Yearly Cost of Family Cruising

[sailorboy1]

The granddaddy sailing question and the one that I was web searching when I found this site to start with a few years ago. Was the key question for me to decide to get into sailing to start with. I finally came to the conclusion that cruising costs whatever you can afford to spend (within reason). Its not the cruising that determines the cost, its your lifestyle just like on land. I have $2000 US/mo in my spreadsheet for cruising, but I expect this to be the high life while in the crowded areas. But the goal is to get off the "beaten path" to the real crusing life.

[Pblais]

But the goal is to get off the "breaken path" to the real crusing life.

No such thing as the real cruising life. If you cruise it's sure as anything real. The only question is if you like it. No one can tell you that. When you leave you always take your problems, limitations, and bad habits. You might lose them but you might find replacements. The beaten path is not a poll on Cruisers Forum or where no one else is. It's not how far you go because you are always where you are. If it feels right when you leave it means you don't have to leave. Those are the best times to leave since looking forward to returning is also part of it too. Leaving with fond memories is all you can take away. Taking those things are the real joy of cruising. Finding them is the part that can demand more than you can give. Many leave with nothing and so that is all they know how to find.

[DaveSherman]

We did a 5 year circumnavigation (returning in 1999) with two children who were 6 & 9 when we left. The kids have memories and experiences that they will never forget. (Mostly good but also a few bad ones.) My daughter told that she is now glad that we did it, although she says that she sometimes seriously considered jumping off the boat on passage and drowning herself!

They did miss out on some important socialization. And, it turns out that my son had dyslexia that went untreated.

I am planning to go again this fall. The kids are grown and we will not have any deadlines because of school.

Dave Sherman
formerly aboard Rubaiyat a Stevens 47

[Tspringer]

Interesting to see this thread pop back up. I read my posts early in it and chuckle at how naive I was.

So far "cruising" has been complete financial suicide. The boat sucks up money at a shocking rate. Latest unforseen expense was a complete repower. We have been living aboard for almost 5 months spending triple per month what we thought and we still have yet to see a sunny tropical beach.

I would warn those still planning and dreaming.... This is extremely difficult to pull off and the risks of catastrophic financial failure in the attempt are very real. Nobody talks about this but I have met others experiencing the same sort of dream gone bad.

Terry

[Boracay]

As the fitting out of Boracay continues I continually find that even a small upgrade can have unforeseen, lengthy and expensive consequences.

There seems to be a big difference between some boats offered for sale and what is "needed" for cruising.

So every time I go to hammer another "nail" in I find a whole list of other tasks that need to be done. Now when I look at a task I now estimate the time in months and the cost in boat bucks.

It looks like when I leave a few nails may still be missing. Hopefully they don't hold on any shoes and I can hammer them in along the way.

[Charlie]

My cruising is quite different. It is commuter cruising. I take the boat somewhere and then leave it and fly in the family. We are going to La Paz Mexico and the cost for airfare is $560 per person. Once we get to Mexico it gets a lot cheaper. For instance when we cruised the Sea of Cortez for a week we bought food and that cost us about $100 then we sailed off (ok motored) I think we motored for 10 to 12 hours over the week. That cost us 8 gallons of diesel at $2.50. From there it was hard to spend money as there were not many stores. When we came into La Paz things got expensive.

The manitanence(sp?) costs on the boat haven't been horrible but I am still upgrading the boat. I bought a new wind speed indicator and knot meter for $1200. New Halyard $300. I try to do all my own maintenance hireing out when I get way behind. I think we could cruise the Sea of Cortez for under $1000 a month not including airfare and maintanence.

I pay to keep my boat in a Marina. It is expensive but I feel safer. I am also working and can afford it. I hope those of you out there with budgets that are getting blown apart can find ways to get them back under control. Unexpected expenses are a killer and especially bad when you don't have income coming in. OTOH you are out cruising with your family. I dreamed of going out for months or years with my family and have to settle for weeks. People tell me I am so lucky but I look with envy at those of you that could put it together, and had the courage, to cut the ties and just do it.

But I still have a job.

[Randyonr3]

Just a way to keep the costs down...... I read this somewhere years ago and it still works for us..
Remember when you were just a little kid and you went to somewhere new, your parents would give you a quarter and say, spend it wisely... and as you did your window shopping, you held off spending the quarter as it was all you had and you really wanted to get the best Cool thing with your money...
We found while cruising, it was the new places we went to that those little trinkets would grab out eyes and pocket books and we'd head back to the boat with more than we figured spending.. really screwing up our budget....
What we do now is leave all our credit cards and funds on the boat, and only take about 5 to 10 dollars each... 20 dollars dosent really go very far these days and uasally ends up buying us lunch... But we sure have fun window shopping........

[capcook]

Originally Posted by Tspringer

This is extremely difficult to pull off and the risks of catastrophic financial failure in the attempt are very real. Nobody talks about this but I have met others experiencing the same sort of dream gone bad.

Terry

Hi Terry,

Glad you guys are still hanging in there... I can only imagine the frustration... I do wish more folks would speak up as you have and report the heartaches of cruising too... it would help a lot of us who know it isn't a bed of roses, but then again, nothing worth doing is. It would be helpful to get the hard to hear darker side so the plan can be that much better... If I remember right you all came from Atlanta? I am also in Atlanta, don't know what I could do to help but PM me if you think of something...

Best wishes...

[capcook]

On this topic, thought I would share some of my figuring... as I have done a LOT of figuring on this topic... First a disclaimer, there are all kinds of boats for all kinds of folks... This will seem really pricy to a lot of folks and cheap to others, but I think it meets our needs...

I think folks often over look the full cost of owning a boat, I figure it this way for a family of 4 cruising on an Orana 44' purchase a couple of years old.

Purchase Price US$ 450,000
Keep for 15yrs
Value at end of 15yrs US$ 100,000
Opportunity Interest rate 5%

Annual Amortization and foregone interest: c.a. $40,000 / yr

Ownership cost:

Personal Property Taxes (FL) $300
R&M $ 6,000 (probably too low, but can't handle a bigger number)
Insurance $5,000
Marinia's $12,000 (not full time mind you, maybe 75% of time)

Annual Cash Operating Costs $23,000

Total Boat Costs c.a. $63,000 per year

We plan to be on the boat about 335 days/yr so our cost is $188/day which will be less than a good hotel in most developed markets and you get to take a lot of stuff with you (not living out of a suitcase) plus this includes the transportation costs to get where ever you go...

Now this is addition to things like Health Insurance Co-Pays, Food, Entertainment, Car Ins, Fuel, Monthly purchases, Books, Clothes, Resturants, Kids Home School courses, fly home to take care of things for 30 days, the house back home if you keep one along with it's utilities, Ins and upkeep etc...

All in my costs will be about $120k/yr... I have also heard something close to this number from a couple of other folks who cruise with a family and do a lot of sightseeing and activities along the way...

Can it be done cheaper, yep espically if your cruising is spent around empty islands. But I don't really see how we are going to get by with much less...

cheers

[DaveSherman]

Capcook.

Your figures seem really high to me. Granted, I finished my circumnavigation almost 10 years ago, so I figure that everything will probably be a bit more than double, but my family of four spent about a $1000 a month on our Steven's 47. This included everything, although we did not spend much time at the dock, except when we landed in Australia and took a 9 month break, bought a used car and rented out a little cottage.

Since I will not have kids with me this time, I anticipate spending about $2000 to a month (with a cushion of another $500 a month).

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

Just a way to keep the costs down...... I read this somewhere years ago and it still works for us..
Remember when you were just a little kid and you went to somewhere new, your parents would give you a quarter and say, spend it wisely... and as you did your window shopping, you held off spending the quarter as it was all you had and you really wanted to get the best Cool thing with your money...
We found while cruising, it was the new places we went to that those little trinkets would grab out eyes and pocket books and we'd head back to the boat with more than we figured spending.. really screwing up our budget....
What we do now is leave all our credit cards and funds on the boat, and only take about 5 to 10 dollars each... 20 dollars dosent really go very far these days and uasally ends up buying us lunch... But we sure have fun window shopping........

As usual good idea Randy. I remember doing that when I was in my 20's to save money. I forgot about it. I think I need to do that again.

Originally Posted by DaveSherman

Capcook.

Your figures seem really high to me. Granted, I finished my circumnavigation almost 10 years ago, so I figure that everything will probably be a bit more than double, but my family of four spent about a $1000 a month on our Steven's 47. This included everything, although we did not spend much time at the dock, except when we landed in Australia and took a 9 month break, bought a used car and rented out a little cottage.

Since I will not have kids with me this time, I anticipate spending about $2000 to a month (with a cushion of another $500 a month).

In the Feb latitude 38 under the changes in latitude section Latitude 38 Changes in Latitudes February 2010 there is a letter from Max Young on a boat named Reflections. He has done most of a circumnavigation over 9 years and has spent $220k. or $24.4 a year including airfares etc. This does not count as a family and I do not know the breakdown of the money he spent. I think (well maybe hope) that the $2000 to $2500 will be enough for me to cruise on.

[DaveSherman]

Fairwinds, when will you be leaving and where do you intend to be in the first year?

[capcook]

Originally Posted by DaveSherman

Capcook.

my family of four spent about a $1000 a month on our Steven's 47. This included everything, although we did not spend much time at the dock, ).

Believe me, I wish I were wrong... I hear these stories of folks cruising for a 1-2k per month and I just can't make the math work... the only thing I can figure is they take a certain set of monthly expenses and call that the cost of crusing... I am looking a total cost of existance.

For example, to enroll the Ks in a quality Home School program like Calverts, one that will be well respected when they rejoin society, will cost about $500 bucks a month total for both of them.. That alone is 50% of what you spent. My co-Pay for family Health insurance is $500 bucks/mth, but I guess most folks just go without... If you dock at Barcelonia for a month... Ka Ching 3k EURO for a 44' boat...If you take one guided decent quality tour up to see the Valley of the Kings in Egypt for 2 Adults and 2Ks, what do you think that would cost? Probably the other half of the $1k... now we hope to do better and we will spend a lot of time on the hook, but a family of 4 using one dingy doesn't sound too workable... and we plan to spend 80% or more of the time "Being There" vs "getting There"... We will not be hanging out in the Islands, not that this isn't a perfectly wonderful thing to do, it just isn't what we want to do... Think Rome, Cario, Paris, the Nordics, Japan, AUS, NZ and China... most of these places are really not cheap... We are also going to be keeping our home in Atlanta which will be paid for but the taxes and Insurance alone are $6k per yr plus another $3k in minimal utilities and R&M, so you can take off about $12k/yr if you don't have a house... To say nothing of what a $450k boat is really going to cost you in depreciation, R&M, Insurance and operations....

So while I envy those who can make it work on $24k/yr or less I just don't see how they do it...

cheers

[Charlie]

Capcook:

You can spend as much as you want to cruise and if yo want to visit the most expensive first world countries and enjoy the most expensive parts of those countries. You can easily go way over a $24k per year budget. OTOH if you want to live a good inexpensive life cruising that is possible too. I am sure that you can get homeschool programs for less than $500 a month. If you want to keep a house (and I do ) you can rent it out to cover costs of insurance and taxes if it is paid for. If you don't believe it can be done i suggest you follow the blog of SVthirdday. They are reporting on every expense they have while cruising. Their budget has come in at ~$2000 a month. They are in the Sea of Cortez. I can see that this is not the kind of cruising that you are interested in but to say it is impossible is not correct. A more accurate statement might be that you can't cruise the way you want to for $2000 a month.

Here is a link to sv thirdday. http://www.svthirdday.com/PDF/expenses.pdf

[DaveSherman]

Here is how I intend to do it.

My two kids are now grown (no more Calverts!) and on their own. I am not going to carry boat insurance. We will self insure. We kept our Steven’s 47 in good shape while we were on our circumnavigation and had it painted in Trinidad ($2000) on the way back, and sold it for the same price we bought it. So, there was no loss. Hopefully, we will be able to do something similar this time.

I bought my house a long time ago and will rent it out while we are gone. The rent will more than pay for all the expenses and have a some left over.

But as far as the living expenses on the boat, I think that I will be able to keep it going on $2000 to $2400 a month. My parents were both thrifty New Englanders and I have a bit of that in me myself – “Waste not, want not, use it up, wear it out, when it’s gone, do with out!”

Hopefully, $2400 a month will be enough. Frankly, I expect to have money left over each month