I apologise in advance for this posting!!

[Kerouac]

I'll be buying a liveaboard in the near future. I have a budget (lump sum) of £25,000 and a monthly income of about £2000. I work aboard via the Internet. Can I do it for this money?

I'm exploring the differences between sail and motor (expenses, comfort etc) and would value any opinions or links on the subject, but would also like to know - and this is where the apology comes in:

1. How much does boat fuel cost??

2. How much would it cost me to motor to the Med, how lonw would it take and would the fuel tank be big enough!

I can hear the teeth being grated now!! I'd really appreciate a rough estimate.

With thanks!

Tony

 

[hlb]

1. Between 25 and 48p ltr. More in Europe.

2. Depends on the boat?? How fast is the boat?? How bigs the tank??

Think you need to do more research before asking the questions. Sorry!!

 

[Kerouac]

THanks Haydn for replying to a dumn question. I just needed a ballpark figure before I could do some more research.

Ta!

 

[Dave_Snelson]

There are people that do just as you do on this forum and probably the "livaboard link" - although I don't visit that forum.

Like everything else, you cut your cloth accordingly. £25k - yep, do-able. My opinion would be a yacht with motor. A true twin-engine MoBo would cost you a fortune in fuel.

£2k per month? Yeah, why not. Choose cheaper marinas and harbours for longer term rents. Shop where the locals shop. Drink what the locals drink. Do not behave like a holiday maker!! The UK is a horrifically expensive country to live, and you don't realise by how much until you look outside - and not just for holidays.

If you are sure that you can maintain your income via the net, then go for it. You only get one shot at this world buddy /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[TigaWave]

Might help you...
Yacht with 40hp, economy cruise speed under power, 5.0 knots
2 litres/hour.
On an Atlantic circuit over a year (we did a fair bit of motoring/motor sailing) 450 hours motoring.

Hope this helps

Neil

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
There are people that do just as you do on this forum and probably the "livaboard link" - although I don't visit that forum.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah or so you say.... You don't visit the lounge, but oh, oh I seem to recall seeing a post from you yesterday.

I bet you sneak in the liverboard section, just to check that people are not talking about you in there either /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Kerouac]

And to think I was told by people who shall remain nameless that moto's didn't have a sense of humour!!

THanks for the advice - it really helps


tony

 

[ShipsWoofy]

With your initial budget, £25k I would suggest a sailing option will give you more living space for your outlay.

If you are willing to buy an older boat then your options will be opened up substantially.

On the other hand, a converted trawler yacht, whether you do it your self or buy one that has been done well might also be a good option. Much better fuel economy heavy for big seas and not an AWB.

There are questions to throw back at you>

How much living space do you think you need?
How much office space do you require on board?
How do you intend to connect to the interweb?
Will you be alone, what are your partners expectations?
Kicking him / her off the boat so you can work is going to cause friction yes?

I still think if you are not ready for sailing, then an old trawler might be best, a 40ft converted Scottish trawler has bags of room down below.

 

[Angus_James149]

I will start by saying that, having read this and your livaboard post, for what you seem to want to do a mobo is not for you. While you could buy an older (25 yr) mobo of around 28-32 ft for the money, to run the thing will be prohibitive on your budget. For this size you wouldn't expect to get about 3-4 mpg in a planing boat and a range of around 200nm. In addition a mobo will have one or two large engines with fancy turbochargers that will cost a lot more than a sailing auxiliary engine to maintain.

For a sailing boat you will, for 25 grand, expect to get something of about 28-32ft again around the 25-30yr mark. The big difference is in the running costs as you would probably only use the engine for a few miles leaving or approaching the harbour. Look for a boat with good sails, rigging and engine as these are the expensive bits to replace so let someone else to this for you /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

You will also need to give some thought as to how to do your work, either with a laptop and/or Internet cafe. With a laptop you will have to think about powering it, as with your budget it would be likely that you will want to anchor a bit to save marina costs so will not have access to shore power. The options are really a portable petrol genney or solar system both of which would be under a grand. Diesel gennys are at least several grand.

As far a qualifications are concerned it would be a good idea to get some. I would look at doing the RYA day skipper course as this allows you to get an ICC with the CEVNI endorsement. The ICC (International Certificate of Competence) is required for cruising some med. countries, while the CEVNI is a theory paper that with the ICC will allow you to use the French canals which would be IMHO the best way to get to the med if shorthanded.

P.S. Use the search function on the livaboard forum as this has loads of info about all these questions.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Why will he be stuck to anchoring.

He said £2000 per month not £200.

How much do you think marina charges are for a 32 ft boat?

At £2000 per month he could live in marinas and eat out every night while still saving half of it for the next boat.

Am I really so tight and poor that I think £2000 per month as a liveaboard is a fortune?

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Hmm - fair point /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

BTW - Once again, I hope to be around this weekend....weather permitting

I will be setting off for PM this evening and coming over to PW tomorrow lunch-time to fill up (again!). Are you around this w/e? I'll call by Top-Cat anyway (or buzz you on the radio)

Didn't get over the other w/e, weather was crud!

Cheers
Dave

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Agreed, it looked nice but it was cold. Then Sunday evening went down the swanny.

Will be arriving Saturday after midday I think, have to call in on a couple of people on the way.

If the weather is ok we might have a sail into PM or Barmouth, though looking at the charts I think it might be day sails, time will tell.

If you are popping over will you bring your Allen keys please!

 

[ccscott49]

I agree with you, two grand is a lot of money, you could live in barcelona, in the marina, be permanently connected to the internet and have a great life style on that kind of money! I do. €8000 a year for 18 meter berth, $1000 a year water leccy and internet, a 12 meter berth here, is about €4000 including water and leccy, €20 a month internet, so £2000 is quite a budget. I would also think catamaran, for room and comfort. Ask Mike Wilkes.

 

[DavidJ]

99% of livaboards live on yachts...there's a message there

 

[Kerouac]

Again some great advice.

Initially I think I'm looking at a catamaran then. Moto's are too expensive to run.

I'll also need a portable generator, but my main worry is internet access from a boat.

I definately need Internet access from my liveaboard and have bugeted for this. Does anyone here (silly question since your all on forum) have access from their boat WITHOUT using shore power or a land telephone connection?
The other question is, if I get ICC and CEVNI quals, can I more or less go anywhere in the world? (Once I've learned to sail that is)

Ta

Tony

 

[Angus_James149]

Yep your right that 2 grand a month is pretty good, kinda missed that and was looking at 25k lump sum. So maybe it would be ok to spend a bit more than that on the boat. The guy says that he is single but if he has friends to stay then a bigger boat (upto 40ft) would impove QOL alot.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I occasionally connect up in the uk through my mobile telephone, but it is very slow. If you need to post big documents or receive a lot of emails etc. you will need to find marina's with square mile Wifi or trot off to a Macdonalds with your laptop to work for example.

Satellite is extremely expensive and you would have to restrict your bandwidth.

I am about to do a similar thing to you and will be hoping to keep Internet connections, for pleasure rather than work so being out of contact for a few weeks will not be the end of the world for me.

I think b/b connections from Wifi are going to become more and more viable, from what I read on the web so far it is still very much in its infancy. In a couple of years I think it will be quite normal to browse the web at anchor on fast connections.

But then, more and more people will choose to live on boats and the impact might be worse for the lifestyle you are looking for.

Time will tell.

Ask your questions on the liveaboard forum, there are a few doing now what you are proposing.

 

[Dave_Snelson]

It was you I had in mind

but didn't want to make representations on your behalf good sir /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Angus_James149]

Just to add my twopennies worth;

Last year I experimented with using the Internet for email via an ordinary PAYG phone(GSM) which worked OK however very slow at 9.6K. However the thing to go for is a GPRS phone. This allows you to use the net paying for the data transfered rather than the time used- saves a lot if looking at web pages, also you can get higher speeds than the old GSM dial up. You can also now get at some marinas a WiFi broadband connection which would be cheaper if less flexible. Myself, I am looking at a GPRS setup for use in the UK. Again, if you do a search for GPRS in the livaboard forum for posts in the last year you will find a lot of info that certainly helped me.

 

[jerryat]

Hi Shipswoofy!

No you're not alone!! We cruised for several years with a lot less than that to spend and had a fabulous time. We did everything other, more financially endowed yotties seemed to do (hired cars, explored, flew home periodically etc) but it just cost us less. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif But then, our boat is smaller than 'average' and we do ALL of the maintenance/repairs ourselves. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Cheers Jerry