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Comment by sdfjkl | Hacker News Reader

Been doing this since 2015 now on a 40ft mono(hull). Currently wintering in Sicily. Picked up a wife along the way.

If you aim to do this on a budget like us, you best be good at fixing things. Plumbing, rigging, engines, fibreglass repairs, more plumbing, sewing, electrical and electronics problems, etc.

The reward is remote anchorages where you're away from everyone else and getting absolutely unenthusiastic about yet another spectacular sunset.

Also dramatic moments in storms, dragging anchors, other boaters being incompetent and inconsiderate, many great friendships and a spirit of community amongst other liveaboards like none other.

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This is my dream (especially the part about sailing around the Med). I bought a 34' boat two years ago, however I still work full time and have a six-month old. The best I'll be able to do this summer is go on a three week long trip on Lake Michigan, which is a great start but a far cry from sailing around the world for years on end. I have a few rental properties but not nearly enough to sustain my family without a job.

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? Do you still have a job or freelance? Or are you living entirely on savings at this point? Did you buy the boat in Europe or sail across the Atlantic?

Was 39 or so when I left. I still did remote consulting work from the boat the first year while doing the refit, but it meant the refit was going too slow :) No job since, see other comment about money.

Bought boat in UK, sailed across the English channel a few times and then down Biscay, Galicia & the Rias, Portugal, up the Rio Guadiana (amazing), through Gibraltar, Costa del Sol (yuck), Baleares, Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, then Sicily and Greece again (because Greece is great and also because Covid). Couple other trips on friendboats.

Atlantic crossing E-W with the trades is no big deal, but going the other way (Americas to Europe) can be scary and is not for inexperienced sailors.

If the Med is your dream, might be best to buy a boat here instead. Boats that are great at ocean crossings aren't best at Med sailing and vice versa.

How do you support yourself?

Mostly savings, small rental income to supplement, some stock trading. The trick is to reduce spending, mostly by not buying too big a boat.

People have ideas about remote work on board, but for various reasons this rarely works out in practice. Internet connectivity is poor and intermittent, your schedule is ruled by the weather and having to work seriously distracts from the fulltime job that cruising is by itself.

How well would Star Link work on a rocking boat? Is its aiming good enough to keep a lock? Is there a problem moving around where they don't expect you?

It wouldn't work well since the hardware isn't designed for this purpose and coverage is focused on US land.

It doesn't work at all. Even in marinas (stationary) it has issues - out at sea or even at anchor you can forget about it. There are also problems with them not liking you moving around. Related article: https://seabits.com/using-starlink-aboard-and-in-a-marina/

There may be a mobile base unit at some point in the future, but it will be comparable to the current Fleetbroadband units and therefore too power hungry and too big for your average cruising sailboat. Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active. That's what is inside those Inmarsat domes you can sometimes see on big racing boats with satellite uplinks like the Volvo Ocean Race.

> Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active.

Not at all true with Starlink, it uses a phased array antenna to aim the beam at the satellite; everything happens in software. What _is_ needed is an accelerometer which can "know" the boat's movement and then adjust its aim based on that. Seems like they're not quite there yet, but there's no reason this can't work.

Plenty of ways. In the past being a good mechanic was handy. Today being an engineer is highly valuable:

Electrical: 110v 60 Hz, 220v 50 Hz and 12v for 12v DC for electronics while you run 24v dc for the rest. Networking radars, GPS, AIS, plotters has become incredibly complex.

Sewing: having a commercial sewing machine has proven to be useful (to make friends). Repair sails, awning, various canvas

Digital media: most popular boats have satellite com on board and produce one quality youtube video every week. Photos, blogs, manage fans on Instagram. You were hoping to get away from the hustle? You will be back in it quickly.

Refrigeration skills: get yourself a set of gauges ($50), vacuum pump, several cans of refrigerant, soldering equipment. Whomever can produce cold (freezer, cold beers or ice cubes) is king in the tropics.

I can add to this list. The world of handymen is incredibly unskilled. Come with a mechanical engineering or EE/CS background, you will be making friends faster than you can think.

Vessels with fridges are the kings of the happy hours

> Digital media: most popular boats have satellite com on board and produce one quality youtube video every week. Photos, blogs, manage fans on Instagram. You were hoping to get away from the hustle? You will be back in it quickly.

There is a subtle assumption here in your aside remark that you think those interested in sailing are also interested in being popular doing it, probably because you’re interested in being popular doing it, and are very, very comfortably the outlier in the global sailing community. I’ve heard this from some hands, too, who are obsessed with the appearance of the vessel when near harbor.

When I bought my boat I didn’t see Instagram fan management nor sailing for others in the requirements of taking care of it. That’s your interest, and casting it as an inevitable future of boat ownership is almost as insufferable as what’s happened to camping and vans. Please keep in mind that most do pursue this hobby precisely to avoid getting on with that faff, and your experiences make you unique, not representative of ownership.

The experience is for you. Share it with those you love. That’s my take, and we will clearly disagree, so don’t think I’m trying to convince you. I say that because you’ve just become an advocate for sailing in this thread, and I’d rather the vast majority of people who find that type of thing intolerable don’t come to think it’s all sailors do and get turned off the hobby.

So how do you really feel about monetizing recreational lifestyle activities on social media?

A couple things. OP is specifically referring to how people make money while sailing (non-commercially) indefinitely, not hobbyists who presumably have a day job, a traditional source of income, or are retired with savings, and sailing occasionally. Also, OP caveats their assertion about social media posting schedules with "most popular boats" - not simply most boats - it's in your quote. If you're not pimping your boat and yourself on the gram (or wherever), you're boat's not going to qualify as popular, and the statement will not apply to you.

How do I really feel about it? That it’s insufferable. I already wrote that. We are moving toward a society where pursuit of revenue no longer has off hours. That’s horrific and dystopian. I don’t consider this position contrarian nor neckbeard nor particularly weird.

It is positively horrifying that some people set out on a hobby to fulfill others, and also that we’re establishing that as financially rewarding. Sailing, in particular, is about returning to the sea and charting your own path. There’s varying levels of mysticism to that in peoples’ relationships with it, but most entry-level zealots, even, would cock their head at the notion of spending your time sailing caring what other people think about it. What is the point of a hobby in the end? If you want a business, call it a business. A satellite dish for YouTube posting means your sailing is a business. And that’s fine. Just say that.

I also considered your entire litigation on the precision of the person’s language before even creating this account. It’s telling that your substantive rebuttal is lawyering the language, not addressing the point. I considered your “couple things” before you said them and disregarded them. You’re arguing that 10% charity in comprehension dispenses 100% of the point. Unsuccessfully.

I watch Sailing Uma on Youtube. Young couple started with very little money and have over 6+ years built up quite a following and apparent income. They in one video addressed the idea that they have to put their entire life online to pay for their lifestyle with the statement that they put out <60 minutes/week, certainly much less than "their entire life" and they seem to spend much more time enjoying life than I do as a computer programmer.

Haha you sound bitter that people are able to make a hobby they enjoy their full time lifestyle, while you're stuck in some job you hate to be a weekend warrior at best.

How does one get started? How does one get the necessary experience without taking unnecessary risks?

By getting a boat. Getting on someone else's boat is good too, as you can get experience and learn from them. Sailing is easy - you don't need to win races when cruising around the world, so the finer details of trimming will be wasted on cruisers (you can always pick them up on the way). Navigation and traffic rules shouldn't be hard to pick up for the average HN crowd, although yachties like to make a fuss about it.

I did a few RYA training things that cost a lot of money and got me some papers that nobody ever wanted to see (they're important if you want to charter a boat though). You can just buy the syllabus and gain the knowledge by online learning or video courses instead. I recommend going that route - the knowledge in the syllabus is important and very useful. The formal course in a classroom and the certificate are not. Practical knowledge is gained only by going sailing, making mistakes and learning from them, but it helps if you know the knots and the parts of the rigging beforehand.

But the real learning only begins when you get your own boat and have to fit it out and keep it going. Boat maintenance is hard and there's a lot to learn. You can initially substitute money, but that stops working once you get to remote areas where there is simply nobody else to pay to fix your boat and you will have to do it yourself or give up. Many decrepit boats in remote locations are on the market very cheaply for exactly that reason.

> you don't need to win races when cruising around the world

Brings to mind this interesting story of a race like that gone wrong: https://youtu.be/h0WgqMn5lTI

Do you recommend Jimmy Cornell’s world sailing routes books? I have about $100 worth in my wish list, spiral bound, I’ve been waiting to purchase until closer to departing on a circumnavigation.

Jimmy Cornell’s world cruising routes are widely considered to be a great resource.

They're great, but you'll end up looking at them once a year when you do your passage planning for the next season. Excellent resource, but a bit pricey and heavy to sail around with.

Finding a boat on a budget is easy. What is not is finding a harbour post to moor it. At least here in south of France, this can get really expensive and you may have to wait for years before getting one.

get classes, pretty unexpensive. After your first 5-7 days when you learn basic skills you will receive plenty of invitations to crew. Not unlike the corporate world, too many chiefs, not enough workers. Good crews are in high demand (and you can bring significant other, friends). Lots of owners are clueless. Lots of big boats are looking for crews, typically an ocean crossing. Think Panama-Tahiti. Expenses, including flights, paid

You might be able to find a sailing co-op in your area. I'm a member of one that requires 30 hours of volunteer work, which you can gain experience in a wide variety of things - fibreglassing, painting, plumbing, electrical, rigging, etc.

We've got a fleet of 6 27' - 30' boats which are great for day sailing and week long vacations.

How I started, YMMV:

1. Watching a lot of YouTube, see my list of channels in another comment, and the note about not believing everythin they do is correct.

2. Joining the local dinghy sailing club. It's cheap, and although I don't really care about racing the skills were mostly directly transferrable to larger boats. Plust contacts are really useful.

3. Get on other people's boats as crew. I own a 43ft yacht, my friend sails it with me. It costs him nothing :)

Later, when you have tried it out and got some experience, take your Day Skipper (RYA) or equivalent course (the ASA in the US runs some). You should at this point have a reasonably good idea of your skills.

At some point in the process, start looking at yacht listings. Yacht World would be a good start. Get an idea of the market. You will work out how much you need to save, and what sort of prices are reaonable.

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