BootsnAll Travel Community

currently i am in the navy, after i finnish up my 4 years (3 left) i would really want to live out of a sailboat and travel, im not sure if this is a crazy idea, still kind of planning it out, right now i make a steady paycheck with being in military and all but, after that im not sure what i would do for income, yet at the same time the onlything i guess i would need is food/docking fees. i was thinking of going for the florida keys/virgin islands area. everyone i tell this idea to thinks im crazy, but i dont mind living poor if it means traveling and freedome.

Hi Kyle,

How much sailing experience do you have?

It really depends what you want to do with the boat. If your goal is crossing oceans (Called cruising among boaters), island hopping (weather window is small enough you can hop when the conditions are right) or just a floating home (Called living aboard.) Your purchase price and expenses are different depending on the use of your boat. If it never leaves the slip, or anchor it doesn't have to be a great sailer. If it is always within sight of land it doesn't need to be bullet proof... if you want to cross oceans... $$$.

As far as costs go, budget 10% of the replacement value of the boat per year in maintenance costs. Or guesstimate off a value of $500 (Spartan equipped) to 1k a foot length, divided by 10%. Count this as a cumulative cost, if you put it off its deferred till next year, but eventually you've gotta drop the cash. In addition to this you'll be hauling out once every 2-3 years to redo the bottom paint. This is a charge by the foot, plus the cost of the supplies and yard time (days). A lot of boatyards are going so you can't work on your own boat... which adds labor to the equation.

30 feet is about the smallest boat most folks consider for living aboard. Older than 25 years you can't get insurance on it... and insurance for the tropics during hurricane season is hard to get/expensive. Almost impossible to get on a wood hull over 25, ferrocement, or a home built steel hull. Home built cats, and trimarans fit in here of being hard to insure. A lot of folks go without, and keep the price low enough that if they lose the boat its a few years work to buy another. (What happens when you hit someone else, or someone gets hurt is worthy of soul searching... personal liability policies may be of interest.)

If you are on a budget the lowest cost way to go is living on the hook, or anchoring out. Anchorages are generally free, and the better the location the more populated. Except now you have to paddle to shore, and if you have a car find somewhere to keep it. No water supply so you have to carry your own out, and no power coming on board so you need either a generator, solar, or wind if you want the lights on. Anchorages are less protected from weather than docks, which often have breakwaters around them, so you rock and roll more. You also lose the shower house, and laundry area. You'll have to go to the dock to pump out the holding tanks from time to time or go out 3 miles from shore.

Dockage is done by the boat length per month, sometimes including power and water. (Cable and telephone are generally up to you) Prices vary by location. Best determined by calling around where you want to be, you'll have to ask their policy on living aboard. A lot of places won't permit it... and folks that do are called "sneakaboards" who do it anyway. A lot of marinas have waiting lists, particularly in cities where marinas are turning into condos. A lot of folks mix the two, and anchor out most of the time, and stop by the dock to take on water, pump out the tanks and do laundry.

Transient dockage is staying from a day to a week. Again priced by foot, this is more expensive per day than by the month. While you are moving a boat a lot of folks stick to anchoring out, and only come up to the dock when they need fuel/water. Down in the islands a lot of places charge for water, by the gallon. The anchorages are generally not clean enough for a watermaker to function (oil and such that messes up the membranes) so paying for it, or catching rain water is what folks do. Account for that...

Good resources:

Living aboard magazine:
http://www.livingaboard.com/
Forum - http://www.livingaboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

Cruisers forum:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/

Noonsite:
One stop shop for all the paperwork of going places. Regulation, visas, and all that good stuff...
http://www.noonsite.com/

Seven Seas Cruising Association:
A group of cruisers around the world, that stay connected with bulletins and updates of the global situations of interest to cruisers. Also have a decent forum.
http://ssca.org/cgi-bin/pagegen.pl?pg=home&title=Home

I highly recommend the US Power Squadron courses... cheap to take, and I always learn something. Before you buy a boat, realize asking prices are high, folks negotiate. 70-80% of asking is good for a first offer. Then get a surveyor. SAMS or NAMS accredited, and go over the boat with them. If there are any problems, beat down the price some more. (You'll need a survey for insurance. Do NOT rely on the sellers recent survey.)

Everything seems like an easy fix when you price it before you own the boat. Realize that complete replacement of any one system (Diesel engine, rigging, electrical system...) will cost series money. Just because you can fix it, doesn't mean that the time/money/effort wouldn't be better spent buying a more expensive boat that is in a lot better shape. You have been warned!

Boats trend +/- ___ dollars between the worst condition and best. Buy the absolute best you can find, even if it costs more than the average. All the parts and love put in by the last owner are sold at a discount. "55k spent last year, buy it now for 27k!" Don't buy a 22k boat that needs work and think you got a deal...

The definition of Cruising = Working on your boat in exotic places.

Have fun! You can do it, just get some miles under your keel on other folks boats. The waves sure get bigger the smaller the boat...

thank you, that was a lot of good information, this is something that i just learned about like a week ago from a freind, but i really want to do it, like i said i am in the navy right now and so i plan on taking full advantage of the resorces while i can, i am going to take sailing lessons and save up all the money i can on deployments (tax free money in international waters : ) ) but i really want to be as self seficiant as possible, im probably going to be living really poor, i was thinking of putting solar pannles and a windmill on it for power, as far as water goes i have not figured that one out yet. as far as where i go i plan on staying with in sight of shore and just going at most between islands. i have not figured out how i will make income yet, maybe just work at local shops or food places on islands or something

You probably want to get yourself a subscription to Lattitudes & Attitudes magazine.

I think that with sailboats its very wise to rent boats for at least a year before buying. This will give you time to ease into the lifestyle and take shorter trips to get used to the way boats handle-- and to live in different kinds of boats and see what's important and what's not important to you in the different designs.

What you think you want before you own a boat is probably going to be very different when you actually are using it, especially for this kind of travel. You might also plan on doing it in phases- first year rent from your sailing club and do 2-10 day trips in coastal waters, then for years 2-5 own a smaller boat and do longer trips (probably also living aboard) that last up to a couple months, or marina hopping up or down the coast... the thing here is to get experience with longer crossings before buying your bluewater boat (and also to make sure bluewater is what you really want). This phase could be done in the Caribbean pretty easy and renting boats there is easy too.

So, best advice is, read up as much as you can between now and when you're free of the Navy, take sailing lessons, and start taking short trips on rented boats if you can, and then ease into it...

I was pursuing a similar dream and spent about 7 years saving up and looking at boats, and then jumped in with both feet, only to find out that it wasn't the right thing for me for various reasons.

Boats are like politicians- its better to rent than to buy, until you're certain.