Tranona
Well-known member
Not sure we do. Just pointing out that the world changes and the baseline changes partly because the technology changes. People still inhabit different points on the spectrum, though.
Sailing around the world on a budget
- Thread starter Halcyon Yachts
- Start date
Frank Holden
Well-known member
Ah, the old 'sheep in the rigging' trick beloved by expedition yachts in the south.
Bit of a problem with that, sort of twofold. The expedition yacht season runs from December to February. The temps - at sea level - on TdF/Isla Navarino - where these expeditions start - in those months run from mins of about 5ºC to a max of about 15ºC.
The birds love it - this bloke was in residence on a neighbouring boat for a few hours.
newtothis
Well-known member
A decent slingshot and you have fresh hawk/eagle to go with the fresh meat.
John_Silver
Well-known member
MisterBaxter
Well-known member
Although, are the people cruising with no fridges as likely to be on this forum?
Roberto
Well-known member
Do they miss haggis?
Wansworth
Well-known member
Yes,what moor could you ask
Humblebee
Well-known member
Couple of points, don't think we've heard from the OP for a while, it would be interesting to hear his views on the above conversation. Or perhaps some more details as to his possible budget, thoughts on boat age and type, location etc? Might let us give some more targeted help.
Also, he might find some additional research useful. Plenty of good books on the subject, some mentioned above, here's another suggestion.
OP - where are you???
Amazon.co.uk : sailing on the cheap
Also, he might find some additional research useful. Plenty of good books on the subject, some mentioned above, here's another suggestion.
OP - where are you???
Amazon.co.uk : sailing on the cheap
Sea Change
Well-known member
To be honest, I'm not sure where they are.
I have yet to meet any full time liveaboard cruisers who don't have a fridge.
John_Silver
Well-known member
........running a successful business delivering boats around the globe?
(Going on @Halcyon Yachts ' YouTube videos, these are often of the high end, 'fully loaded,' variety. Which may have prompted the original question)
And starting excellent threads.....
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Sea Change
Well-known member
The OP is a professional delivery skipper who just wanted to kick start a conversation about how you would go about circumnavigating on a budget. I don't believe he is actually planning on doing this.
So to directly answer the question: personally, I would do a standard trade wind route, avoiding high latitudes. The Red Sea still seems pretty iffy so you're committing to rounding CoGH.
This is serious stuff. It's been done in small boats, but I think the savings to be had from choosing a tiny boat would start to seem pretty insignificant by the time you'd kitted it out and budgeted for the actual sailing.
I could envisage doing it on something like an Albin Vega, if I was on my own. The main limitations would be water tankage and provisions. You'd need a small roll up dinghy and you'd have to be pretty careful with power consumption.
You could pick up a scrappy example of such a boat for under £4k, but it might be better to buy a more loved one for up to double that. I would absolutely fit lithium batteries, there's no real cost saving to lead acid any more and the space and efficiency on that size of boat make it a no brainer.
Tillerpilots are rubbish so a wind vane would be high on the list.
There's a strong argument for fitting a Spectra or similar watermaker, in terms of space taken up it would pay for itself very quickly. They draw 8A which should be doable, just. The biggest reason not to fit one would be the outlay.
Of course you could spend a bit more on the boat and get something considerably more comfortable. Space, power, and tankage issues go away. You can carry more food, you can stay out at anchor longer. I'm not sure if a sub 30ft boat actually is the sweet spot for low budget cruising. You could spent, say, £15k total rather than ~£12k and have an entirely different experience.
BobnLesley
Well-known member
How? Why were you even using it?
Perzactly! With sufficient cold beer you're beyond using Starlink and don't need fresh water
nestawayboats
Active member
Late to this party but enjoyed skimming through much of the above. I lived on a Rustler 31 for two years or so, did an Atlantic Circuit. Even then 31ft was small.
So going back to the OP, we paid £15k for the boat, probably spent another £5k getting it nearer to ready (not actually ready), then left. That is year 2000 ish Pounds. We didn't die. Rather enjoyed ourselves in fact.
Much of the lavish upgrade budget was spent on a... {small} fridge... an Aquair generator that could be switched between towing at sea or hoisted up in the rigging as a wind generator, a Lavac toilet because the original SL one was too grim to contemplate, a diesel hob because we didn't want gas (massive mistake in hindsight, made cabin too warm, and it broke), and a spray hood. We didn't have the money for an EPIRB or separate life raft, although we had inherited with boat a Tinker Tramp with gas bottle emergency inflation and a life raft canopy (we set this up on the quay at La Gomera and with 3 of us in it decided a fast drowning would be a better way to go).
The Aries (servo pendulum windvane steering) also inherited with boat was a bit knackered but got us across the Atlantic in both directions, and making good passage speeds (faster than many "bigger" boats). But a Rustler 31 has a very long keel and we went the two foresail route in the Trades (never hoisted the main) so she nearly steered herself anyway. The tillerpilot type electronic ones, we had a couple, they broke.
As an aside I note that the guy who just won the Mini Globe 580 Transat race almost never hand-steered his 20ft plywood boat (which is not going to be particularly directionally stable), think he has a Hydrovane, and appears to be in the lead again for the next leg to Panama. But again I think the faster ones in that event are all using no or reduced mainsail. And the slower ones who appear to have been hand steering more may just not be as good/experienced at sailing that type of boat.
The Aquair in towing mode made more power than we could use. Pulling it back on board when the batteries were 100% charged either meant slowing down which was not really an option we were willing to consider, or dicing with (finger) death. So we often just left it and ran our fridge with the lid off as a means to make it less efficient ie use the spare power, and as a poor form of air conditioning. Once out there we often chose windier anchorages on purpose so that the Aquair in wind mode (which wasn't as good as towing mode) could still generate cold beer. I think solar panels were more expensive then.
We briefly had a watermaker, picked up secondhand in the Canaries, but gave up on it. I'm sure they're better and less complicated to keep running by now.
As others have said the French Caribbean islands were an oasis of relatively inexpensive French food. Places like the BVIs and Antigua we couldn't really afford food so lived mainly on rum and whatever was left in the lockers. Places like Venezuela and Cuba we couldn't spend money but it was useful to have things like cans of Coke to trade for fish and lobster.
When I go again it will be on a bit bigger boat but almost certainly 40ft max, probably less, definitely still a monohull, and I'm not sure how much complication I'd want to add. I am unconvinced that I'd want Starlink, we didn't even know about September 11th until September 16th and were probably better off for it. But more cold beer (and perishable food) storage capacity would have been good.
So going back to the OP, we paid £15k for the boat, probably spent another £5k getting it nearer to ready (not actually ready), then left. That is year 2000 ish Pounds. We didn't die. Rather enjoyed ourselves in fact.
Much of the lavish upgrade budget was spent on a... {small} fridge... an Aquair generator that could be switched between towing at sea or hoisted up in the rigging as a wind generator, a Lavac toilet because the original SL one was too grim to contemplate, a diesel hob because we didn't want gas (massive mistake in hindsight, made cabin too warm, and it broke), and a spray hood. We didn't have the money for an EPIRB or separate life raft, although we had inherited with boat a Tinker Tramp with gas bottle emergency inflation and a life raft canopy (we set this up on the quay at La Gomera and with 3 of us in it decided a fast drowning would be a better way to go).
The Aries (servo pendulum windvane steering) also inherited with boat was a bit knackered but got us across the Atlantic in both directions, and making good passage speeds (faster than many "bigger" boats). But a Rustler 31 has a very long keel and we went the two foresail route in the Trades (never hoisted the main) so she nearly steered herself anyway. The tillerpilot type electronic ones, we had a couple, they broke.
As an aside I note that the guy who just won the Mini Globe 580 Transat race almost never hand-steered his 20ft plywood boat (which is not going to be particularly directionally stable), think he has a Hydrovane, and appears to be in the lead again for the next leg to Panama. But again I think the faster ones in that event are all using no or reduced mainsail. And the slower ones who appear to have been hand steering more may just not be as good/experienced at sailing that type of boat.
The Aquair in towing mode made more power than we could use. Pulling it back on board when the batteries were 100% charged either meant slowing down which was not really an option we were willing to consider, or dicing with (finger) death. So we often just left it and ran our fridge with the lid off as a means to make it less efficient ie use the spare power, and as a poor form of air conditioning. Once out there we often chose windier anchorages on purpose so that the Aquair in wind mode (which wasn't as good as towing mode) could still generate cold beer. I think solar panels were more expensive then.
We briefly had a watermaker, picked up secondhand in the Canaries, but gave up on it. I'm sure they're better and less complicated to keep running by now.
As others have said the French Caribbean islands were an oasis of relatively inexpensive French food. Places like the BVIs and Antigua we couldn't really afford food so lived mainly on rum and whatever was left in the lockers. Places like Venezuela and Cuba we couldn't spend money but it was useful to have things like cans of Coke to trade for fish and lobster.
When I go again it will be on a bit bigger boat but almost certainly 40ft max, probably less, definitely still a monohull, and I'm not sure how much complication I'd want to add. I am unconvinced that I'd want Starlink, we didn't even know about September 11th until September 16th and were probably better off for it. But more cold beer (and perishable food) storage capacity would have been good.
bergie
Active member
We kind of just had to have a rum and coke on the Isle of Rum
BobnLesley
Well-known member
But that's Scotland... In February! Just break an icicle of something, or leave your coke outside until it freezes
mjcoon
Well-known member
Unless your fridge is plumbed-in such that it dumps the extracted heat overboard (and not into the cabin) it is not going to operate as air-con at all!
robmcg
Well-known member
Interesting.........we have a complete Aquair on board but not installed (it came with the boat). Been contemplating if it was worth installing. Perhaps I should
. Did you run it through a regulator? I think, in water mode, a regulator is not recommended but not sure.DownWest
Well-known member
When you think of the origens of it, there weren't any fridges or freezers then, just a way of preserving the bits from the pig killing.Chorizo doesn't need to be kept in a freezer. You could have had more room for ice to go in your rum and ting.
When we chartered a Benny 46 for a cruise around the Outer Sporades it had a fridge/freezer that ran off an engine compressor. Didn't matter, as we ran the engine often for entering ports etc. But hardly a 'cruising' system.
For cool beer around the UK, just trail the bottles/cans in a net behind the boat, or, in the outboard well if on a real budget boat.
On pigs... I happened to following a car full of tourists when we passed a mob of people by a junction. The tourists were all trying to see what was happening and slowed to see.
Well, the was a gap in the mob, just in time to see the pig getting the 'coupe de grace'... The reaction from the car in front was 'interesting'...swerved away and raced off.
Bit too much local colour..
Sea Change
Well-known member
In theory, yes, but the shop bought chorizo we use doesn't even survive being in the slightly warmer door section of the fridge. Best thing is to put it in the freezer.
On what proportion of the circumnavigation will that prove effective?
Wansworth
Well-known member
Come to Galicia all your food requisitos catered for offshore sailing,hard baked bread,chorizos and cured hams…..