Expenses of Cruising; Budget Examples

Motor-Sail Synergy

Adding a sails and/or a sailing rig to an ocean crossing vessel really has to be considered in couple of other veins, not just the cost or savings factors. (and I'm speaking here of adding a rig to a power vessel...to create a combination Motor & Sailer)
1) Your ultimate range is now unlimited, regardless of the amount of fuel you can carry, and/or find (in remote locations)
2) Motorsailing synergy I wrote over in this subject thread:

"Add a modest sailing rig to these easily driven hulls, and you now have a passagemaker capable of cruising 12 knots under sail/ power compared with those older 7-knot boats. With 12 knots of speed at your command, you can really take advantage of 'weather windows' to; 1) make your passage as smooth as possible, 2) make some lengthy passages you might never have considered in a slower boat. This multihulled vessel will likely be slowed less by an obstructive seaway, and will accordingly make a passage at almost twice the average speed of the single-hulled vessel...twice the speed for the same total HP. There is an economy of operation here that cuts fuel requirements and bills, and greatly extends their range. In light airs, running one engine often is all that is needed to bring the apparent wind forward to make the sails work harder, and the combination provides much better results than either motoring or sailing alone……
.sailing synergy/harmony, the motor taking over in the lulls and the rig taking over in the puffs."


Here I will quote a gentleman who has put a LOT of miles on both sailing and power cats...his latest one a 60' Malcolm Tennant design called "Wild Wind lV"

"It is obvious that I think power cats can cross oceans safely, or I
would never would have left New Zealand to go to Seattle. When one
thinks about surviving the ultimate storm many things come into play. I
have never been in what I would call and extremely large storm. I have
been aboard a 40' mono sailboat in the North Atlantic in 50-60kn winds
in which we laid a hull. Surviving the storm is just one aspect of the
ordeal. Fuel supply is the other. You may be able to maneuver the boat
in such a way to survive, but then you still have to be able to get
somewhere. This can be a problem if you spent a lot of fuel during the
storm. I felt this way a little when I left Hawaii and had head winds
the first two days. I reduced speed to five to seven kn just to keep the
fuel burn on schedule. Large seas are not the problem if you are
willing to head the boat in the direction that is best for survival. I
have found that the first few hours of high winds are the most critical.
The sea are shorter and tend to break . When the storm winds mature the
seas are longer and rounder as I experienced in the N Atlantic. I have
had two experiences where I believe that a mono in the same
circumstances my have rolled over. Once has off Huahine in French
Polynesia and the other time was between NZ and Fiji. Both cases the
boat dropped severely to the Starboard side, just like falling off a
wall. In both cases I was heading slightly in to the wind and a large
Southern Ocean swell connected with the normal wind driven sea and made
a square wave. This is where I believe a mast and sail would have
helped to dampen the the action. I know people shoot me down when I
talk about power cats with sail rigs, but for me, who has done it both
ways, if I were to build another circumnavigating boat it would have a
mast. The mast would steady the quick beam action of a power cat even if
no sail was set. Also after the storm mentioned above one would be more
tempted to use the fuel needed to out last a storm if he knew that he could
always get to a destination. One other point is that most
power boats on a transocean passage travels at 6-8 knots. I traveled
that and more in Wild Wind III ,a sailing cat, when circumnavigating.
I once went 440 KM
in 48 hrs.

I believe a power cat with a specially designed rig which
could be remove easily would be the best of both worlds. Not like what
we now think of as a motor sailer. The power cat I propose would be
able to be lighter because you would not need to carry so much fuel. My
ride from NZ to Seattle would have been as fast or faster if Wild Wind
IV had a rig. I have designed a rig that fits the needs of us older
guys who don't want to pull strings any more and could be stored on the
boat when not used. I would like to talk to someone who wants to build a
circumnavigating power cat with a mast. I always say that we all design
things in relation to the experiences we have had. Just like Steve
Dashew who never thought sailboats needed real good engines till he went
up from Panama to S. California. I almost bought a Deerfoot. Thank
goodness I bought a cat instead."
Dennis Raedeke

...if you want to see the entire posting he made have a look HERE

True Cruising Cost Considerations

Excellent observations Marie.

Thanks for bringing those often forgotten points to everyone's attention. That is really one of the reasons I wanted to post your original observations, as they come from someone truly out there doing it.

Wow, thanks for bringing up this subject thread once again. I've been off on so many other tangents since first posting this that I almost forgot about it. I was visiting Thailand for Jan & Feb, and missed their accountings of trips to and thru much of Central America.

I'm in Thailand again (Sept) and rediscovered their blog. Looks as though they have a pretty serious electrical breakdown from a lightening strike.

They posted some interesting material that all might learn from on their experiences with temporary fixes to what I imagine will be a dialogue about revisions to their system of potecting their electrical systems.

Some piracy problems:

And as you stroll thru their well organized blog, don't miss these great underwater shots:

DOMINO 20

(Mod Note; Since all six links were going to the same 1:st page, five were removed)

Are you sure? I thought each one showed a slightly different address, but then I might be wrong...no problem