18 months aboard for £30k, inc boat

scruff

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Plan:
Step 1: Buy this or similar (Nicholson 32):
1966 Nicholson 32 Mk 2 Sail New and Used Boats for Sale
Step 2: Quick trip to Costco to buy some spam, rice and beans
Step 3: Sail south til warm, then west towards the setting sun
Step 4: Spend the remainder on Pina Colada on landfall
Step 5: Sail home, sell boat

A lot to commend the Nic32 as a design, but you'll not be getting much canoodeling done with a chain hawse pipe between the berths in the forepeak!
 

steve yates

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5-10 k on the boat, 5k to prep it and 15k for food and booze.
Like Kelpie I would also go for a Vega. Not sure how realistic my route is as I’ve been racing all my life and am only getting into cruising, however here’s the first thoughts:

Albin Vega - £6k for a haggle

Some minimal fitting out / gear:
Box of engine spares - £250
New standing rigging - £1000
Storm jib and trysail - £1000
Wind vane - £2000

Food budget £10 a day for 18 months = £5,500.

I have £14,250 left for boat maintenance, mooring fees, cheap plonk and any other costs.

The boat is afloat near Newcastle so I would depart from there. Cross the channel and the Bay of Biscay before sampling the delights of Spain, Portugal and Morocco. A big hitch to the Canaries and then on to the Cape Verdes and Cape Town. I would then turn around and gradually head for home, allowing plenty of time to arrive back in Newcastle exactly 18 months later when the world has completely returned to normal and the market for Albin Vegas is at it’s hottest since the early 70s. ?
I got a storm jib and trysail for a westerly longbow for £300, and a late model Aries windvane in excellent condition for £850.
My longbow ketch was under £5k, with new engine, new sails and very recent standing rigging. £1500 to replace the fuel tank. Say another £1000 to replace the engine mounts and morse controls and levers.Another 1.5k for a better autopilot system and that's about £5k, so £10k in total.Leaves about £20k for provisioning, misc items and living costs.
18months? Prob an Atlantic circuit?
 

Dino

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Take the £30k and buy Bitcoin. Defer your departure for a few months, maybe a year.
Buy a nice modern 40ft AWB with the profit and head off on a lap of the Atlantic for 18 months.
 

newtothis

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Take the £30k and buy Bitcoin. Defer your departure for a few months, maybe a year.
Buy a nice modern 40ft AWB with the profit and head off on a lap of the Atlantic for 18 months.
Take the £30k and buy Bitcoin. Defer your departure for a few months, maybe a year.
Buy a crappy old dinghy with what you have left after it tanks and head off to your local reservoir for 18 months.
 

Gwylan

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For a bit of boaty fun (as it’s in short supply at the minute).

Life on dry land has become temporarily untenable, so you decide to take to the seas. You don’t currently own a vessel, and for reasons which are too complex to go into here, you are alone for the duration.

You have £30k to last 18 months, which has to cover purchasing a boat, any fitting out / equipment, and anything else you will need, such as food and any mooring costs. You can go anywhere, but you must start in the UK, and you must be back at your port of departure in 18 months time. You must spend each night on the boat, afloat, and for convoluted tax reasons, you’re unable to work to earn money or goods.

How would you do it? What boat would you buy and where would you go? How much would you spend to acquire and equip your trusty vessel, and how would you live on the remainder?

Junk rig Newbridge Voyager £5K
Fix up £2k, gut and remodel for one +1 if I feel very keen.
£3k for decent ground gear, solar panels and new batteries, robust basic electronics, EPIRB, liferaft [rent] , OTTO matic - auto helm
Spares underway £2k - may be spent on misc entertainment as the journey proceeds
Food and drink £5k - eat a lot of fish
Sundries, clothing, fuel, charts, VISAs, insurance, occasional marina £8k
OMG fund £5k It will be sails or engine.

Possibly sell the boat for what I paid for it on return. It's set up for long distance sailing now.

South until the butter melts!
If I don't like the weather then I won't sail.
At my age the return journey might not be necessary.
 

Buck Turgidson

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Piece of cake and I would do it myself if I didn't have a job to go back to when this ****storm is over.
Boat max 15K
Water maker 4K
Spares 1K
Food Freeze dried 4k
Fishing gear 1K?

Reserve 4k for cooking gas and occasional mooring.

Bye.
 

brunoronner

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For a bit of boaty fun (as it’s in short supply at the minute).

Life on dry land has become temporarily untenable, so you decide to take to the seas. You don’t currently own a vessel, and for reasons which are too complex to go into here, you are alone for the duration.

You have £30k to last 18 months, which has to cover purchasing a boat, any fitting out / equipment, and anything else you will need, such as food and any mooring costs. You can go anywhere, but you must start in the UK, and you must be back at your port of departure in 18 months time. You must spend each night on the boat, afloat, and for convoluted tax reasons, you’re unable to work to earn money or goods.

How would you do it? What boat would you buy and where would you go? How much would you spend to acquire and equip your trusty vessel, and how would you live on the remainder?
I'd go for a small but seaworthy sailing yacht—probably something like a Westerly Centaur or a Sadler 29, which can be had for around £10-15k in decent condition. That leaves me £15-20k for refitting, safety gear, food, and mooring fees. I’d do as much of the work myself as possible to stretch the budget.

For the trip, I'd spend summers cruising the west coast of Scotland—stunning, free anchorages, and minimal marina fees—then head south when it gets colder, maybe wintering in the Canaries if I can stretch the budget. Fishing, foraging, and careful provisioning would keep food costs low. With careful planning, it’d be tight but doable!
 

Sea Change

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Take the £30k and buy Bitcoin. Defer your departure for a few months, maybe a year.
Buy a nice modern 40ft AWB with the profit and head off on a lap of the Atlantic for 18 months.
Looking back at what actually happened, your £30,000 would have risen to £33,750 in the year between January 21st 2021-2022.

Better than putting it in the bank but a lot less fun than buying a boat!
 

mrming

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:)Can we possibly be updated by @mrming about the outcome of this revived thread resp. how the plans have been realized.
Thanks in advance, G
This was meant as a bit of fun during the slightly bleak period of the pandemic. I did actually buy a boat, but I've only been sailing it locally and I blew the entire budget on acquiring and updating said vessel. :)
 

BobnLesley

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The Vega's a good shout - that's what we used - but pay £8-9k and get a well fitted/sorted one with a full inventory; also fit a decent diesel heater (overwintering in a marina would take a big bite out of the budget) a fridge and a couple of solar panels - don't fret about goalposts and such, just deploy on deck when anchored or in light winds. that'll leave you £1200/month; doable even for two:

Depart UK south coast around Easter, cross to the Channel Islands or Normandy (No anchorages much to the north of there) and work your way down as far as La Rochelle/Rochefort, taking time to explore Morbihan. A short hop to Bilbao then along Spain's north coast, into the Rias and on down to the Algarve. With that heater, you can move along that well into the late autumn/early winter or even visit Morocco if you're feeling confident by then, otherwise tuck up in Alvor/Olhao/Guadiana River - Huelva too, be we didn't like it there.

With care you can get away early in spring and continue around to Denia, Balearics (I hear free anchoring's still not a big problem until the season starts in late May) then up to Barcelona and the Gulf of Lion in southern France. If you're quick you could even go on to Marseille and the Riviera, before back-tracking to Sete and the Canal du Midi across to Bordeaux, or Port St Louis and up the bigger canals to the Channel, then home again before it gets too cold.
 

servus

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This was meant as a bit of fun during the slightly bleak period of the pandemic. I did actually buy a boat, but I've only been sailing it locally and I blew the entire budget on acquiring and updating said vessel. :)
Thanks for your answer.
I guess your plan was very close to the optimal.
 
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