Refit Costs

I just happened across another website, via YouTube, of a young couple that are living their dream on an Albin Vega 27, named Velocir. Incidentally their dinghy is called Raptor; just though that was cute. Anyway, they've been making a video blog of there travels, as well as some written articles on their website, and it is awesome. I've added it too my links, and if you choose to check it out, you will not be disappointed. In my opinion these kids are living the dream at the perfect age. The quality of their videos is excellent for amateurs, and the content is exactly what dreamers want, little bit of fantasy, little bit of how too.

But as you can see by the title, this is not about their site, or at least not directly. I was reading their article on "refit costs", and I noticed that they had managed to complete a refit similar to ours for $27,000.00 when ours has just peaked its nose over the $64,000.00. Yes our boat is a little larger, we may have added a couple more luxuries, and yes, our purchase price was $17,000.00 more, but they had more work to do on the hull and interior. So why is their amount $20,000.00 less than ours. I started with the usual excuses, they are in a better area for finding parts, especially used parts. The market here is pretty slim for used parts unless you want spend the extra money on gas to pay more than the used parts are worth. AKA, nobody gives stuff away free around here. They had more help from friends and family, which is great, because that means that they have lots of support. They do work in the marine industry which gives them a little leg up. And they took a little more time, 4 years, compared to our just over a year. Then I realized that their list was lacking the bits and bobbles. What I mean is the little things that make the big things work. Like blocks, shackles, pins, sandpaper, wiring, etc... They do talk about some of it, and they are very forward about this being a estimate, and that they scrounged a good many of the things they used. However, marine grade wire for our refit was $1000.00. Just the wire, no terminal ends, no terminal blocks, or meters, or panels, or nothing, just wire. And, we don't have a very complicated boat in comparison to the average these days.

So I took a good look at the running list of stuff we have bought for Vita, and realized that I have been attributing all costs to the "refit". That includes operating costs, parts, maintenance, even books that I bought. The first thing I purchased after the boat was Nigel Calder's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. I still argue that no one should be allowed to own a cruising boat without having this on board. But, this cost is on the list, and obviously not a refit item. I asked myself, would I have bought this if I did not own a boat, and if the answer is no, it goes on the list.

I also remembered way back during the dreaming phase, before I had a boat, that I had made lists of all the equipment that I would want on my boat, at the time, an Alberg 30. And, if I remember correctly, the list came to about $21,000.00. I would hazard a guess, since I no longer have the list, that I have accomplished that pretty well, maybe adding a few items along the way, but that it cost me closer to $35,000.00. And that we will attribute to dreamer/boat owner induced ignorance. The truth is we don't want to know what we spend on our boats, I know I don't. We want the dream, we don't really care what it costs, we just pretend that we do. Its not much different than home ownership. How many people really know what it costs to own their house. Not many I would argue, and for good reason, because then we would figure out that we would all be further ahead to rent, which would mean we would lose the perceived security that home ownership gives us, not to mention the dream every man seems to have of owning their little piece of the planet.

Is there a moral to this story. You bet there is. Don't keep track of how much you spend. Make your lists, tell your friends and significant other that that is what it cost to get the dream, and ignore the rest. You'll be much happier in the end. The human mind can justify just about anything, trust me. Besides that, if you have to go with out coffee for a week to afford that new shackle you need for the main halyard, so be it. Nobody needs to know.

So, I have done some figuring, and not including the purchase price of the boat, we are at $30,100.00 into our refit. And if I feel pretty confident that I can get this number a little lower before the end.

Okay, I am kidding, sort of. I am not the kind of person that feels comfortable sticking my head in the sand. But oh Lord I wish I was. However, what I will do is break my costs right down to the nitty gritty, so that someone looking at them can get an idea of why it cost $2300 for our propane stuff when the stove and barbecue only cost $1300.00. But that is going to have to wait, because its a lot of work to get those numbers.

"The cost of cruising is always a hot debate". The first line of Velocir's "Refit Costs". This is the reason that I wrote this post. Not because I disagree with it at all, but because the debate will continue as long as we are allowed to travel in boats. And no matter how many of us publish our costs, no one will ever be able to figure out what it cost to cruise. What do they say, "it costs as much as you have".