How much money would you have to invest in total to buy a yacht, all the associated gear and cover other expenses (unknown to me, but sure there are many) to start sailing the world? What would be a reasonable monthly budget for ongoing costs? Maybe leasing a yacht for a couple of years is possible?
I am a surfer with only a small amount of sailing experience. However when I start to think about what to do in my retirement, I often wonder if I could afford to live on a yacht and check out the South Pacific.
I would be looking at doing it safely and sensibly and getting a lot of experience and training before attempting such an adventure.
I terms of vessel, I would not embark on a macho mission on a marginal yacht. Not looking at a super yacht either. Something that you could sail solo if you had to and would house 4 people and do open ocean cruising in comfort and safety.
I would worry about hitting stuff. Zipping past suddenly surfacing whales at high speed while a passenger on an inter island speed boat in Indonesia was quite sobering. Maybe steel mono hulls or cats are safer for this reason?
best way to start is just go join your local club, start racing and move around boats until you find a skipper with the knowlage you want and he will pass it on.
As for boats, the best place to purchase a boat is BVI, they have hundreds for sale. Ex charter boats of around 40ft are very cheap, starting $50K not very old and go up. Stick with GRP and a boat with some speed, it gets very long and boring on a slow boat. Stick with a skeg keel on a well designed boat, the Benneteau designed by Farr would be a great boat fo instance.
This all depends on what comforts etc you want to live with.
Based on a 80k mono hull yacht.
If you want to live simple With No fridge , tv , alcohol , cigarettes etc.... And have no time frames so you can sail rather than motor also keeping out of marinas.....I would say $100 a week... rice, market grown fruit and veg and dried foods.
For me I have most luxuries TV , fridge , honda genset , diesel engine, beer in fridge ......etc i spend about $200 per week on food, fuel and beer. $2000 per year for insurance and rego .
You will need to be able to do all your maintenance and repairs for yourself as any work evolving boat yards will cost big bucks!
It is really hard to put a figure on what your asking , but after 5 years of living and sailing round Australia I have maintained a a reasonable life on about $200-$250 a week but this figure does not include marina fees , if I choose to visit a marina this can range from $70 to $250 per week on top of my living costs.
Thanks. $80k for a yacht and $250+/week to live. Done a bit of research and I could easily double the purchase price I think.
Something like this http://www.boatsales.com.au/boats-for-sale/boatdetails.aspx?R=12607328&Silo=Stock&Vertical=Boat&Ridx=7&eapi=2 would definitely do the job I think. Huge range of what you could spend on the yacht.
Add $5k - $10k per year for unknowns and I'm getting a feel for the kind of money involved. Just getting very rough ideas about cost of such an undertaking.
As an example. From those listings there is a 2005 Lagoon 41 in BVI $235k USD. Also listed a 2005 Lagoon 41 in Aus $331 USD.
From reading a little about it, with the huge numbers for sale, you can get them for up to 20% off the listed prices in BVI.
Prices in the Med are exceptionally good at the moment and as the European economy will continue to be stuffed for decades, it will likely always be a good place to buy. Again, could you think of a better place to spend some time choosing/learning a yacht? Then join a rally across the Atlantic building skills, down to the Caribbean, through the canal and all stops across the pacific. Yep, that's my retirement plan.
Thanks for the input. Gives me a great starting point. This would be years away but such a complex undertaking requires a lot of preparation and planning.
You plan sounds great FreeRadical. A bit of bog in that cat and I'm right to go!
