Yachting and owning a boat can be expensive, especially in these challenging times. However, there is always a way to save some money!
Desires and opportunities
Alas, our desires do not always coincide with our capabilities. Just as not all musicians can afford to buy an expensive instrument (for example, a Gibson Les Paul 1959 Standard Custom Shop guitar for 9000$), so not all yachtsmen can afford fancy yachts in the latest trim levels.
However, real yachtsmen are not those who buy a boat for the sake of a boat, but people who are passionate about the sea. Many yachtsmen (especially experienced ones) are able to buy, maintain and maintain their yachts on a fairly limited budget. There are no secrets in this - a little ingenuity and perseverance are enough to save money.
It is worth remembering that the purchase of a new (or used) yacht is only the beginning of a long journey. Naturally, it will not work to not spend money at all. In addition to the boat, you will need a decent list of equipment: life jackets and harnesses, clothing for several types of weather, boat logs, pilot books, flares, VHF radios, maps, binoculars, compasses… The list is obscenely long.
You can save on almost everything, but you need to remember the golden rule - you need to save wisely. You can never skimp on lifesaving equipment, but, for example, VHF radios or binoculars with compasses can be bought at good prices from the Internet shop, yacht clubs or yachting associations.
Boat parking
In addition to the amount for the purchase of a boat and related basic equipment, it is also necessary to invest in a parking place. It would be nice to start looking for a “place of residence” even before buying a boat. In a good way, you need to take into account a large number of factors that will affect the final cost. Coastal area, marina within a city, parking on the river or in the harbor ... All this affects the cost.
The most important thing to remember is that prices increase in proportion to the convenience of parking. Parking somewhere on a mooring buoy at the mouth of the river will be an order of magnitude, or even two, cheaper than a place in a marina within the city. But would it be convenient to load the tender with equipment each time before returning to the boat after one's absence?
Another way to save on parking is to join a yacht club. Usually, when you join a club, you are given the opportunity to get a mooring place. However, this should be clarified in a particular yacht club.
Features of parking in the marina
It should be noted right away that the berth in the marina is usually the most expensive type of mooring. This is especially true of marinas in cities popular among tourists and yachtsmen. Among the advantages of the marina, the most important thing is convenience. If you are a busy person who needs the opportunity to leave your boat at any time of the day or vice versa, go to sea and you are ready to overpay, then this option is for you.
In some marinas, you can even wash or dry clothes, have a delicious dinner on the shore, and much more. An annual marina reservation is the best investment you can make. At the same time, the monthly fee can be quite expensive, since when booking for a year at once, the price for a month usually immediately goes with a discount.
If you are not ready for the spartan conditions of mooring buoys (we exaggerate a little), but want to save on a place in the marina, then we have a piece of advice. The cheapest marina berths are usually those that dry up to the bottom at low tide. This is unlikely to suit the owners of a boat with a long thin buoy, but if you have a double keel or muddy and soft, then you can confidently book such places.
Also study the conditions for refueling and paying for fuel. Many marinas have a practice of offering discounts for those who pay a year in advance. Believe me, there are many options for getting discounts and savings. Alas, we will not describe all these options in one article - they vary greatly from marina to marina. Concern about the question of parking before buying a boat.
Features of parking on mooring buoys
On which coast do not poke your finger - with a probability of 80% percent you will find mooring buoys on the map. They can belong to both a commercial organization and marinas or yacht clubs. The undoubted advantage will be the overall cheapness of such parking compared to a place in the marina. However, there is also a downside.
You will need a tender or other watercraft in order to get ashore. Some marinas or yacht clubs offer services to bring your equipment and crew to shore. If you have your own tender, then this question automatically disappears.
Unlike a marina, a boat on a mooring buoy is more exposed to danger from the forces of nature and other inattentive skippers. Moreover, if you have not secured your yacht securely enough, then there is a high risk that the boat will go on an independent exciting journey.
If you are a member of a yacht club, then problems with a lost boat should not arise, since there is almost always another member of the club nearby who will sound the alarm.
Of course, you can forget about recharging and fresh water on the buoy. To ensure the proper level of battery charge, you will need, for example, a small wind turbine or solar panel. Fuel and fresh water will need to be taken in reserve.
Pile and pontoon berths can be attributed (in a sense) to mooring buoys in terms of their use. A pile mooring will have the same pros and cons as a mooring buoy. On the other hand, the safety of the boat on such a berth is much higher than just on a buoy. A pontoon berth is a cross between a buoy and a pile berth.
Finally, double-check the terms of your insurance. Many insurances have a separate clause stating that the boat must be on the shore starting from the end of October, and you can not go on a trip again until spring.
Planning around the head!
You can save even at the planning stage. We assure you that buying most of the provisions in the hypermarket of your city or in the market will cost you less than in some store during the cruise.
You can also do cooking and preserving food in advance, it will not be superfluous to buy a certain amount of semi-finished products that can be prepared quickly. All this can be done ashore and save gas and electricity consumption on board.
In addition, if you need to stop during a cruise for a day or two, then it would be better to park on a mooring buoy. In many marinas, daily rent is also not cheap. To go ashore, use a tender - a water taxi from the local marina will be quite expensive.
Solar panels can also help save money. Thanks to them, you won’t have to use chargers in the marina, and you will be able to maintain greater autonomy at sea. Wind generators will insure you on cloudy but windy days. If you are the owner of a boat with a hydro generator, then you will be provided with electricity all the more.
Insurance and pitfalls
In many countries, cruising and keeping a boat without insurance is prohibited, and in some - for example, in the UK - it is real. However, saving on insurance is, in a sense, akin to saving on life-saving equipment. In any case, it is worth taking out insurance at least for yourself. Despite the fact that yachting is about a safe holiday, there are still cases when safety is in doubt.
Insurance amounts depend on the age and value of your yacht. Your skipper experience and qualifications are also taken into account. An insurance company develops, as a rule, a policy individually for each client.
We urge all yachtsmen and those wishing to join yachting to take a sound approach to insurance. Study the questions and conditions of the insurance of the country in which you are staying. This is directly related to your safety!
The cheapest insurance option covers swimming from April to October and supervised parking in the marina for the winter. At the same time, the insurance premium will be increased if you leave the yacht unattended on a mooring buoy or want to sail all year round.
To reduce insurance costs, you can install an alarm, a gas leak detector, and an automatic fire extinguisher.
Dimensions, dimensions, dimensions...
To be honest, there is some correlation between the size of your boat and the cost of running it. The smaller the yacht, the cheaper it will be to service it. Is it worth abandoning yachting altogether (for example, with a decrease in income), if you can just transfer to a smaller boat?
This is a really effective way to reduce the cost of maintaining a boat. Cleaning, polishing, spending on fuel, a place in the marina - we are not saying that all this will be free, but you will spend an order of magnitude less money.
For the most desperate, there is an option to purchase a Dayseller. This is, of course, a rather complicated solution, but why not?
Family business
One of the funniest ways to cut down on boat costs is to share a boat with a buddy. These partners can be both close friends and distant relatives. You will literally spend half as much money when sharing a yacht.
This will not only reduce your initial costs, but also your annual mooring and maintenance costs. Of course, there are legal nuances of owning a yacht. Before creating such a “family business”, the legal boundaries of ownership and the division of ownership of the yacht should be clearly defined. You can organize a partnership using a special form of agreement.
Such agreements provide for the share of each participant, methods for the distribution of rights and obligations between the owners. A separate item is the performance of the tasks of cleaning, conservation of the boat for the winter, caring for the yacht.
Any practicing lawyer or notary will help you to find out more complete information about such ownership of a yacht and about drawing up a contract. Of course, it would be best to discuss such issues with maritime lawyers.
Yacht maintenance
If you are an experienced seabass, chances are you are able to do most of the maintenance work on your yacht. However, for both beginners and experienced yachtsmen, joining a yacht club is a good solution. There you will most likely find like-minded people who are ready to provide any assistance and assistance in the maintenance of your yacht, if not free of charge, then for minimal, almost symbolic amounts.
Another good solution would be to take a short (or not so) course in engine maintenance. It won't save you a fortune, but it will save you a nice amount. After this course, you will be able to service filters, oil, fuel system, belts and/or batteries yourself.
The same applies to the wiring on board. Naturally, without an experienced electrician it is better not to go into the switchboard, but a cheap multimeter and a battery status monitor will help you monitor the status of the system and identify the problem in time, managing only scheduled repairs.
Everything related to sailing equipment can be cleaned and maintained independently. The Internet is a (nearly) endless source of knowledge, where you will find how-to guides on how to clean sails, types of detergents and cleaners. The presence of a sewing machine will not be superfluous.
The above statements are true for everything else on the yacht. You don't have to be a super-engineer to fix problems or do superficial but regular maintenance. Feel free to ask questions to senior comrades or the Internet! All the answers to your questions probably already exist, you just have to formulate the question correctly.
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07.12.2022
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