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Sustaining your cruising lifestyle???

14K views 54 replies 20 participants last post by  husfujdshg 
#1 ·
Hello everybody,

First I waned to thank everybody for all the great advice. I've been sailing for 10 years now but I am quite young (23). I don't have a lot of money, but I am preparing to buy a boat for long term cruising. Based on the advice from members of this community, I have set a goal for how much I need to spend on a boat and preparations, a realistic time frame to shoot for, and what to look for in a boat. That is not the problem.

I'm not worried about being able to travel long term as far as surviving on little money goes, what I'm worried about is when I want to buy a larger boat for more serious cruising. If I am sailing instead of working, how will I ever be able to upgrade?

I would like to ask how people here have made this possible? I don't really want to wait until retirement before I set out, but I would also like to be able to eventually buy a boat capable of major ocean passages.

Any advice???

Thanks!
 
#3 ·
Sail a little , work a little , sell boat , work a lot , work somemore , skrimp save plot and plan , work more , find bluewater boat , prep boat , prep self , prep funds to cruise ( means work ). Go cruise . Come back and repeat as needed.
My wife and I took some time off from cruising to have our first kid then number two came along , we sold our boat and moved closer to the inlaws for a few years to help out with the babies . Its a break we both knew we would have to take from the water. However we know we will be back cruising again someday soon. Maybe not as soon as we want to but when we are ready . Thoughts like homeschooling have been discussed and traveling jobs have been discussed. The hard part for us is not buying the next boat too soon. My wife almost jumped on a very nice Tayana last year and I was the voice of reason and talked her out of it . This year I seem to be the one with the bug and have been looking at Tartans in earnest. She has been reeling me in from buying the next boat too soon . It all boils down to timing.
If we wait a little longer our cruising days will be better we will have more boat more money and more time to enjoy it. The biggest peave I had last time we lived aboard was having to be at a certain place at a certain time (for work) and having to bypass places you wanted to go because you had to be somewhare by a certain time. Next time we go away from land I dont want to come back till I choose to . So we work , plot , plan ,skrimp ,save and look for the next boat but we are trying to be cautious this time around because we know what we want to do and what kind of boat we need to do it . We still sail on a daysailor , cant be completely removed from sailing that would suck . But the next cruiser will have to wait .
Now to answer your question " How do you upgrade when your sailing not working ?" I dont have the foggiest idea but when you find out let me know.

Best of luck
 
#4 ·
Sure fire ways to get out there...

A. Rob a bank
B. Marry a rich girl
C. Win the lotto
D. Go to work

There you have it, now get going

If you choose D, the biggest trap is spending money on all the 'stuff' of modern life. "I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast".
Live simply, on your boat, and save save save.
I'd recommend B
 
#5 ·
Willy,

You have just been given some good advise. You work for it!!!!

If your question is, how do you leave now and still spend lots of money upgrading along the way (without working) , good luck. I think that there are a few ways: rich relative dying and liking you: inventing a patentable item while dreaming your way across the water: or President Clinton adding a program for cruisers to improve their boats for the expanding family.

I think there may be work in your future. Good luck.
 
#7 ·
Beauty is only skin deep, rich goes all the way to the bank.
 
#8 ·
Another plan would be to develop a skill that other boaters need. Suppose you learned to be a diesel mechanic. You could make money fixing other peoples boats. You could even barter some for things like their new GPS plotter. Then, when you find a really nice boat with a blown engine, give them a low ball offer after telling them how much it will cost to replace their motor. :D
 
#20 ·
Another plan would be to develop a skill that other boaters need. Suppose you learned to be a diesel mechanic. You could make money fixing other peoples boats.. :D
I like this idea a lot. This requires about 2 years of school though doesn't it? Not that I'm opposed to that idea, just trying to gain an understanding.

Also, my current profession is in video/film production. I wonder what the market would be for a videographer to travel with cruisers and document their adventures??? anybody??
 
#9 ·
Funny, I was thinking about career choices for a youngster with cruising in mind and thought of diesel mech. Truck mechs make a lot of money. Boat yards are full of diesel boats and cruisers everywhere need help now and again with their motors & gens.
But then you'd have to get your hands dirty. B is still the preffered choice.
 
#10 ·
You can go now and pay later...
Or pay now and go later...
But you can't go now and never pay...unless you just get lucky.
I paid the price for 30 years after financing the $3k for my first boat but the dream never died.
Hard work and personal discipline is the answer along with a firm plan with milestones along the way.
 
#11 ·
My simple plan:

1. Higher education-talent inspired
2. Employment- work hard, save money/invest wisely
3. Find someone to love you (optional-but fulfilling)
4. Take care of home first - buy real estate smartly
5. Acquire small boat(s) to learn on (could be inserted anywhere above)
6. Trade up to larger boat(s)
7. When able and ready, cut the bowlines loose (keep the house for the inevitable return . . . or buy an RV)

Some of us never reach step 7.
 
#13 ·
Boring is what boring does. My list of extraneous adventures and countless vein-bulging thrills, are a sharp contrast to the ridgid structure of that plan.

Bottom line is, I may dream of "escaping" this life to sail away, and am capable of doing it, but am perfectly content to not have the need.
 
#29 ·
Promote goofy sailing adventure, preferably for one charity, erectile disfunction, or something gay and green, obtain sponsor, hire ghostwriter, sell video rights, get rich ... see, piece o' cake :D

Save the sea cucumber! :D
I have said this before in another thread. As a teenager I did a lot of sailing in a 22 foot Sea Sprite daysailor. When I was getting ready to do my first trans-Atlantic in 1974 I arranged sponsorship and had a Sea Sprite weekender built for the trip. That trip and the deals that made it possible started to come together in 1971 when I was only 18. She was not quite a stock boat but close to it. I had decided that sailing was what I wanted to do and turning my trips into sponsored events was the way I paid for everything. It was clear to me that if I did the conventional thing and worked first and then sailed after retirement I would be, as I am today old and tired when I started doing long distance sailing so I wanted to sail first and then retire from the world of professional sailing into a sailing related job and settle down. I never quite got the settle down part right but I did get into the boat design/build/repair business.

After that first trans-Atlantic and as part of the next sponsorship deal with Boodles Gin (General Wine And Spirits a division of Joseph E Seagram) I did some personal appearances, did game shows like "To Tell The Truth" and had a book written about the sailing I had done up until 1976. It was a way to pay for my habit but I don't think you will find it as easy to do today. In the early 70's it was easy to get some kind of record and attract sponsorship. Today it's become an expensive game and you need more then a simple gimmick to get real money. Unlike the 70's you need to do something instead of just surviving a trip as the youngest person to do that trip to sell a package to a sponsor.

On un-sponsored trips I sold some pictures to stock houses and did deliveries to raise some money during the trips. I also did boat repair and rigging which was in reasonable demand in out of the way places like Gambia on the west coast of Africa. It can be done even today but it's getting harder to finance trips today doing the same things that were easy 30 years ago. Now its easer to work a bit and save money and then sail while making some money along the way by teaching sailing, taking people out on day trips, giving talks at hotels and yacht clubs etc.
Good luck and all the best,
Robert Gainer
 
#17 ·
Don't go there TB! One skill I find that you could ply anywhere too is canvas. They ALWAYS need the canvas fixed, repaired, remade. If you learned a couple of these skills really well you'd be set. No substitute for hard work (oh yeah I forgot b. above), and these trades are hard work. But it would keep you near the water...
 
#19 ·
Get a skill (like database administator, code monkey, writer etc..) that you can do from home. Convince boss that home on the water is same as home of brick, convince boss that the only thing you can't do face to face is look 'em in the eye.

There is literally nothing I can't do from my boat that I do in the office.

That's how you sail and earn the money to stay out there. We're still in save mode, having just finished paying off the last of 5 college educations but it won't be long now :)

Seriously, it's a global jjob market, connectivity is global.
 
#21 ·
Go to sea commercially as I did. And I have been to many exotically named places around the world.
A. Acquire a "Z" card from USCG.
B. Get a job on the boats or ships.
C. After awhile you have enough time to get your license.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Nay! USCG, an honorable and well respected service ... you could do worse ... heck, your chances of gettin' smoked at the 7-11 while eatin' a moon pie are greater ... 'course, I don't recall anyone drownin' at the 7-11 ...

Yeah officer ... I turned my back and he jumped in the slurpee machine ... we pulled him out and I tried CPR but strawberry isn't my favorite flavor so he died ...

OTOH, love the mechanic/sail repair idea ... gonna do that myself and earn some spare change.
 
#28 ·
You got that right, XORT. I was a commercial/advertising photographer for 12 years. When Photoshop came out, everyone said "great!", I said "uh oh!". Soon after, digital cameras appeared and that was the writing on the wall, as far as I was concerned. I saw the jobs disappear to the in-house techies at nearly every company that I shot for. Good thing I learned how to tear apart an engine in 8th grade.:D
 
#32 ·
Yes that was I but don't spread it around. I didn't like the book and besides I have done lots of sailing since then and have gotten reasonably skilled at it. At least I haven't seen my obituary again. Besides I like my mention in the second edition of Richard Henderson's book on single handed sailing better anyhow. It's kind of vague as to why I am in the book and that suits my style better. You can't tell if I am an example of how to do it or how not to do it. It can go either way.
All the best,
Robert Gainer
 
#31 ·
Reading Mr. Gainer's comments I'm thinking that you have to look at the big picture now more than ever before. You need to be an inventor...of work, of jobs, of careers, of something nobody else is doing. Following the herd is going to lead you off a cliff.
So asking all us old farts is going to tell you what we did, past tense. And that will likely be old news.
Go out and invent something unique.
Good luck!
 
#33 ·
Sure thing Robert, I won't tell a soul. I don't want to ruin the ending anyway.:D I believe I read that book just before high school. I was really into the Bermuda Triangle and all its mysteries. If I remember correctly, I liked it! Now I am going to have to go out and buy another copy. Your royalty check is in the mail.
 
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