Cap'n Ric ,, your budget is not everyone's budget. While I agree cruising
isn't as cheap as some think, many are off cruising for far less than you
spend.

Are they as comfortable as you? Probably not. Do they have as nice a boat
as yours? Probably not, make that deffinitely not.

But they are traveling about in their sailboat.

Does the poster plan on buying the boat and then living on the income from a
$100,000 portfolio? That would only give him about $10,000 per year to live
on. If the boat is paid for, and all up to date, with a part time job I
think a single could do this. A couple can do it even easier. Two people
working part time, with a home paid for, with a guarantee of $10,000 coming
in .. that might work.

If each worked part time and they both earn around $12,000 per year. That
is $24,000 plus the $10,000 from investment .. might work.

They would need a very simple boat, live without much. I'm not sure about
the health insurance. One reason the rest of the developed world can go off
and we Americans are stuck is because of our health care system. On the one
hand ( treatment, doctors, nurses, medicine ) it is the best in the world ..
and on the other hand .. the cost etc, it sucks.

There are a few books about that show how a couple can live very cheaply.

They aren't renting cars, going out the restaurants, etc though.

It is all about the choices one makes.

I think I would fall in the middle. Your budget is way more than I spend.
But, I don't want to be at the bottom end either.




"Cap'n Ric" wrote in message
news:Md1hh.2689$aD6.2375@trndny02...
If you intend to live at a level above a wharf rat a $100,000 will last
less than three years. I'm a full time liveaboard cruiser and I have spent
$51,000 year to date just on basics and boat expenses I'm also paying for
a son at an expensive college. I worked hard and invested well years ago
and have an investment income in excess of what I spend annually.


I have a fully equipped 2003 Beneteau 473 sailboat with extensive
navigation and communication gear, water maker, genset, RIB, Satellite TV,
Phone, Internet. Some simple figures on an annual basis:


Twenty Year loan for boat (After over $125K down payment): $16,008

Annual Insurance agreed hull, with liveaboard coverage, extended cruising
area: $3,500

Health Insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield (Family coverage to include
college student son): $5,100

Fuel Charges (Average) @ $2.50 per gallon: 900 * 2.50 = $2,250

Annual Maintenance Budget( Zincs, Synthetic Oil, filters, bottom paint
(Haul out every 2 years): $1,500

Annual Repair Budget: $7,000

Mooring charges (60 days at $35) $2,100

Transient slip charges (30 days at $125): $3,750

That comes to $41,208 and you haven't eaten, bought clothes, rented a car,
taken a cab. . . . .nothing. Let's say you can eat for $100 a week. That
brings us up to $47,000.


I'll get off my soap box now but too many people think they can do this on
$100,000 for the rest of their life. If you only have two years to live
then you are correct. I also see a lot of people writing that "real
cruisers" don't go to marinas or get mooring balls - They anchor out!!
I've done this for eight years and I won't make any apologies, I live
well. If it is rough, hot, raining, high winds and/or lightening and I'm
near a port with nice floating docks and transportation to a good
restaurant then that is where I'm heading. That is what having a larger
budget for doing this allows. Forgive me but owning a large boat and
sailing around the world for years is not a God given right. First you
have to work and earn enough to be able to do this or have a job that
allows you to work while you are cruising. You can see the sunken
derelicts all along the ICW and in many anchorages and harbors around the
world of people that tried to do this without sufficient funds.

Cap'n Ric

S/V Sezaneh

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 03:01:16 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

There are a few books about that show how a couple can live very cheaply.

They aren't renting cars, going out the restaurants, etc though.

It is all about the choices one makes.

Yes, and the choice is to live somewhere that resembles a floating
trailer park. Not pretty, and the towns are getting fed up. That
makes it more difficult for the rest of us who maintain our boats and
move on after a few days. This whole notion of being able to cruise
the world on the cheap is a complete myth.

Wayne ,, you are showing a rather ugly side here. Do you have something
against people who live in trailer parks?

When you stop by Dunkin Donuts, do you call the employees losers? I bet
many of them live in trailer parks.

The "towns are getting fed up" . Classic "not in my backyard" thinking.
Oh, it is ok to pay next to nothing for to the lady who drives your kids to
school, the school janitor, the guy down at Dunkins, the employee of Walmart
............

As long as you don't have to associate with these people ... and for
heaven's sake you don't want "them" anywhere near the water.


I for one would rather dock next to someone who is busting their ass at
Dunkin Donuts and has an old sailboat than some Trustfund Baby who never
worked a day in his/her life.

Don't be too critical of the sailors who are at the bottom of the docking
order.

================================================== =====
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 03:01:16 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

There are a few books about that show how a couple can live very cheaply.

They aren't renting cars, going out the restaurants, etc though.

It is all about the choices one makes.

Yes, and the choice is to live somewhere that resembles a floating
trailer park. Not pretty, and the towns are getting fed up. That
makes it more difficult for the rest of us who maintain our boats and
move on after a few days. This whole notion of being able to cruise
the world on the cheap is a complete myth.

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:23:14 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

Don't be too critical of the sailors who are at the bottom of the docking
order.

Don't be too critical of my comments until you have been to south
Florida and seen some of what I speak.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:23:14 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

Don't be too critical of the sailors who are at the bottom of the docking
order.

Don't be too critical of my comments until you have been to south
Florida and seen some of what I speak.


They can't be much worse, if any, than some of the boats in LA Harbor,
Wilmington CA. But even if they are floating wrecks just barely habitable --
so? Can only the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" aspirants own and live
aboard boats? I've seen perfectly maintained boats that I considered to be
uglier than sin -- shouldn't I be able to do something about them?

Not in what used to be a free country. In America today, probably so.

Wayne ,, not only have I been to south Florida, I lived there for a short
time.

And yes, there were some who I would not want near my boat.

But don't paint a broad brush .. not everybody is rolling in money and some
of the bottom dwellers are the best people on the water.

================


"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:23:14 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

Don't be too critical of the sailors who are at the bottom of the docking
order.

Don't be too critical of my comments until you have been to south
Florida and seen some of what I speak.

"NE Sailboat" wrote in message
news:rSzhh.2736$JL5.1725@trndny03...
Wayne ,, not only have I been to south Florida, I lived there for a short
time.

And yes, there were some who I would not want near my boat.

But don't paint a broad brush .. not everybody is rolling in money and
some of the bottom dwellers are the best people on the water.

================

Besides, the worse the neighbor's boat looks, the better mine looks. ;-)

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:04:23 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

But don't paint a broad brush .. not everybody is rolling in money and some
of the bottom dwellers are the best people on the water.

If you want to park your boat in someone elses backyard or community
then you have an obligation to also be a good neighbor. That means
keeping your boat in respectable condition and observing a few other
social niceties. If you can do that on the cheap, great, but most
people can't. Being a good person is all well and good but not
totally relevant to whether or not you can keep your boat up, and be
regarded as an asset to the community rather than a liability.

"NE Sailboat" wrote in
news:Sfzhh.1429$Pq4.692@trndny08:

Wayne ,, you are showing a rather ugly side here. Do you have
something against people who live in trailer parks?

When you stop by Dunkin Donuts, do you call the employees losers? I
bet many of them live in trailer parks.

The "towns are getting fed up" . Classic "not in my backyard"
thinking. Oh, it is ok to pay next to nothing for to the lady who
drives your kids to school, the school janitor, the guy down at
Dunkins, the employee of Walmart ...........

As long as you don't have to associate with these people ... and for
heaven's sake you don't want "them" anywhere near the water.


I for one would rather dock next to someone who is busting their ass
at Dunkin Donuts and has an old sailboat than some Trustfund Baby who
never worked a day in his/her life.

Don't be too critical of the sailors who are at the bottom of the
docking order.


Wow, Wayne gets ugly some times. Some of us simply have no need for a
showy mortgaged mansion that drains away whatever you make. I'm always
amused that people living in houses where you can't hear the grand piano in
the drawing room back in the kitchen spend most weekends at the "floating
trailer park" living in a 1 bedroom shack with a mast sticking out of it
and telling each other how wonderful it is.

This afternoon, instead of working for more mortgage bankers, I'm screwing
off in my nasty ol' "trailer" on the riverfront across the Ashley River
from historic Magnolia Plantation enjoying the view with the door open.
It's 72F on the river at 1430. I got back from the seawall a few minutes
ago to check my email.

I don't consider me "at the bottom of the docking order" at all. I'm proud
of all who feed the bankers/doctors/lawyers/politicians working 60 hours a
week, and more power to them. But, which of us is "at the bottom" this
very instant as the nice, tropical breeze moving through the Spanish Moss-
crowned Southern Oaks in my yard is wafting those wonderful flower smells
from the gardens at Magnolia through my open doors into my "nav station" of
the Oakwood 70 dock condo? Which of us is working on his first heart
attack?....No thanks!

Gotta go, now. I'm driving my Mercedes to Eastern Buffet for a late lunch
and gotta go check the mail before the UPS man shows up with my GPS antenna
about 4:30, his usual time.

Life is great! Sorry some missed it.

I might install the Garmin into the stepvan, later...

Wayne.B wrote in
:

If you want to park your boat in someone elses backyard or community
then you have an obligation to also be a good neighbor. That means
keeping your boat in respectable condition and observing a few other
social niceties. If you can do that on the cheap, great, but most
people can't. Being a good person is all well and good but not
totally relevant to whether or not you can keep your boat up, and be
regarded as an asset to the community rather than a liability.




One of my favorite pictures I took in the FL ICW north of St Augustine is
of this great Florida Cracker family sitting on their dock in lawn chairs
watching 6 kids jumping into the ICW, screaming and yelling and having a
great time in front of their old mobile home, cluttered with old trucks,
junk and about 8 small boats, 2 of them tied to the dock. Daddy had his
beer in a coozy taking the occasional sip and Mom had a butt hangin' out of
her mouth. Both looked so content.....

Next door was a veritable Spanish-style mansion. There was a 3 car garage,
separate from the main house, a Spanish courtyard with fountain bubbling
away. A perfectly manicured-by-Mexican-Illegals putting green of a lawn
stretched from the main house to the seawall on the ICW. A beautifully-
made dock adorned the seawall, but it looked like noone had ever caught a
fish or dumped out a crab trap on its unused, unweathered surface. Of
course, "House Beautiful" had noone sitting outside enjoying the beautiful
afternoon watching the boats go by, like the next door neighbors. Their
kids must have been at the golf club with the pro spending Daddy's money.

I'll bet Doctor Wonderful would kill those Cracker kids next door if he
thought he could get away with it.....(c;

Daddy Cracker and I exchanged salutes with our coozies as we motored the
Endeavour 35 past his dock... His kids waved, then jumped off the end of
the dock, again, holding their nose....