I recently came across a couple who had done a ” How to cruise in the Caribbean on the cheap” video and it occurred to me that it was way past ironic as their boat of choice was a $300K catamaran. The one word that best sums it all up is…
insane.
Then again, insanity seems to be in current fashion and lots of people gobble up crazy as if it were popcorn so, I guess, a frelling $300K hole in the water as a cheap seats cruising home is now a thing.
Go figure.
Meanwhile, here in the real world, I’m scouring all the usual sources for the various spares the Yanmar might require for extended cruising in out-of-the-way places. Which is no easy task without boat bucks to burn and it’s not a whole lot of fun either. On the other hand, having those parts protects us from budget killing situations down the line. To get an idea of the needful check out this article (might as well read this one as well) from my favorite diesel mechanic/author.
Jaysus………… not cent squeezers, obviously.
Having just watched another video about new yachts in the 10s of $m (some over $100M)…. maybe there is something about cheap in _only_ 100s of $k. For me, the less than $10k I spent for mine vessel was still expensive…. but because it was sailable as is, it was a good deal.
Speaking of cheap… it seems that somehow, I can get a portable freezer for less than $200 but an icebox conversion kit starts at over $1k. Yes, I did buy the $190 (CAD) freezer and put the innards into my icebox. I did spend about $30 on hardware to hold the coil in place in my icebox and $10 or so on a long enough screw driver (10in) to undo the case. It works fine. Now I just need a _marine_ label to make it worth 4 times as much…
Yep.
A little critical thought process and the ability to do math is what makes VolksCruising possible.