A small boat is not the same as a small house. Some things are easy to cross reference as being the same or very similar, food and entertainment, for example. Look up the cost of a small house on the Cape and you'll find most are in the $300-400 thousand range. Monthly expenses including mortgage, taxes, utilities, food, travel, entertainment, and maintenance are going to run in the $7-10 thousand per month range or $85 to 120 thousand per year...
A small house on Cape Cod that got pretty small last winter is pictured. For the price of that house, one could buy a heck of a nice 50 footer. For the cost of running the house: mortgage, taxes, utilities, food, travel, entertainment, and maintenance one could have a pretty plush cruise in the pretty plush yacht.
OK, this is a little ridiculous. No head room and some other privations such as no running water or refrigeration, etc, etc. But, it qualifies as small. (And, boy, is she fun to sail.) Let's say a typical 34 footer is going to not break the bank. I read that sailors routinely purchase and fully refit yacht for under $100 thousand dollars and cruise for years at a monthly rate around $3-4 thousand a month or under fifty thousand bucks a year.
Basically, every year of cruising is so much less expensive than living ashore one "buys back" the yacht in few years. After that, the cruiser puts money in the bank each subsequent year... compared to living ashore. If you aren't tethered to the doctor's office with a chronic ailment, cruising is a pretty nice way to partake of retirement or a sabbatical. Obviously, if you have a day job, voyaging is out.
On one hand, why detail the advantages of cruising lifestyle. That's just going to clutter up the harbors. Let's face it: life aboard is just not ever going to cut it for a vast majority of the population. For the cruisers among us, it is a practical way to live compared to life ashore.
Roughly speaking: Buy a typical house and have a 100K equity position then spend about 100K a year to live there... all expenses... in three years you've burned through about 400K and there is a little equity in the house both sweat equity and increased equity in the property. $400 grand in three years.
ReplyDeleteGo cruising/voyaging with a 100K boat (fitted out cost) and burn through about 50K a year. In three years you chewed up $250K.
$00K less $250K is $150K. Is that the equity in the house? Dunno... Maybe a sailing voyage is not such a bad idea after all. If you like the life. I say, it is not about the money it about the lifestyle choice.
$400K, not $00K
ReplyDeleteWe did it A LOT! cheaper. Simple boat around 50K (Aussie - that's important!) - new engine 8K, new water and fuel tanks. Rest was good - but did a fair bit of painting :-) (and other stuff I have fortunately forgotten about) - Start with a good boat, have the means (skills) to maintain it yourself 90% of the time and you can cut these figures right down! :-)
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ReplyDeleteIf you want to get really crazy and have very little money it is still possible to cruise. Check out my daughter and son in law's journey at http://thefreelife.weebly.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thefreelife.weebly/. They live and sail for virtually nothing. They do not eat out at restaurants, their boat is simple, they do not dock at marina's and they minimize maintenance costs by exercising caution, minimize pressure on the boat and doing the work themselves. A couple months of frugal living while banking for the trip and they are enjoying the voyage of a lifetime right now. They are meeting up with young people who have spent little to nothing on their vessels and are enjoying the same waters as the folks who have the huge incomes you are describing. They will spend less than $10,000 for a year of voyaging....including buying and outfitting the boat!
ReplyDeleteChris: Nice link. Back in the old days, before we knew better (giggles all around) my folks had an Irwin 27 sloop with an Atomic 4 inboard. Made two round trips Maine to Florida and had a great time. They were teachers and "frugal." I hope you follow my thinking in this blog and comment. Good luck to your kids, too.
DeleteChris: Nice link. Back in the old days, before we knew better (giggles all around) my folks had an Irwin 27 sloop with an Atomic 4 inboard. Made two round trips Maine to Florida and had a great time. They were teachers and "frugal." I hope you follow my thinking in this blog and comment. Good luck to your kids, too.
DeleteThanks Jackie and Chris. I know it can be done for less. I choose those numbers after doing a lot of blog reading. Picked what seemed like the high side of the cruising cost curve and the numbers still work out. Basically, if one likes to cruise, it is within reach of most people finances. I am comming to an idea about self sufficiency be the essential cruising skill. If you like it, you can cruise. Or, as Jackie and Noel show, trek on horseback. thanks all.
ReplyDeleteYes, - and also a lot more! I recently read someone spent 50K just on doing the Great Loop, we did it for a year and I would be amazed if we spent $5K!
DeleteSo, it's exactly as Chris says. But it also goes the other way. Your figures were a good in-between.