Cruising economics
the state of things…
I just read about yet another marina closing down to become some sort of up-market lifestyle condo project. Progress right? My first thought was where were the five hundred boats supposed to go in an area where there are two or three-year waiting lists for a marina slip. My second thought was there would be …
it’s all about the budget…
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery” ― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield Everybody’s on a budget it’s just baked into how we live in a consumerist society, While Jeff Bezos might be rich enough to have his …
How do we define the cost of a VolksCruiser…
So, here’s a question. How do we define the cost of a VolksCruiser? Since most people think of boats in terms of length, we might want to try using that. At first thought, this seems to make sense as longer boats tend to be more expensive than shorter boats. Simple, right? Then again, how do …
stealth or in your face…
A while back, I had an email from a reader who used the word “acceptable” as in what sort of boat the cruising fraternity would find acceptable because he really wanted to fit in. The fact that my sarcastic answer of “Any boat with a price tag of $200K or more” he seemed to take …
a couple of budget thoughts…
Everybody has their own budget parameters and most have both a public and private parameter set. Everyone is so concerned about what people may think about their financial well-being that they feel the need to fudge on what they can or cannot afford. I trust you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, this inability to …
impact…
Maybe the best thing about doing a VolksCruiser is that by its very nature, it’s a minimum-impact exercise. A smaller boat and budget go a long way to lessen one’s impact on the local environment. The less negative impact the better. Having lived in and around cruising areas I’ve been in the front row to …
why Mr Zip’s your friend…
I’ve bought quite a lot of metal stock from Online Metals. Nothing big but over the years I’ve spent quite a lot of money with them on a variety of boat projects. Which is why yesterday, when I saw that I needed a couple of feet of 2″ aluminum angle for a mast project. I …
and in the “You get what you pay for” follies…
Ég hef kannski verið að tala á íslensku… I like to think of myself as being a critical consumer. Sure, cost is always going to be a factor when I’m buying something for the boat but it’s not the only factor. The overall quality and utility of a product are the two biggest factors when …
and don’t forget the bolt cutters…
I find it kind of funny that people who I don’t even know, write to the blog and are hesitant to state a budget when asking advice on various boats. “Do you think a fixer upper Cascade 36 would be a good boat to get?” I then ask what it costs, how much the boat …