repairing rather than replacing.

I guess mainly because I'm cheap.

[Mike OReilly]

Not sure what I can add. We live a minimalist cruising lifestyle, mainly by living small. Go with the smallest boat you can live with... That way we can't fill it with a lot of useless crap.

Do your own maintenance, which for us means keeping systems simple, or bomb-proof. We don't skimp on quality if it is something to last. As you mention Na Mara, it's not always about spending less. It's about needs vs wants.

One thing that's really worked for us is to avoid popular, touristy areas. Most of our cruising has happened in more remote areas where there are few people are fewer excuses to spend money.

We almost always cook on board, and we almost never pay for entertainment. The world is entertaining enough.

Goes without saying, but we spend a lot of time hanging from our own hook. That's not to say we never use a dock, but this is mostly just at the beginning or end of our season when we're getting the boat ready.

What else... get a boat with large tankage and good storage space. This means you can go a long time between restocking. Again, avoiding docks is the best way to keep costs down.

[Group9]

Every time we return from a cruise, we find that our biggest expenditures, are the two things that we could have controlled, if we just had the will power.

Namely, staying at marinas, and eating out at restaurants. Fuel, repair bills, phone service, none of that comes close to what we end up spending on those two items.

And, for the most part, they are both luxury items.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Group9

Every time we return from a cruise, we find that our biggest expenditures, are the two things that we could have controlled, if we just had the will power.

Namely, staying at marinas, and eating out at restaurants. Fuel, repair bills, phone service, none of that comes close to what we end up spending on those two items.

And, for the most part, they are both luxury items.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Not sure what I can add. We live a minimalist cruising lifestyle, mainly by living small. Go with the smallest boat you can live with... That way we can't fill it with a lot of useless crap.

Do your own maintenance, which for us means keeping systems simple, or bomb-proof. We don't skimp on quality if it is something to last. As you mention Na Mara, it's not always about spending less. It's about needs vs wants.

One thing that's really worked for us is to avoid popular, touristy areas. Most of our cruising has happened in more remote areas where there are few people are fewer excuses to spend money.

We almost always cook on board, and we almost never pay for entertainment. The world is entertaining enough.

Goes without saying, but we spend a lot of time hanging from our own hook. That's not to say we never use a dock, but this is mostly just at the beginning or end of our season when we're getting the boat ready.

What else... get a boat with large tankage and good storage space. This means you can go a long time between restocking. Again, avoiding docks is the best way to keep costs down.

But this isn’t minimalism this is just doing things cheaply. “ fewer excuses to spend money “

In my view the key is living within your means. If that affords a lavish lifestyle I see no issues.

Minimalism has nothing to do with fixing your own boat yourself. That’s just about saving money.

We live on a very modest fixed income pension , we are extremely careful with the priorities and money. But we go out to eat fron time to time. We stay in a marina off season as SWMBO likes all the social interaction

It’s not about sack cloth and ashes , it’s about living within your means but not less then that in my view.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Group9

Every time we return from a cruise, we find that our biggest expenditures, are the two things that we could have controlled, if we just had the will power.



Namely, staying at marinas, and eating out at restaurants. Fuel, repair bills, phone service, none of that comes close to what we end up spending on those two items.



And, for the most part, they are both luxury items.

Boating is a luxury item

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

It’s not about sack cloth and ashes , it’s about living within your means but not less then that in my view.

Yes... that's your view.

[rslifkin]

We aren't particularly minimalist at home, but on the boat, much more so. Our boat isn't particularly spartan, but in general, equipment and stuff only gets added after we've determined through use that it's beneficial enough to be worth the cost and space it consumes. And some stuff (like the ice maker) falls into the category of "I probably wouldn't add one, but it came with the boat, so we might as well keep it".

We don't go crazy avoiding costs though. We'll go out to eat periodically when traveling on the boat. Far from every day, but seeing what an area has for restaurants, etc. is just some of the appeal to some cruising locations. At the same time, we try to cruise in places where we can either anchor or have dockage that's cheap or free. If the biggest cost of a trip is fuel, then we're doing something right (food doesn't count much, as we eat food at home too).

Basically, we don't go for extreme minimalism or camping on the boat or anything. But a boat only has so much storage and weight capacity, so I do my best to make sure we're using that as effectively as possible and not carrying around frivolous things we don't really need or rarely use. But we're not afraid to add things as they prove necessary. As an example, this year, we added an internet setup to the boat, as with both of us being able to work remotely in at least some capacity, that means we can use the boat more, as we can count on good connectivity and don't have to be 100% on vacation to travel by boat.

There is one thing I wouldn't mind getting rid of on the boat, however. That would be all of the interior carpeting. Getting rid of the carpet would reduce cleaning effort, but it also frees up storage space, as I would no longer need to carry a vacuum cleaner on the boat.