Captain Cat Funds a Boat

Captain Cat Funds a Boat

Couldn’t be simpler – here’s my plan:

1. Get a job, 80-100 hours or so per week is best*.
2. When you can’t fit any more money in the bathtub, get out the wheelbarrow.
3. Load cash into barrow, wheelie it down to the main street and put it in something called a bank account.
4. When the numbers in the account equal the price of your dream boat – your boat is funded!
5. Quit job.
6. Invest money.
7. Research and shop for boat (meanwhile training, studying, preparing self to cruise)…
8. … aaaaaaaaaaaand… buy one!

The plan is coming along nicely. Frankly, I’m a genius. 

And the radioactive glower coming at me from the Can Opener is inexplicable.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

* as in get the First Mate to get a job.

Balancing the Budget

Captain Cat: I’m feeling like a break, some time off – a little lower and under the shoulder blade with the scritches, thank you – perhaps a spa day with jacuzzi? A Christmassy evening at the Fat Duck?

Can Opener: Nothing doin’. Budget’s barely inching ahead – we can’t afford it with your appetite.

Captain Cat: Who said anything about ‘we’, young Can Opener? 

–transcribed by the Can Opener

Going to a Lecture On: How To Survey A Boat

Not getting a good yacht survey can cost you a bundle

 We’re off (Where’s my sceptre and cape? The wiley Can Opener has hidden them!)  to a lecture tonight on how to survey a boat before you buy it. 

It’s at the Cruising Association down at Limehouse Marina. 

We’ll learn how to conduct a thorough inspection of a yacht or small craft. Or at least whatever we can learn in a two hour lecture. (Then we’ll come home and keep reading/snoozing on Don Casey’s Sailboat Maintenance Manual!)

We need to know what to look for when we are narrowing down options to the last one or two picks.

And since small boat surveying is entirely unregulated, it’s a fine idea to know about as much as about it as we possibly can and not rely totally on the surveyor we bring in for the final pre-buy inspection of the yacht-of-our-dreams. 

We might actually find the best surveyor ever. We might not. If you don’t know much about surveying yourself, it’s hard to tell.

Even if we do find the best surveyor on earth, they’re only human and could miss something. It’s our pocketbook on the line and us that will be living with any flaws that get missed. We need to know about surveying too.

I’m packing the Can Opener’s rucksack full of notebooks, highlighters, pens and smoked oysters. He’ll be taking copious notes for me at the lecture… and directing a constant stream of mollusks toward me to ensure the delicate balance of my electrolytes.

All in all he’s a good First Mate. His recent performance has been quite satisfactory. (If he just relinquishes my cape,) I’ll consider giving him a gold star. 

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener) 

Cruising Lecture Notes

Next: The Wrong Seacocks Can Sink Your Boat
Previously: Cruising in Greece: Pluses, Minuses & Quirks

Capable Cruiser – Reviewed

links below at bottom of post

 

Book the Captain just finished snoozing on: Capable Cruiser

Previously snoozed on: Cost Conscious Cruiser – and loved it

Okay. I love the Pardeys, I’m a big fan. I zipped right through another book in this ‘series’ called Cost Conscious Cruiser. I slept on the cover for a mere 3 afternoon naps and the contents filtered right up into my brain, no problemo.

Their philosophy of simplicity and downsizing spoke to my furry heart. It had large sections that could be described as ‘introduction to lifestyle’ themed. So often not so tough to get through.

CapableCruiser is dense – and that’s good

Have to admit though that I pushed myself at times to get through Capable Cruiser. It’s focus leans more towards seamanship, anchoring and repairs. All of it critical info to know, but denser to absorb.

How to buy a yacht, medical issues, life at sea, getting along with crew are discussed too (these I could get through in a single night’s delightful beauty rest).

While I will probably not buy a boat with a bowsprit, absorbing Larry’s detailed descriptions of the pros and cons and how to add one to your yacht (if you decide to) is important to get through at least once. Ditto the section on tenders, steering failures and repairs at sea.

Conclusion

So I got through it and am glad I did. A good add to the sea library.

I’m handing it over to the Can Opener as required reading and I’ll probably snooze on Capable Cruiser again some time next year.

Got a good recommendation for the sea library?

What books are a must for the cruising life?

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Book Reviews
Next: Self Sufficient Sailor  
Previously: Cost Conscious Cruiser

In the US

In the UK

How Much Boat? – Country Entry Fees vs Boat Length

 
Part 4 (of 4) of  How Much Boat? – Boat Fees vs Length
 

Another cost check – country entry fees vs boat length

Customs of various countries can ask for boat ‘entry fees’ upon arrival. While researching marina fees in the Bahamas, I found that the Bahamas charges $150.00 for boats up to 35 feet to enter the country, and the fee for boats over 35 feet is $300.  


Which got me thinking… is 35 feet a common price change point? Does this happen often enough to shop for boats that are 34 feet long or less? Or is there another ‘price change point’ based on length?

Not a deal breaker I guess… but if every country – or a lot of countries – does/do this, then it could add up.

So after checking fees info at noonsite.com, here are a few samples of reported charges by customs at various country entry points:

Europe

France

• Tolls are due on waterways – no info as to whether or not it is based on length

Spain 

• Harbour fees are charged in most ports – no info as to whether or not it is based on length

Ireland

• annual dues for Irish and British yachts is £86
• other yachts pay £29 for each period of 30 days up to a total amount of £86

Caribbean

Anguilla

All yachts must pay for a cruising permit  – sample pricing:

• up to 5 tons – 1 week – $150
• 5 to 20 tons – 1 week – $600 
• over 20 tons – 1 week – $900

Bahamas

• charges $150.00 for boats up to 35 feet
• fee for boats over 35 feet is $300

Dominican republic

• clearing in – $43.00 per boat
• tourist Card per crew member (valid 30 days) – $10.00

St Kitts & Nevis

• customs charges EC$20

Turks & Caicos

• clearance fee is $15
• there is also a charge of $75 for the cruising permit

North America

Canada

• at St John’s, overtime is charged for customs clearance between 0000-0800, approximately Can$60 if arrival is after midnight
• otherwise, it looks like mostly ‘no’.

USA

• yachts without a cruising licence and longer than 30 ft (9 m) LOA must pay an annual fee of US$27.50
• other fees vary by state but none seem to be based on the length of the boat

South Pacific Islands

Fiji

• cruising permit: FI$5
• Lau Group Permit: USD10 per day
• health clearance fee of $F33.75 (to be paid to the hospital)
• F$20 incineration fee to Agriculture (Quarantine) for disposal of prohibited food – payable even if you have none
• a fee if entering any of the ports of Suva, Lautoka, Savusavu and Levuka – vessels up to 100 tonnes pay a maximum of $F14.45

New Caledonia

• no fees

New Zealand

• charge for time and mileage to inspect boats
• there are fees for visas and extensions to the visitor’s permit
• fees for quarantine inspections

Conclusion

So… nope. No correlation here between length and country entry charges levied after all. Which I guess is good news. Looks like the Bahamas is an outlier. It was worth a quick check to be sure.

Had there been consistently higher charges for boats over 35 foot length (or over 30 foot in length, etc), it could have been a real incentive to look for a boat specifically measuring 29.5 feet long, or 34.5 feet long etc.

But no ‘common price change point based on length’ to be found. 
  


The biggest constraints on length

It looks like the biggest constraints for us on ever-increasing length are:

• increasing costs per foot for just about everything else – mooring fees, haul outs, repairs and maintenance, insurance…
• increasing power with greater sail area – we want to keep the length down so that it remains well powered for solo sailing

Can you think of any other constraining factor that might persuade someone to choose a boat juuuuuust on the right side of some criteria or other? Let me know.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener) 


Previously:
How Much Boat? – Annual Marina Fees vs Length, Part 3 (of 4)   
How Much Boat? – Daily Marina Fees vs Length, Part 2 (of 4)  

How Much Boat – Marina Rates vs Length, Part 1 (of 4)

* All fees data from noonsite.com

Cost Conscious Cruiser – Reviewed

links below at bottom of post

  Book the Captain just finished snoozing on: Cost Conscious Cruiser   


Required reading. A classic. I’ve snoozed on this book before, but this time through it seemed even more useful and thorough. 
 

All of Lin and Larry Pardey’s gems and nuggets of wisdom percolated up through my fur and into my brain over the span of a few deep sleeps. I awoke each morning refreshed and intrigued by their insights. The Pardeys make a persuasive case for simplicity and downsizing. 
 

They back up their recommendations with cost-benefit analyses, observations, surveys and their own experience. Very well laid out, clear and concise.
 

Downsizing

The Pardeys advocate buying a smaller (preferably second hand) boat in order to get out cruising faster and be able to stay out longer – cruising funds stretch farther with a shorter boat. they do the cost analysis to demonstrate this dramatically. Smaller boats cost less every step of the way.
 

Simplicity

They recommend eliminating unnecessary boat systems to ‘make your boat unstoppable’ – to cut down on the number of breakdowns experienced. No fridge, no electronic media entertainment, no electric watermaker or autohelm. A tiller instead of wheel steering. Rethink everything and eliminate whatever you can is their mantra. 
 

The Pardeys even eliminated a flush toilet in favour of the ‘bucket and chuck-it’ method. Something I may decide to introduce the Can Opener to. Sounds not unlike using kitty litter…    
 

Build necessary systems that are optimised and simplified is their corollary. They offer several solutions in detail with great diagrams that they have used successfully for many years on their own boat.
 

One mysterious note

The Pardeys refer to an average monthly spend for cruisers of $1000/month – in a book that was copyright in 1999. Over on the Shards’ Distant Shores blog: ‘Budget for Cruising’ post in 2011, the Shards estimate that ‘budget cruisers’ spend about $1000-1500/month and ‘beans and rice cruisers’ do it for $800-1000/month. 
 

It sounds like budgets haven’t changed too much in 12 years. Hmm.

• Could this be explained by different definitions of ‘budget’ cruising? Probably. 
• Do the Shards refer to Canadian dollars? Unlikely and CAN$ are currently nearly par with USD anyway. 
• Do these budgets differ in their inclusion/exclusion of major repairs and parts and upkeep in the monthly budget? Most certainly. 
• It could also be that $1000/month is a nice round number and people in their surveys self-report to the number they feel comfortable with. There may be a disconnect between planned spend and actual spend if accounts are eyeballed instead of being meticulously tracked. This would help explain the number of people that overrun their budgets and wind up heading home sooner than planned. Apparently it happens a lot.

Conclusion

Overall, this book is my best addition to the library yet. 
 

I’m gonna slip this under the Can Opener’s pillow and watch the results. He says you need to open books up to get their full value. The Can Opener’s a bit quirky that way.     


Personally, I find closed books provide a less slippery, more stable sleeping surface. 




  –Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Book Reviews 

Next: Capable Cruiser

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A New Perspective

I grew to judge every purchase by 
how many bronze screws I could buy for the boat 
if I didn’t spend on this or made do without that.

― Lin Pardey, 
Bull Canyon, A Boatbuilder, a writer and other Wildlife

Words to live by from the great Lin Pardey in her most recent work. I had a good snooze on that book last week. 

I’m due for a catnap… off to stretch out on an earlier Pardey book, The Cost Conscious Cruiser. Just arrived today in the mail!

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

How Much Boat? – Marina Fees vs Length

 

Part 1 (of 4) of  How Much Boat? Boat Fees vs Length

 

Captains’ Log

Stardate: 201195

Far worse than I feared. My First Mate, Can Opener, persists in obdurate lunatic ravings against the draft of my three-storey starcruiser yacht design.

How long can this continue? I may soon be forced to admit that for him there is no hope and no antidote… has he really gone off the planetary deep end this time?

Cost effective? One-storey? Monohull? What mad science is this?

Here below, a sad excerpt from the Can Opener’s notes and calculations found only last night while I was searching for an informative book to snooze upon:

‘What is a cost effective length of boat?

Is there a ‘most cost effective length of boat’ when considering ongoing ‘running costs’, for example, marina costs? Obviously costs increase in general as boats get longer.

But I wonder –

is this a straight-line increase?

Or are there a step change increases around boat ‘length categories’ that mean a slightly longer boat at a marina could have the same approximate cost as a shorter boat?

If so, where (in what regions) is this true?

How was the sample done?

This is not intended to be a definitive last word analysis of worldwide marina fees. It was done relatively quickly with enough data to look for tendencies only.

I collected daily and annual marina base rates from a sample of 26 marinas across 5 popular cruising regions: England, the Mediterranean, the Bahamas, the US and Fiji. (I aimed for the cheaper Med countries: Portugal, Croatia, Greece. Also included Malta.)

Costs were estimated for boats of every length from approx. 8.5m to 14.5m (from 28 ft to 50 ft). Sales taxes were included in prices; electric, water charges etc were not.

Annual marina rates were also recorded – since the corollary to the above question is: what region would be most cost effective to do a year’s refitting in? Marina rates will be an important part of this answer as well.

This sampling covers relatively few marinas and regions and is only intended to identify a significant trend in pricing ‘step changes’, if any.

I only sampled marinas that have websites and that also post their rates online (not a given). Some good bargains at smaller marinas without websites were probably missed.  


I completely skipped the superyacht websites too. Of course.

Results

Only the Mediterranean marinas seemed to often price by length categories. These categories were usually: <10m (<33ft), 10-12m (33-39ft), 12-14m (40-45ft), 14-16m (46-52ft)… So a boat that is just under 12m (39 ft) would be charged the same as a boat just over 10m long (33 ft).

Some marinas in England and US have price/length categories, but most just offer a flat per metre (per foot) rate. In England if there were length categories, they tended to be ‘under 10m (30 ft)’ and ‘over 15m (50 ft)’ – but this was not consistently seen.

In the US if there were length categories, they tended to be ‘under 35 feet (10.5m)’ and ‘over 50 feet (15m)’ – this didn’t have too much impact on the daily rates, but showed up more in the annual marina fees (of this decidedly small sampling).

The Bahamas and Fiji seemed to consistently price a flat per length increment rate.

Is there a magical length of boat to optimise costs?

Maybe. I guess if we planned to just cruise in the Med, it might make sense to pick a boat just under 10m (eg. 32ft), just under 12m (eg. 39ft) or just under 14m (eg. 45ft) versus something slightly longer.

If we planned to primarily cruising along the US coasts, a 34ft (or 10m) or 49ft (or 15m) yacht might enjoy some relative gains that are greater than the joy of having one extra foot of length.

But we are heading for ‘destination anywhere and everywhere’.

Although the relative cost per metre/foot goes down as the boat gets longer, the total cost to stay at a marina dock per night keeps going up and up…  QED.

Note to self – further research?

Are there online databases or guidebooks with more comprehensive marina rate listings all in one place?

It was surprisingly difficult to find this information online… ‘

What further evidence of the Can Opener’s ongoing ravings will I find? Such is my concern for my dear First Mate that I have booked a vet appointment for him tomorrow.

He thinks he is taking me for a check up (heh heh), but once there I will perform a hasty switcheroo and have him spread-eagled on the stainless steel table for a quick once over before he knows what’s up.

Will a few good swigs of the vet’s fail-safe cod liver oil wonder drink end this madness? Only time will tell…

–Captain Cat

(relayed per Skype and transcribed by the best Vet in the galaxy)


Next up: How Much Boat? – Daily Marina Fees vs Length, Part 2 (of 4)