Retire and live aboard

i like this thread !!! we've bitten the bullet and resigned a few years off pension-so we can sail for longer (uk based) and catch up with the offspring down under more often ( a few wks to go!!!!!)
saved hard for a bit of capital / at moment renting part of house /casual work when around
so far working ok but has proved a bit stressful initially - not sure why?
i always liked the quote (relating it to work) "if everyone else does it , then look upon it with suspicion"
 
I am calculating my early retirement by considering how much drawdown I need at 61 to reach state pension at 66, and then flatten my income to take account of state pension rahter than consider it a bumper feature at age 66. So effectively I plan to reduce the amount I draw from my pension pot once the state pension kicks in. I bleieve we can achieve that because we will already have established the actual reuired spend from the previous five years statistics on the lifestyle.
We also have Mrs FCs useful salary pension as a fixed base during the period.
 
The more I read threads like this which give examples of leading a half decent retirement sailing, the more I know we will be able to afford it and enjoy it. The house and shop will be sold in 5 years, all debts settled and I will be able to access my pension pots. SWMBO has a small RBS pension pot and we need to look at how and when we can get our hands on that efficiently. Looking at boat sizes, 38-42 seems the biggest necessary to include occasional guests. I would love a cat but they will be way out of our league.
 
Cheery said:
Looking at boat sizes, 38-42 seems the biggest necessary to include occasional guests. I would love a cat but they will be way out of our league.
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Cheery,

Part of "cutting our cloth" as I mentioned above is containing costs. i would urge you to stay under 12m LOA if you possibly can, you don't want a boat which burns cash. If there are just the two of you with occasional guests then stay under 40feet overall, at least that's my advice.
 
Robih said:
Cheery,

Part of "cutting our cloth" as I mentioned above is containing costs. i would urge you to stay under 12m LOA if you possibly can, you don't want a boat which burns cash. If there are just the two of you with occasional guests then stay under 40feet overall, at least that's my advice.
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+1

Our 38ft 376 with two en-suite heads is good for 4 people and I'm sure there are other similar designs around. Staying just under 12 metres makes economic sense, an extra metre often bumps marina prices by 30%.

This of course is one reason why cost estimates vary wildly between posters, for instance an annual berth holder with 40 ft boat in say Lagos needs €9,800 more the I do on my mooring a few miles down the coast.

Have a Look at their marina prices to see how length affects required budget, remember to add 23% VAT. - http://www.marinadelagos.pt/EN/marina0105.aspx
 
GrahamM376 said:
+1

Our 38ft 376 with two en-suite heads is good for 4 people and I'm sure there are other similar designs around. Staying just under 12 metres makes economic sense, an extra metre often bumps marina prices by 30%.

This of course is one reason why cost estimates vary wildly between posters, for instance an annual berth holder with 40 ft boat in say Lagos needs €9,800 more the I do on my mooring a few miles down the coast.

Have a Look at their marina prices to see how length affects required budget, remember to add 23% VAT. - http://www.marinadelagos.pt/EN/marina0105.aspx
Click to expand...

That assumes you are going to use marinas. If your plans are for an Atlantic crossing and cruising over there, marina fees will not figure large in your budget. If you want to live on a boat loosely attached to land then obviously berthing is a big part of the budget. Equally if you want to use the canals both length and draft are constraints. It is still possible to cruise N Europe and much the Med without using expensive marinas.

So choice of boat and boat size depends on your plans as well as your wallet.
 
The idea is to use deserted bays as much as possible. We were staying in Elounda one year and opened the shutters and looked across Mirabello Bay and there was a yacht all alone and there it stayed for 2 or 3 days. Perfect shelter but not too far from civilisation should the need arise. I know that is just one bay but as Greece has 1'000s of such places anchoring shouldn't be a problem. Whilst we aren't an anti-social couple we are quite happy with our own company. Also the bigger the boat means we can get further away from each should the need arise. ;)
 
It's a shame a boating computer literate wiz kid hasn't produced a simple cost calculator iPad (or similar) computer app.
E.g. Section A:-
Boat length
Boat type (motor or sail or multihull)
Number of crew

Cruising area (UK, Uk-Inland waterways, Euro inland, Med-west, Med-east, Caribbean, )
% of time expected to be in:- Marinas, Harbours, river banks, anchored)
General food and drink shopping
Clothing and shoes

Breakfast number of times eating out per month
Lunch number of times eating out per month
Evening meal, number of times eating out per month.
Out for a few drinks how many evening per month.

Number of times per year expecting to travel home

Maintenance
% you do yourself
Yearly lift out cost
Insurance cost
Replacemement sails or engine once every (......years)
Sinking repair fund to save for monthly.

TOTAL Cost per Month ........................

Section B
A lookup refer to list of probable max & minimum costs for each item
(e.g. For evening meals out West Med area Between €3 and €40)
a drop down list for other already doing it to add comments about what their real world costs are, that can be referred to.
A box for the user to enter what they expect their cost would be. (E.g. €13 per person)
this figure (€13) would automatically calculate with number of people & times per month you expected to eat out.

Simples me thinks? ��
Modern programming can do wonders.
(I used to be able to draw up similar things with old clunky Excel spread sheets)
 
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would have to be really nerdy to do such a thing - even if you could get the data.

However, from time to time people have posted their personal spreadsheets of expenditure on the liveaboard forum. These tend to to confirm the sort of ranges suggested here.

For most, however the whole point of living this way is to escape all that nonsense. If after half a lifetime of managing to live, work, run a house, buy a boat etc it is not unreasonable to expect to be able to manage a cruising budget.
 
Tranona said:
For most, however the whole point of living this way is to escape all that nonsense. If after half a lifetime of managing to live, work, run a house, buy a boat etc it is not unreasonable to expect to be able to manage a cruising budget.
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+1

I gave up spreadsheets when I sold my business. Got to pretty sad to even want to do one as suggested by the OP.
 
I think you are all approaching this the wrong way.

The ethos of the thread is really "how can I get rid of my debts and commitments, and have sufficient money to live on and retire early without having to work"

You are trying to tackle that by selling your house and buying a large boat to live on.

I presume (given the forum we are on) you already have a boat, just perhaps not one that would be big enough to live aboard permanently.

So why not look at the alternative of sell up and move to somewhere where property prices and cost of living is substantially cheaper than where you are now, and probably downsizing to a smaller property at the same time.

That in many cases would free up enough of a lump sum to invest and live from, and you still have your boat to go sailing as much as you want.
 
ProDave said:
So why not look at the alternative of sell up and move to somewhere where property prices and cost of living is substantially cheaper than where you are now, and probably downsizing to a smaller property at the same time.

That in many cases would free up enough of a lump sum to invest and live from, and you still have your boat to go sailing as much as you want.
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Exactly what we did, by changing location from south Manchester to north Wales and downsizing (twice in 15 years), we put extra £200k into the kitty.
 
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