Preparation Costs
What is the preparation costs for bluewater cruising? In this page we will share the preparation costs for long-distance sailing that we would have liked to know about. As said everywhere, the costs are quite individual and depends quite a lot.
A little note about us and our mindset when renovating and buying equipment for our sailboat. When it comes to the renovation we do all the work we can ourselves, which saves us a lot of money and at the same time we get to know our boat, its flaws etc and if something breaks on the way we can fix it ourselves. When buying equipment we keep an eye on second hand sites and a lot of the equipment we have bought is second hand stuff. We also search on internet to find good prices and if there is a bigger sale we ry to take advantage of that.
One thing we have learned so far, the “Other” costs while renovating are always bigger than first expected, it all the really small costs (screws, sanding paper, paint brushes, hose clamps etc etc) but bunched together they make up for quite a lot. If there is someone else out there looking to do something similar, our best tip so far is to make a really good estimation of what the renovation will cost and then double it!
Here is an overview of our costs:
| SEK | USD | EUR | |
| Sailboat Purchase | 90’000 | 9’189 | 8’398 |
| Sailboat Renovation | 184’009 | 20’241 | 17’481 |
| Sailboat Equipment | 113’382 | 12’472 | 10’771 |
| Other Equipment | 65’692 | 7’226 | 6’241 |
| Total | 453’083 | 49’839 | 43’043 |
Sailboat Purchase
We bought an old, relatively cheap sailboat which was in need for some renovation. More about our boat can be found under About-> The Boat.
Sailboat Renovation
As said earlier we do all renovation ourselves and that is an easy way to save money. The renovation that we actually do we try to do properly so that it will last for a long. Therefore the costs for certain renovation (such as some interior work for example) below might be a bit higher than it would have been if we only doing the most necessary renovation for one year sailing.
| SEK | USD | EUR | |
| Bilge (fuel tank renovation, hoses, new bilge pump etc) | 9’383 | 1’032 | 891 |
| Bottom/topside (paint, paint material, epoxy etc) | 32’378 | 3’562 | 3’076 |
| Cockpit (plastic repair, companionway renovation etc) | 14’939 | 1’643 | 1’419 |
| Deck renovations (plastic repair, new fairleads, guardrail repairs) | 8’187 | 901 | 778 |
| Electrical system (new electrical panel, fuses, cables, shore power components etc) | 10’790 | 1’187 | 1’025 |
| Engine (complete engine makeover, installation etc) | 33’186 | 3’650 | 3’153 |
| Fresh water (new water tank, hoses etc) | 2’972 | 327 | 282 |
| Generator (service kit, new diesel filter) | 1’804 | 198 | 171 |
| Holding tank (tank, black water pump, toilet hoses etc) | 8’373 | 921 | 795 |
| Interior (mahogany lists, fake leather for roof panels, fabric for curtains etc) | 23’678 | 2’605 | 2’249 |
| Galley renovations (propane installation, freezer box) | 3’983 | 438 | 378 |
| Mast & rig (new traveler, smaller instruments, new shroud, parts for reefing etc ) | 13’264 | 1’459 | 1’260 |
| Bow thruster (gaskets) | 357 | 39 | 34 |
| Other costs (cleaning material, sanding paper, screws, nuts, list goes on…) | 20’715 | 2’279 | 1’968 |
| Total | 184’009 | 20’241 | 17’481 |
If you are interested in reading more about our sailboat renovation, all blog posts about it can be found under the category Sailboat Renovation.
And if you are interested in a specific subject; here are some links to tags for different renovation subjects: Bilge, Cockpit, Deck, Electrical system, Freezer, Generator, Hauled out, Holding tank, Interior, Mast, Plastic repairs, Rig.
Sailboat Equipment
When it comes to buying equipment we try to buy second hand stuff or finding equipment on sale, and this has helped us a lot to save money. Also, most of the stuff sold second hand are good stuff and not something that needs to be thrown away. By buying second hand stuff we both save money and consumption.
Here are some of the equipment we bought second hand:
- Dingy + outboard
- HF-radio
- Satellite phone
- Service batteries
- Whisker pole
- Watermaker
- Winches (both sheet and halyard)
A complete list of all our equipment we have onboard can be found under Equipment.
We also set up our own autopilot, read more about that under the tag Autopilot.
| SEK | USD | EUR | |
| AIS | 7’750 | 853 | 736 |
| Autopilot (Drive unit, electronic components) | 9’849 | 1’083 | 936 |
| Batteries (start battery, service batteries) | 5’230 | 575 | 497 |
| Dinghy + outboard | 4’500 | 495 | 428 |
| Instruments (plotter, handheld VHF, HF-radio, satellite phone) | 17’940 | 1’973 | 1’704 |
| Refrigerator | 10’300 | 1’133 | 979 |
| Rig (sails, halyards, sheet lines,etc) | 22’581 | 2’484 | 2’145 |
| Solar panels (5 á 60W + installation material) | 7’358 | 809 | 699 |
| Tools (all kinds of smaller tools we need that is good to have) | 2’879 | 317 | 274 |
| Watermaker | 17’112 | 1’882 | 1’626 |
| Winches (sheet winches and halyard winches) | 3’411 | 375 | 324 |
| Windlass | 4’000 | 440 | 380 |
| Other (anchoring lines, fenders and other small stuff) | 3’872 | 426 | 368 |
| Sold stuff (sails, diesel heater) | -5’000 | -550 | -475 |
| Total | 113’382 | 12’472 | 10’771 |
Other Equipment
Under Other Equipment goes all items that is not directly related to the sailboat; sailing clothes, safety equipment, charts etc. Here we go by the same principle as for the Sailboat Equipment, try to find what we need second hand or on sales.
A complete list of all our equipment we have onboard can be found under Equipment.
| SEK | USD | EUR | |
| Personal equipment (sailing clothes, life vests, safety lines) | 14’641 | 1’611 | 1’391 |
| Binocolors | 2’290 | 252 | 218 |
| Charts | 9’006 | 991 | 856 |
| Books | 4’409 | 485 | 419 |
| Flags | 1’780 | 196 | 169 |
| Life raft | 10’020 | 1’102 | 952 |
| Safety equipment (PLB, sea anchor, life buoy etc) | 6’847 | 753 | 650 |
| Camera | 3’109 | 342 | 295 |
| Fishing | 3’614 | 398 | 343 |
| Other (Galley equipment, hard drive, log book and other small stuff) | 9’327 | 1’026 | 886 |
| Total | 65’692 | 7’276 | 6’241 |
So, here was a summary of our preparation costs for our bluewater cruising trip sailing to the Caribbean and back again.
We hope that by posting this, we will help future sailors plan their trips. Just want to highlight that we are no experts, just done a trip like this once. But when we planned this trip we read several different blogs/webpages and so on, and we think it is good to have different peoples opinions/experiences and then you can adapt it to yourself. All boats and crews are different and in the end, you are the one that know what’ll be best for your sailboat and crew. 🙂