How Much Does It Really Cost to Sail Away?
Most think that this is an unachievable dream. Not so. It is attainable and will cost as much as you have. Cruisers spend money the same way on water, as they did on land. Some cash out their life on land early, some later. Some risk it all and spend all they have.
There are all kinds of cruisers out there and budgets range from tiny to jet-set. Some cruisers have income from a rental property, some are retired with a pension, some cashed out from corporate jobs and very few are just rich. Most have a regular income every month, but some make their living along the way, hiring out their skills from boat repairs to boat deliveries, from electrician jobs to successful blogs with sponsors or crowd funded support. Others cruise half a year and spend the hurricane season earning money.
The choice of boat is important. It all depends on where you want to take the boat. Off-shore bluewater sailboats are more expensive, because a sturdier boat is required with more safety equipment on board for crossing oceans. Coastal cruising boats are usually cheaper, lighter, faster and easier to find. In both categories, you can find steals. Usually, off shore older cruising boats start as low as $10.000 for total-fixers, $ 35.000 in ok condition, from $ 50.000 in good condition without much or older equipment or around $ 100-120.000 for more recently built boats with recent upgrades.
We bought our 1969 Alberg 37 for $55.000 and she passed the inspection with flying colors. We decommissioned and shipped her from Seattle to San Diego for around $7.000 and outfitted her with around $ 45.000 for offshore cruising. Go here link for detailed upgrades and equipment list.
We chose a boat under 40 feet (12 meters) for a couple of reasons: firstly I felt that I could handle a boat up to 40′ by myself. While I am not single handling and cruising with Radu, we are only two people on board and are what they call ‘short handed’, and I need to sail the boat by myself while on watch. The second reason was the cost. Boats under 40′ are cheaper to maintain while still large enough for two people to live on permanently. Slip fees, boat maintenance and paint jobs, size of engine, winches, lines, sails etc. are expensive and even more so if larger sizes are required. Most everything can be found used in consignment stores and online, but that requires time, diligence and luck.
Our Alberg was nicely appointed below when we bought her with beautiful wood work, stainless steel port holes and a brand new engine, but only an older VHF, speed and depth instrument for the local sailing she was equipped for. We want to go off shore and take her across oceans, so we choose the newest, but affordable technology and installed most ourselves, under the watchful eye and consultation of professionals, who all had cruised before and knew what worked or not and what was needed. It was hard to find people who were happy to consult, because there is not much money in it. But we wanted to know how to maintain and fix everything on board ourselves; so installing it ourselves was crucial! And this saved money, at $65-95 per hour; marine services are expensive in San Diego.
Once you cut the lines, how much you spend depends on what your needs are. People say that you spend what you have. Which is true too for us. When we have some money saved and we are in an harbor, there is always something we still want for the boat, for safety, for us or for fun. Living at anchor is the cheapest and it steeply goes up from there. We try to stay as little as possible in marinas and when we do, those days are action-filled and busy days: we fill fuel-, water- and propane tanks, provision for the next trip, do all laundry, clean the boat inside and out, do quick repairs we can’t do underway, and get out again as quickly as possible, in hopefully less than 5 days.
Some people travel from marina to marina and don’t like anchoring or don’t need to. This is more expensive (at $1-2 per foot of the boat length per night marina rates are similar in Southern California and Mexico) and a different lifestyle to the cruisers we have met so far, who spend about $ 2.500 to $ 3.000 a month and have generators they run daily to top up batteries to have enough energy for a water maker, fridge, freezer, water heater, television, electrical equipment and kitchen tools etc. In effect they kind of live like on land, in an apartment with a keel. Others spend $1.000 – 1.500 a month and live a frugal lifestyle. The frugal cruiser lives more like the old-style sailors, who rewarded themselves with a cold beer in a port but lived on board without fridges, very little electricity, if any, and rationed the water they carried in tanks. Modern technology affords us to produce energy with solar and wind generators and some cruisers have enough of those not to need generators. But all of those gadgets add to the initial cost and the maintenance down the road.
So, whatever your budget and situation is, know it will be kind of like how you are living on land. Make sure that you find the boat, which meets the level of cruising, your skill set and the level of comfort you want and what you can afford long term. We talked to every cruiser we could find, read all the books and blogs and even started a interview series ‘Project: Cruiser’s Life’ link where we ask cruisers about the life they are leading and what cruising is really like.
Our advice? Start planning, budgeting and looking for a boat now. The rest will fall into place!