This blog attempts to show there is another way, an alternative to throwing money into the sea.
The Skint Sailor Ethos is primarily to trade time for money or to accept limitations: sure you can throw money at a job and employ a professional and have the job done in less time but at hideous cost. Doing things yourself may take longer, but the saving in cost is vast.
The same ethos stretches to moorings: you can pay huge amounts for a fully serviced pontoon mooring with all-tide access. By accepting the restrictions that go along with a half-tide swinging mud mooring the costs are drastically reduced. Probably by a factor of ten. Planning ahead costs nothing so you plan your sailing times according to the tide.
I want to show that you can sail on a shoestring budget, that you can beat the big guys and adding the word "Sailing" to something doesn't instantly mean a massive markup in price.
I know there are people out there of a similar ethos, there are probably a dozen sympathetic blogs that I've found on the internet and I'm sure there are more. The more we go public on our skinny water, skint budget, shoestring sailing shenanigans, the more people will understand that sailing can be a poor man's sport just as much as the multi-millionaire's.
We just do it differently.
And probably have more fun and self-satisfaction along the way.
Enjoy the blog and do hop off to the other skint sailors I have on my blog roll.
I'm always happy to receive recommendations to my blog roll if anyone spots another bargain bucket boater then do email me a link. My preference is for sailing boats, but I'm not averse to putting links to other types of boats in if the blog piques my interest.
UPDATE Jan 2017.
Practical Boat Owner Magazine (Facebook Group here) has always had articles about doing things yourself, or ways to save money. Quite a few articles have pushed the boundaries of what's considered cheap, or push the limit of credulity when it comes to their own projects. For instance: colleague Fred just might happen to have a diesel engine going spare that they could use for the project... Just how many people have friends or colleagues that just happened to have a suitable sized engine spare, even more one that is working and isn't a seized lump of rust at the end of the garden. If they did, it would be on a boat!
We all know how hard it is to source big budget parts cheap or free. They're the Unicorns of the bargain boating world. If only PBO reflected that hardship a bit more, but I suppose a bit of artistic license has to be allowed. I mean, it would be a pretty boring article if it said "Still haven't found and engine...." and even worse if it was repeated for 6 months.
But to their credit PBO are recognizing there is a burgeoning bargain basement sailing movement out there. The number of blogs written by skint sailors is increasing, as people get on the 'net and marvel at our missives and then start to create blogs of their own.
At 2016's Southampton Boat show, PBO had a stand showing the virtues of low cost sailing, showing various boats and their extremely low purchase prices. If only the rest of the show had something for the bargain bucket boater.
I know there are people out there of a similar ethos, there are probably a dozen sympathetic blogs that I've found on the internet and I'm sure there are more. The more we go public on our skinny water, skint budget, shoestring sailing shenanigans, the more people will understand that sailing can be a poor man's sport just as much as the multi-millionaire's.
We just do it differently.
And probably have more fun and self-satisfaction along the way.
Enjoy the blog and do hop off to the other skint sailors I have on my blog roll.
I'm always happy to receive recommendations to my blog roll if anyone spots another bargain bucket boater then do email me a link. My preference is for sailing boats, but I'm not averse to putting links to other types of boats in if the blog piques my interest.
UPDATE Jan 2017.
Practical Boat Owner Magazine (Facebook Group here) has always had articles about doing things yourself, or ways to save money. Quite a few articles have pushed the boundaries of what's considered cheap, or push the limit of credulity when it comes to their own projects. For instance: colleague Fred just might happen to have a diesel engine going spare that they could use for the project... Just how many people have friends or colleagues that just happened to have a suitable sized engine spare, even more one that is working and isn't a seized lump of rust at the end of the garden. If they did, it would be on a boat!
We all know how hard it is to source big budget parts cheap or free. They're the Unicorns of the bargain boating world. If only PBO reflected that hardship a bit more, but I suppose a bit of artistic license has to be allowed. I mean, it would be a pretty boring article if it said "Still haven't found and engine...." and even worse if it was repeated for 6 months.
But to their credit PBO are recognizing there is a burgeoning bargain basement sailing movement out there. The number of blogs written by skint sailors is increasing, as people get on the 'net and marvel at our missives and then start to create blogs of their own.
At 2016's Southampton Boat show, PBO had a stand showing the virtues of low cost sailing, showing various boats and their extremely low purchase prices. If only the rest of the show had something for the bargain bucket boater.
