How much does it cost to cruise ?

[elenya]

Hi

On our last voyage a kept a record of everything we spent for part of the time. I have a 12 month (2012-2014) record of all the spending which shows we spent a total of (all in New Zealand Dollars) $14,815.39. This figure includes everything! diesel, food, water, repairs, tourist trips, customs and immigration fees etc. The cruise was from NZ through Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Micronesia, Marianas, New Caledonia and back to NZ. most expensive month was $2427.20 (NZ) and cheapest was $662.39. Cost variations depended on whether we had a long passage one month and then restocked in the next month.

So average monthly cost was $1,234.58 (NZ). This compared with about $1,000.00 per month on our previous cruise in 2008-2009.

If you want to see the actual record of spending PM me with your email address and I will send my scribbling's to you.

If you want to see what we did during that time go to www.yachtelenya.blogspot.com and look at the posts for those years. Yes we anchored 99% of the time but we did everything we wanted and had some reasonable repairs to undertake during that period.

Cruising is great, go and do it now. When I first left the UK at age 25 on my 26' Warsash One Design I met loads of cruisers who said "good on you, go NOW and enjoy". 24 years later I stall NEVER met a cruiser who has said "I wish I had waited and worked a few more years".

Cheers

 

[GrahamM376]

There's an odd tendancy, every time this question of how MUCH cruising costs, for contributors to argue about how LITTLE you can get away with. I think that's missing the point.

If we were discussing how much it costs to live in the UK, people would not dispute that the average 2-adult household annual expenditure is £25,000 by arguing that it is possible to live on £10,000. I'm sure you can, if you have no choice.

Problem is, people's way of live varies so much. Living costs in the UK will vary wildly depending on size of house and mortgage, whether kids are at private school, what cars you run, where you take holidays etc. Living aboard is exactly the same - big boat in marina, eating out a lot v small boat anchored most of the time and prefer mainly to cook aboard.

Once clear of the UK, food and drink tend to be cheaper as my wife keeps pointing out - a bottle of gin can be had for the price of a gin and tonic in the UK and a litre bottle of Claymore whisky in Gib last summer was£3.29 Six of us ate out last night, went to a local Charcutaria for chicken and chips. Starters, lots of salad, chips, rice, 4 bbq chickens, 2 litres of wine, 61 euro.

Life can be as cheap or expensive as you wish.

 

[Heckler]

Problem is, people's way of live varies so much. Living costs in the UK will vary wildly depending on size of house and mortgage, whether kids are at private school, what cars you run, where you take holidays etc. Living aboard is exactly the same - big boat in marina, eating out a lot v small boat anchored most of the time and prefer mainly to cook aboard.

Once clear of the UK, food and drink tend to be cheaper as my wife keeps pointing out - a bottle of gin can be had for the price of a gin and tonic in the UK and a litre bottle of Claymore whisky in Gib last summer was£3.29 Six of us ate out last night, went to a local Charcutaria for chicken and chips. Starters, lots of salad, chips, rice, 4 bbq chickens, 2 litres of wine, 61 euro.

Life can be as cheap or expensive as you wish.

Faro or Lisboa?
S

 

[Thedreamoneday]

Cruising is great, go and do it now. When I first left the UK at age 25 on my 26' Warsash One Design I met loads of cruisers who said "good on you, go NOW and enjoy". 24 years later I stall NEVER met a cruiser who has said "I wish I had waited and worked a few more years".

Cheers

That's great to hear, my wife and I start our 2-3yr adventure in April, giving up good jobs that we've been in for a considerable time with decent incomes, there's been the odd occasion (mainly in the middle of the night) when a little voice in the head says 'what are you doing?' But as soon as we wake that voice has gone and its replaced with excitement of the the whole idea. We could have left it for another 20 years and saved with the house comeplely paid off but I feel at our ages (42 &45) we'll still be young enough to fall back in to the 'rat race' in a couple of years if we want to.

It's amazing though the work and planning involved to actually go, especially sorting out the house, I'm gobsmacked of how much crap we've accumulated over the last ten years. Over the last 6 months we've been going through each room starting with the loft space an separating what we wanted to keep (or think we wanted to keep) bin and sell, it's amazing what you can sell on gumtree and eBay which would never be used again and those £'s goes straight into the cruising pot. I also, after reading on hear that people store stuff in friends houses, storage depots etc then wonder years later 'why did I keep that' so we revisited the pile of 'keep' stuff 2 or 3 times and reduced it down again a few weeks later, again sold stuff (more £'s in the pot).
Now I feel we're on the final straight, resignation handed in next week, cats go to their new home in 10 days and 3 people viewing the house today for rental, all getting very real!

So my final question, do you think we could live on board for £5k per year? :encouragement:

 

[sailaboutvic]

Hi

On our last voyage a kept a record of everything we spent for part of the time. I have a 12 month (2012-2014) record of all the spending which shows we spent a total of (all in New Zealand Dollars) $14,815.39. This figure includes everything! diesel, food, water, repairs, tourist trips, customs and immigration fees etc. The cruise was from NZ through Vanuatu,

Cheers

Once again , I just have to say well done . 14000 NZD at to days rate is about £6500 ,
the subject came up last night with four full time live aboard cruising .all four keep records , as it happen one told me to the cent ,
Sums , lowers 22000 euros highest 33000 euros ,(£18000 to £24000) .these are the sums that seen to keep coming up , I be very interested to see what our will be at the end of this year .

These are just some quick figure for the avg six months winter cruiser cost of the top of my head .

Marina 1400 six months
Haul out , in DIY antifouling 600
Once a week out for a drink 10 =240
Once a week cheap meal 15=360
Power water in over winter 10=240
Food =50 1200
Just them alone comes to 4040 and these figures are not outrages .
Which would leaving 2500 to do all the maintains buy fuel any tourist taps you want to visit , flying home to visit family and cruise for the next six months , and loads of other stuff I missed out .
We couldn't do it on that , we like to .
What we have found over the last few year are that more and more are having to cut they cruising short because they under estimate the cost of cruising .

 

[sailaboutvic]

So my final question, do you think we could live on board for £5k per year? :encouragement:

YES , but you won't be doing much else other then living ,
Avg shopping for two 50 euros that's 2400 pa which will leave you about the same to do every thing else's .

 

[Thedreamoneday]

YES , but you won't be doing much else other then living ,
Avg shopping for two 50 euros that's 2400 pa which will leave you about the same to do every thing else's .

Thanks Vic, but there was a big smiley at the end (my sense of humour).

I've worked out my finances for the trip against what we do and spend in the uk and kept it similar then some for repairs/ unexpected. I wouldn't want to be sat on my boat or pacing up and down bored and skint!

I agree though it all depends on what you do and spend at home, why would you change when abroad. It's been great for us over the last couple of years as whilst saving-we've changed our lifestyle slightly by cooking more rather than eating out and 'thinking' about money more by asking ourselves 'so I need that, can I fix the old one or can I get it cheaper elsewhere?' A great exercise even if we didn't have these plans as its opened my eyes how we used to burn though money because it was there.

Thanks

 

[GrahamM376]

Faro or Lisboa?
S

Faro, we hauled out into Bruce's a couple of weeks ago.

 

[GrahamM376]

So my final question, do you think we could live on board for £5k per year? :encouragement:

You could "exist" for a year on anchor for that but long term I doubt it. Costs over the initial years depend on condition of boat at the outset and whether it's already fitted out properly and you do all your own maintenance.

 

[sailaboutvic]

You could "exist" for a year on anchor for that but long term I doubt it. Costs over the initial years depend on condition of boat at the outset and whether it's already fitted out properly and you do all your own maintenance.

I think you would have to be single , and literally not go any where but sit on anchor , but is that any type of life ?
Most of us want to socialise , women more then men in a lot of cases , and that cost , just having friends on board for simply drinks , couple bottles of wine and some beers some bits to nibble on, that's 10 / 15 euros gone . And you could easier wipe that out if you go to a bar . One a week for a year and that's over 700 euros .

 

[sailaboutvic]

Thanks Vic, but there was a big smiley at the end (my sense of humour).

I've worked out my finances for the trip against what we do and spend in the uk and kept it similar then some for repairs/ unexpected. I wouldn't want to be sat on my boat or pacing up and down bored and skint!

I agree though it all depends on what you do and spend at home, why would you change when abroad. It's been great for us over the last couple of years as whilst saving-we've changed our lifestyle slightly by cooking more rather than eating out and 'thinking' about money more by asking ourselves 'so I need that, can I fix the old one or can I get it cheaper elsewhere?' A great exercise even if we didn't have these plans as its opened my eyes how we used to burn though money because it was there.

Thanks

Yes I guess you was joking , I forgot to put a smile back .

 

[elenya]

That's great to hear, my wife and I start our 2-3yr adventure in April, giving up good jobs that we've been in for a considerable time with decent incomes, there's been the odd occasion (mainly in the middle of the night) when a little voice in the head says 'what are you doing?' But as soon as we wake that voice has gone and its replaced with excitement of the the whole idea. We could have left it for another 20 years and saved with the house comeplely paid off but I feel at our ages (42 &45) we'll still be young enough to fall back in to the 'rat race' in a couple of years if we want to.

It's amazing though the work and planning involved to actually go, especially sorting out the house, I'm gobsmacked of how much crap we've accumulated over the last ten years. Over the last 6 months we've been going through each room starting with the loft space an separating what we wanted to keep (or think we wanted to keep) bin and sell, it's amazing what you can sell on gumtree and eBay which would never be used again and those £'s goes straight into the cruising pot. I also, after reading on hear that people store stuff in friends houses, storage depots etc then wonder years later 'why did I keep that' so we revisited the pile of 'keep' stuff 2 or 3 times and reduced it down again a few weeks later, again sold stuff (more £'s in the pot).
Now I feel we're on the final straight, resignation handed in next week, cats go to their new home in 10 days and 3 people viewing the house today for rental, all getting very real!

So my final question, do you think we could live on board for £5k per year? :encouragement:

Hi

Good on you, and I know you will enjoy.

Be brutal with your expense monitoring until you know how you spend money and on what. Be sensible with what you stock up on, some foods are cheap in some places and expensive in others. Time is your greatest commodity, there is lots of it and not much money, use the time. A couple of examples of how different cruisers spend money are.

In Guam to stock up for our 30 day trip to New Caledonia we would walk the 2 hours to town and catch the bus back. Others would hire a car or use a taxi. Great exercise, we got plenty of lifts and met some great people doing this.

In Fiji we did a day trip across the island. We took a local bus on a 2 hour trip each way, had a great time meeting people, their chickens and daily life. Great entertainment and cheap. Other cruisers hired a taxi for the day to do the same trip then sat in a bar in town.

 

[richardh10]

Evening all.

Well we're just starting on our great adventure, after kids have left, sold the house so got some money in the bank, and thought ok let's do it then! No point being the richest corpse in the cemetery!
So yesterday we completed the purchase on our boat, and at the moment, can't believe how lucky we are. Getting the standing rigging sorted. A few other bits to do, and off we go. Don't know how long the money will last, and to be honest, I don't care. It's going to be a hell of a ride!

 

[Thedreamoneday]

You could "exist" for a year on anchor for that but long term I doubt it. Costs over the initial years depend on condition of boat at the outset and whether it's already fitted out properly and you do all your own maintenance.

Boat, has had a mini refit with new standing & running rigging, new Genoa, main washed and checked over, engine overhaul, new heads, new electronics (vhf, wind, depth log, ais) and loads of other little jobs that always pop up. I'm not adverse to getting stuck into the jobs myself as long as I get hints, tips and pointed in the right direction by more experienced cruisers than me (one of which has been yourself on a few occasions already :encouragement

All 3 viewers want my property, happy days!

Cheers

 

[AndrewB]

Don't know how long the money will last, and to be honest, I don't care. It's going to be a hell of a ride!

All 3 viewers want my property, happy days!

Good luck to you both! There are plenty of people long-distance cruising who do it on the basis of: sail a year or so, go home and work a year or so to replenish the coffers, continue the voyage.

 

[GrahamM376]

Boat, has had a mini refit with new standing & running rigging, new Genoa, main washed and checked over, engine overhaul, new heads, new electronics (vhf, wind, depth log, ais) and loads of other little jobs that always pop up. I'm not adverse to getting stuck into the jobs myself as long as I get hints, tips and pointed in the right direction by more experienced cruisers than me (one of which has been yourself on a few occasions already :encouragement All 3 viewers want my property, happy days!
Cheers

Glad to hear you're going for it.

We been living aboard for up to 9 months/year (that is gradually becoming less) but we're not long distance cruisers as for me even our Biscay trips were a bit like watching paint dry. Nice to leave and then arrive somewhere different but no intention of crossing the pond.

It seems you've been right through the boat but what about the "extras"? Our mistake was not being properly prepared for prolonged hot weather with things like good fridge, bimini, cockpit tent, gantry & sufficient solar panels, mossy nets etc. , all of which are easier to sort at home when you have transport and know where the suppliers are. Spares can be difficult to source so stock up well with filters, heads pump service kits and, if your boat has non metric nuts and bolts, have an assorted box as virtually impossible to find unf/unc/whit here for instance, just metric coarse.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

[Thedreamoneday]

Glad to hear you're going for it.

We been living aboard for up to 9 months/year (that is gradually becoming less) but we're not long distance cruisers as for me even our Biscay trips were a bit like watching paint dry. Nice to leave and then arrive somewhere different but no intention of crossing the pond.

It seems you've been right through the boat but what about the "extras"? Our mistake was not being properly prepared for prolonged hot weather with things like good fridge, bimini, cockpit tent, gantry & sufficient solar panels, mossy nets etc. , all of which are easier to sort at home when you have transport and know where the suppliers are. Spares can be difficult to source so stock up well with filters, heads pump service kits and, if your boat has non metric nuts and bolts, have an assorted box as virtually impossible to find unf/unc/whit here for instance, just metric coarse.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

We have,

150w solar, keel cooled fridge, new caframo fans, new bimini, new domestic batteries (400ah) Mossi nets all round, new ground tackle (Rocna, Aqua G4 chain direct from Maggi, Kong connector) new rope cutter (cheers for that) full new upholstery throughout (a bargain find) I have loads of spares, pumps. (Water & fuel) filters impellers, even spare autopilot.

When we get on board I've given myself at up to a month to get it 'tip top' stripping old antifoul & repainting, service winches including lofrans, replace hinges, Re-bed chain plate covers etc etc

I've got teak strips to replace the cockpit floor at some point, no rush on that one.

Interesting what you say about nuts and bolts, my boat is the same as yours so any suggestions as to what I may need there?

I'm sure we will have missed something, so if anyone has any pointers I'm all ears.

Cheers

 

[Thedreamoneday]

Good luck to you both! There are plenty of people long-distance cruising who do it on the basis of: sail a year or so, go home and work a year or so to replenish the coffers, continue the voyage.

Thanks.

Our plans are very local initially (eastern med) then maybe look further afield, who knows, all part of the excitement. I know exactly where I'd be and what I'd be doing for the next 10 years if I didn't go, so feel really fortunate to have the opportunity.

 

[Budgieboy]

Hi ... This thread is like looking into the future for me .... Sale of my boat plodding along and viewing of future possible boat happening , in fact we are hitting the road in 2 weeks spending 4 days looking for the model of boat that suits herself , I am a lot easier pleased than her .... Sale of my properties that are funding this going through .... Latter end of the summer is earmarked as time to clear everything out of the house , furniture is promised to the kids ..... Wife is giving her little business to one of her Daughters , my Son is taking on my firm and giving me a weekly sum from it diminishing over 5 years , have properties with good tenants in them so only have our home to let to a good tenant hopefully ..... Everything we now do is looked at with an 18 month timescale , do we need or want it in a year or so ? It's amazing how much of an impact this has on you school of thought , there is hardly a contract that is not 24 months so new phone is out etc ! .... One minute it scares the crap out of you , then next you can't wait then a friend asks you have you lost the plot ! ..... It's all slowly falling into place , but never saw the amount of work / brain space leaving the landlubber life we have led ..... I get butterflies in my stomach when I think of selling my car next year , that is the moment of no turning back for me and I can't wait ...

 

[GrahamM376]

Interesting what you say about nuts and bolts, my boat is the same as yours so any suggestions as to what I may need there?

Didn't know what boat you have. Yours should be mainly if not all metric. Main problem I had was with bits and pieces added by previous owners and the old shaft coupling, couldn't get get new nyloc nuts so just replaced the bolts as well.